Part I - Östliche Seespitze

Intro & the long haul to the trailhead

The 2006 winter backcountry season turned out a little different as anticipated. By mid April I had only one real skitour to write down into the log book. A couple of x-country trips in the Appalachians and not even a peak till then. Resort skiing season ends usually mid March in the south-east. Maybe I should call some of my old skiing friends in Bavaria, they had an epic winter with record amounts of snow. Claus was up for a trip 'cause he needed a touring fix as well, no BC touring for him either this season so far. Monday May 1st is a European holiday, Labor Day, and that would make up for a perfect long skiing weekend.

I still had that stand-by flight to Munich, now it's a good time to put it to use. The departure date is set, just 7 days for that round trip from the Appalachian Mountains to the Stubai alps and back, in between visiting parents and squeezing in 3 days of gnarly skiing. The only thing with these cheap stand-by tickets is, what is going to happen if I don't get a seat Wednesday? I better don't think about that yet, let's see how it turns out. And it turned even to the best it ever could happen. From Atlanta I was checked in at seat 1B - WOW 1st class, isn't that what a ski-mountaineer needs to overcome the 6 hours of time difference and be relaxed for the trip.

The next day, on Thursday morning, my dad picked me up at the airport in Munich. I enjoyed the the extra resting day prior our departure to the Franz Senn Hütte by Friday afternoon.

Friday morning was a rainy day. It was pouring out of buckets, and the weather forecast predicted the same for all weekend, clouds moving out by Monday. Our destination in the Stubai Alps is at the main crest of the Alps and usually the moisture carrying clouds are held back by the Bavarian Alps, often creating a different weather situation for that area. But the Austrian weather forecast was not much different, clouds and rain, in higher elevations snow. 

I could feel Claus's motivation, almost non existent. Understandable but I tried with painting imaginary pictures of endless April and May powder, and even with my own weather forecast for him with bluebird days and cold temperatures. It worked somehow and we rolled out of town by noon, and dreams were coming true. In Innsbruck the roads were dry, turning into the Stubai Valley the clouds were changing to a bright white color and occasionally the sun was peeking thru the sky cover. Parking the car at the trailhead, we could see the first snow flakes falling to the ground. By now my friend returned to a big grin over his face and all the worries were gone.

Let's go skiing!

The approach to the hut was easy, a 1-1/2 hour hike with skis in the backpack, at about 6000 feet above sea level the snow cover was still massive, a couple beers in the huts restaurant, dinner, and to bed we went.

Waking up at 5:30 the next morning we could not believe our eyes. 4" of fresh fallen snow the temperature a little bit above 0ºF and a cloudless sky. Pleasant smell of fresh brewed coffee from downstairs and an already served breakfast accelerated the process of getting ready and into the skintrack.

The first minutes past the hut were a kind of new experience for me. Not used to the European hectic any more, we got passed by these energy loaded skitourers. It almost seemed to me that there is a rando-race underway. One guy even passed us 3 or 4 times in a row, doing a short sprint getting ahead of his group, stopping for a couple of seconds taking pictures of his approaching buddies. Claus and I kept going with a steady speed and after a half an hour from the hut the flat valley forked apart into several other sidearms. Here most of the groups turned into different directions as well and the crowd was gone. Only one other group decided to choose the same mountain as we did, we used that as an advantage of letting them lay the skintrack thru the new snow cover from overnight. Aren't we lazy basdards?

The 4 hours of climbing from here were filled with skinning over two steep steps followed by a flat part and the final very steep climb over a glacier to the peak. Most of it was pretty uneventful except the spectacular views into the surrounding mountains, and the last few kick-turns to the peak itself. Claus was skinning about 150 feet ahead of me. Gaining altitude I felt noticing the thinner air. My lungs were trying to breath deeper, but there was a limit of supply of oxygen. Coming closer to the peak we almost arrived at the same time as the group in front of us. A narrow Ridge was the last obstacle to overcome. The group guide did a great job laying track just below the crest in extremely steep terrain. One wrong step probably would accelerate you to a high speed dive, approximately end destination 1200 feet lower.

The peak was just a pointed rock pyramid, providing not much space to stand on top, especially if a group of 7 arrives just a couple minutes ahead of you. The wind up here was ice cold so these guys rushed down. Claus and I we stayed a little longer up here and enjoyed the views into the Ötztal and Stubai Alps. We also kept an eye on the group, and how they might hog up steep slopes. But it seemed to us they are very civilized and stayed together very tight, leaving us plenty of virgin super fluffy April powder (Last day of the month!).

After a 30 minute break we traversed back along the steep side of the ridge reaching backcountry skiers heaven. The slopes here are really super steep and long. It was harvesting time, rewarded for the long and strenuous ascent we got the best a gnarly sktitour can offer. Endless turns and sparkling snow clouds in the afternoon backlight, chasing our own shadows.

What a contrast to the weather from yesterday. Almost back at the bottom of that flat and long valley leading back to the hut we picked a little rock island and relaxed in the warming afternoon sun for a couple of hours prior to the return to our base camp. We finished the day with a 3-course dinner, a good bottle of Washington State red wine, which I dragged along all the way from home for that particular moment. 9:30 PM was bed time and we stayed excited for an other day of excellent skitouring on May 1st, the next day.

for more pictures continue to page 2 » (high speed internet connection recommended) »