Ski Touring Bleispitze

I had promised Norbert, a water rescue colleague of mine, that I would go ski touring with him sometime this year. So today was the day that we did that. I borrowed the gear from FlickFlack again, but just for one day this time.

So at seven in the morning, Norbert, Nicole, Christian and me set of towards the Bleispitze, a mountain located near to the Zugspitze (highest mountain in Germany). We arrived at the bottom at about 8 AM and got our gear ready. Nicole was the only one with snow shoes, the rest of us had touring skies. We set of up through a forest and had to climb over a few small water dams. We got out in to a bit more open area, but still with forest and carried on after a short rest. We breached the tree line and shortly after the sun hit us. I was lagging behind a bit from about one third up the way already, something was wrong with the joint between my hip and leg, probably not used to carrying the weight of a ski and boot. We walked along a snowed up valley with the sun now burning down on us. Sounds harsher than it was, actually. We had a bit of wind and the altitude to cool us down so the temperature wasn't to bad. Getting near to the top Norbert took of his furs, skied back down to me and walked up to the cross the rest of the way. Nicole and Christian where already waiting at the top and we had a short snack with a view from 2200 metres above sea level. Skied back down through rather melted up snow near the top but got in to super snow further down which we took full advantage of until to a small hut further down. Sat down in the snow and had an hour of peace and quiet in the sun. Skied down the rest and through the forest in which we had a narrow track to follow and a few drops near waterfalls. Got back to the car, de-geared, waited for Nicole (as snow shoes aren't as good as skies down hill) and drove back home.

Along the way we got stuck in a queue for a while and delivered my gear back in Pfronten. Went home and recover from some muscle strains but well worth it. Better a bit of an ache and done something than spend the whole day at home in this weather.

A track at GPSies from where we went and some pictures at Picasa.

Ski Touring Edelsberg

Have to take full advantage of my rented ski touring gear, as I have to give it back today. It was planned to go with mum today, but as she had an accident I went with someone else.

The ski school 50^th anniversary was yesterday and I had a long talk with Sebastian, a fellow ski teacher. He asked if he could tag along with mum and me and as mum didn't go in the end it was just me and him.

Met up at the bottom of the ski lift and took that right up to the top to get away from the piste as fast as possible. We started walking up towards the Edelsberg as a lot of others had done before us so we had a well prepared track to follow. Unfortunatly nearing the crossing between the Alpspitze and the Edelsberg his fur didn't stick to the bottom of the ski. In the end, after many failed attempts to correct it, he carried on without fur. A task which would have completely knackered me. We managed it to the top through a snowed up forest and had something to eat and some tee at the cross. The original plan was to continue over towards Jungholz and then carry on some way but due to the fur not sticking to Sebastian's ski we had to abort that idea. We skied back downhill through a bit of powder snow what hadn't been skied through jet and reached the bottom after loosing and finding a ski. Went over towards the Alpsitzhang and met Karin and Heti up there. Skied down towards Sportheim Böck, had something to drink and went down the Grüne Strich. Was so much fun we went up with the lift and then down another time. I really felt the work my legs had to put into skiing after that.

Carried on down the back to Bayerstetten and skied through the most powder in that day.

Took a lane down to Hanses house and said goodbye to Sebastian before taking the touring skies and heading home.

Some pictures at Picasa and a track at GPSies.

Just after bringing the touring skies back to the rental shop, Wolfi from Water Rescue wrote to me and asked if I wanted to go sledging with them. Thought about it and said yes and back I was again outside, this time in a blizzard which had just arrived. Walked up a ways, had some tee and then sledged down in a few centimetres of new snow.

I was surprised that they asked actually, as they just had finished swimming in the cold Danube for fun.

Ski Touring Buron

Haven’t touched a pair of touring skies in close to eight years, but a load of people I know have been saying how much fun it is. As it is more or less the equivalent of mountain biking in winter I thought I should give it another try as I have been biking for nearly five years now and I tend to get lazy and fat in winter. Skiing doesn't have the same energy consumption as most of the work is done by the lift.

Borrowed a touring set from a rental shop in Pfronten and set of towards the Buron with Dad today. Up to the mast on that mountain with a load of technical stuff in our rucksacks next to tee and clothes. Going up from the bottom we travelled along the piste nearly all the way. Weird, as normally I would take touring skies to go as far away as possible from a piste. Went up and had a first stop after a short amount of time to take some clothes of. Carried on in the track of some tourers in front of us and reached the un-pisted zone after a while. Met Marlene a short ways before, a work colleague of dads having fun in the sunshine on the ski piste. Going up the last stretch took us nearly as long as all of the rest before, due to it being steeper and more powder snow. We helped a man find his ski and got to the top after zigzagging our way up. Had to shovel our way free to get to the electric hut of the mast and whilst dad did all the electrical work inside I had tee and watched the scenery.

We wanted to carry on up to the Blesse after that, but we couldn't see a way to get there. So instead we took our furs of and skied down the piste and back to the car through deep snow. Really good quality equipment I got for that, was very happy with them.

Track at GPSies and some pictures at Picasa. Dads blog here.