backcountry journal
March - April 2007
To help my memory into the future I have compiled a daily dairy of our back country touring over a 3 week period when we roamed around the Alps. Over that time Mio and I went on some 17 leg muscle back country tours and accumulated almost 15,000m vertical meters of human powdered ascent. Mio walked uphill for just under twice the height of Everest in a 19 day period, not bad!
Unfortunately my spring steeps snowboarding season did not happen - not one steep pitch was ridden this year due to circumstances, bad timing and a lack of committed steep partners. Instead, Mio and I enjoyed an enormous amount of experience touring together on a wide variety of terrain and snow conditions with repeated successful days borne from our own energy, effort, imagination and spirit for personal adventure and team growth. A far more valuable time than scoring a few trophy couloirs with someone I would have paid to accompany me.
Unlike our touring in previous years using snowshoes, during this campervan adventure we are on splitboards for all but one outing. All told, splits are infinitely better snowboard touring tools for nearly all situations. However, to make them consistently safe, practical and efficient across a wide range of alpine terrain and snow conditions with less energy expended and less gear required in the back pack I strongly recommend using the most light weight and flexible Alpine Touring ski boots available rather than traditional snowboard boots and bindings. The advantages when in split mode on the ascent are enormous. I also very strongly advise against getting a Burton split board. Don't waste your money - instead, buy a quality splitter by Never Summer or Prior (or possibly the new Voile 2007/08 board). Seriously: do not buy the Burton S-series split board.
24 March - Austria
Collected our rental camper van and after a 9 hour drive arrived late at night in a very cold and snowy part of the Stubai Alps (Praxmar). Almost didn't make it up the road in the camper van. On the drive down I succeeded at reaching 140kph in my 3.5 tonne campervan (truck).
Unfortunately my spring steeps snowboarding season did not happen - not one steep pitch was ridden this year due to circumstances, bad timing and a lack of committed steep partners. Instead, Mio and I enjoyed an enormous amount of experience touring together on a wide variety of terrain and snow conditions with repeated successful days borne from our own energy, effort, imagination and spirit for personal adventure and team growth. A far more valuable time than scoring a few trophy couloirs with someone I would have paid to accompany me.
Unlike our touring in previous years using snowshoes, during this campervan adventure we are on splitboards for all but one outing. All told, splits are infinitely better snowboard touring tools for nearly all situations. However, to make them consistently safe, practical and efficient across a wide range of alpine terrain and snow conditions with less energy expended and less gear required in the back pack I strongly recommend using the most light weight and flexible Alpine Touring ski boots available rather than traditional snowboard boots and bindings. The advantages when in split mode on the ascent are enormous. I also very strongly advise against getting a Burton split board. Don't waste your money - instead, buy a quality splitter by Never Summer or Prior (or possibly the new Voile 2007/08 board). Seriously: do not buy the Burton S-series split board.
24 March - Austria
Collected our rental camper van and after a 9 hour drive arrived late at night in a very cold and snowy part of the Stubai Alps (Praxmar). Almost didn't make it up the road in the camper van. On the drive down I succeeded at reaching 140kph in my 3.5 tonne campervan (truck).
25 March - Austria
Took Mio for her first splitboard touring experience. It was a bit of a muscle shock compared to the much more familiar travel by snowshoe. She also had problems with the switch-back kick turns. Rode down a mostly neglected line and had really quite good powder. Mio's riding on her new Prior 154 Freeride was immediately better than on her other boards. Praxmar is an overcrowded touring venue so that night we moved to a quite pass, slept at 2000m
Mio riding into the tree line, Austria. There was good powder.
26 March - Austria
Took on some gentle touring doing laps in the trees. This gave Mio repeated chances to familiarise herself with the splitboard transition. It also gave us the chance to break our own trail in 30cm deep powder, lapping different lines several times and not crossing another persons path all day. It was a great day. That night we moved to the very end of Pitztal (valley)
Lloyd follows Mio down in her track.
A great spot to wake up. We toured in the back ground that day.
27 March - Austria
Pitztal has a medium sized ski resort at almost 3000m and accessed via a single tunnel train ride through the mountain that takes 10 minutes. We were there to tour on the glaciers and so needed to use the resort funicular to access the altitude. On the first day we spent our time with a slow relaxing start and then several hours rehearsing various aspects of crevasse rescue. Pitztal has a few safe and easy to access holes in the ice that make for perfect practice sites. A separate details trip report of our very satisfying touring in Pitztal is (will be) HERE.
Pitztal has a medium sized ski resort at almost 3000m and accessed via a single tunnel train ride through the mountain that takes 10 minutes. We were there to tour on the glaciers and so needed to use the resort funicular to access the altitude. On the first day we spent our time with a slow relaxing start and then several hours rehearsing various aspects of crevasse rescue. Pitztal has a few safe and easy to access holes in the ice that make for perfect practice sites. A separate details trip report of our very satisfying touring in Pitztal is (will be) HERE.
For late March, this looks like mid winter. Pitztal, Austria.
28 March - Austria
Toured on a very nice section of glacier, reaching an altitude of 3500m, or about 12,000 feet for my American friends). It was safe and easy touring. Due to the aspect the snow was not as good as other areas of the glacier. I stuffed up the operation of my helmet cam and at the end of the day we had no footage of this fantastic tour. We spent the afternoon enjoying a beer and building our first practice igloo, and experience that would come in handy later on.
Toured on a very nice section of glacier, reaching an altitude of 3500m, or about 12,000 feet for my American friends). It was safe and easy touring. Due to the aspect the snow was not as good as other areas of the glacier. I stuffed up the operation of my helmet cam and at the end of the day we had no footage of this fantastic tour. We spent the afternoon enjoying a beer and building our first practice igloo, and experience that would come in handy later on.
Looking down from the 3500m 'summit' point of our tour with Mio's Prior splitboard just below the short rock scramble.
We toured up into the distant glaciated arena.
It is tradition to drink beer from the boot after a sunny return from a successful tour.