backcountry journal
Kuhtai (Tirol, Austria)
Feb 07
This weekend I drove to Austria again to hook up with Graham, a fellow I originally met in Chamonix a few seasons ago. Mio is still in Tokyo, so it was just Lloyd and I on the drive down. We rented a Volvo all wheel drive station wagon. Very good car, super steady, 4wd. New speed record: 225kph and a new record for consistent speed: 200kph for more than 10 minutes (sorry Dad, it was late at night and we had the road almost to ourselves. I promise to slow down soon).
After sleeping on the car Friday night after work, Graham and I met in Lermoos on Saturday morning. There really isn't any snow at all under 2000m. We expected bad, but not that bad. Our issue was yet again a considerable avalanche hazard above 2000m after that week's storm. Deciding to stay low we found a reasonably snowy peak near Berwang and gave it a go. There was only ridable snow on the top half and we didn't even make it up that high after touring ourselves into a poorly planned situation we decided to abort and go for a beer. We had been ascending on snow shoes for 2 hours through thick trees and patchy snow up a steep face. We intended to track to the summit along a ridge line and in our effort to reach that ridge we wanted to quickly cross a narrow but deep and steep sided summer stream (winter avalanche path).
Unfortunately the condition of the recent snow on top of a bed of water ice made it just too difficult to get across and going directly up it wasn't going to happen either. So we quickly put our boards on and rode (side slipped) down the very narrow and steep icy chute looking for an easy exit of to the side further down. We didn't find it. Not unsurprisingly what we found was a series of frozen waterfalls below us and we couldn't go any further. Idiots. A stupid and dangerous spot to be stuck. No rope and no crampons meant we had to switch back into our snow shoes and claw our way up the banks of the gully which consisted of a thin layer on non cohesive snow on top of smooth dead grass. It was pretty tough going and even Lloyd struggled. For a dog he has proven to be a good mountain goat in the past but he didn't like it today. I made it up the side and dropped off my pack and went back down to relieve Graham of his pack. After taking it up he quickly followed. I then had to go half way back down and get Lloyd as we couldn't climb the snow due to the breaking crust on the surface. After we got up the side of the gully and walked/rode and side slipped our way back down to where we parked the cars.
From the sunny balcony of a bar we saw two natural avalanches that had run in the previous 24 hours: both next to each other on a cross loaded gully. We really should not have got stuck in that gully the way we did, although we knew that the start zone above us was loaded with very little snow.
That night we slept in our separate cars and went to Kuhtia, a crumby looking resort near Innsbruck. Just near the resort is a popular ski touring area, so we parked on the side of the road and headed up for some long over due enjoyable touring and riding. The snow was in good condition, although quite tracked out. We climbed for 2 hours and rode a good line with some reasonably dry fresh snow (but not powder). After that we climbed for just under an hour up another small ridge to then descend down a well shaded lightly treed line into the valley and to our cars. It was petty good fun.
After sleeping on the car Friday night after work, Graham and I met in Lermoos on Saturday morning. There really isn't any snow at all under 2000m. We expected bad, but not that bad. Our issue was yet again a considerable avalanche hazard above 2000m after that week's storm. Deciding to stay low we found a reasonably snowy peak near Berwang and gave it a go. There was only ridable snow on the top half and we didn't even make it up that high after touring ourselves into a poorly planned situation we decided to abort and go for a beer. We had been ascending on snow shoes for 2 hours through thick trees and patchy snow up a steep face. We intended to track to the summit along a ridge line and in our effort to reach that ridge we wanted to quickly cross a narrow but deep and steep sided summer stream (winter avalanche path).
Unfortunately the condition of the recent snow on top of a bed of water ice made it just too difficult to get across and going directly up it wasn't going to happen either. So we quickly put our boards on and rode (side slipped) down the very narrow and steep icy chute looking for an easy exit of to the side further down. We didn't find it. Not unsurprisingly what we found was a series of frozen waterfalls below us and we couldn't go any further. Idiots. A stupid and dangerous spot to be stuck. No rope and no crampons meant we had to switch back into our snow shoes and claw our way up the banks of the gully which consisted of a thin layer on non cohesive snow on top of smooth dead grass. It was pretty tough going and even Lloyd struggled. For a dog he has proven to be a good mountain goat in the past but he didn't like it today. I made it up the side and dropped off my pack and went back down to relieve Graham of his pack. After taking it up he quickly followed. I then had to go half way back down and get Lloyd as we couldn't climb the snow due to the breaking crust on the surface. After we got up the side of the gully and walked/rode and side slipped our way back down to where we parked the cars.
From the sunny balcony of a bar we saw two natural avalanches that had run in the previous 24 hours: both next to each other on a cross loaded gully. We really should not have got stuck in that gully the way we did, although we knew that the start zone above us was loaded with very little snow.
That night we slept in our separate cars and went to Kuhtia, a crumby looking resort near Innsbruck. Just near the resort is a popular ski touring area, so we parked on the side of the road and headed up for some long over due enjoyable touring and riding. The snow was in good condition, although quite tracked out. We climbed for 2 hours and rode a good line with some reasonably dry fresh snow (but not powder). After that we climbed for just under an hour up another small ridge to then descend down a well shaded lightly treed line into the valley and to our cars. It was petty good fun.
After a failure attempt on Saturday, we had better luck in a somewhat busy 'back country' area near Kuhtai. You can just see our line of ascent zigzagging up the middle left in the shade. We were having a lazy day and only went as far as the sunny rounded shape below the cliff. The obvious sunny peak on the right is very heavily tracked out.
Our first Sunday descent was down via the gap between the two small rock outcrops in the middle left of the picture. We didn't get a photo of our second descent.
Although Saturday went wrong, it was a good weekend away with the dog, 3 nights camping in the car and hanging out with Graham. I even managed to have a pizza with James in Innsbruck. He shattered his pelvis riding off-piste in Dec 05 and has only just started to snowboard again, although very gently at resorts on forgiving snow.
I have started to gather snow profile observations, particularly if I expect to return to an area. Here is my first attempt at computerisation of the profile. It could do with some work.
ps - Because I had heaps of spare time I decided to experiment with relaxing driving and so in an attempt to get home using the least amount of fuel I averaged a mindnumbingly slow 100kph for an entire 650km. Driving slow is dangerous as your mind is not engaged and so you switch off completely. But I did it in less than a tank, rather than one and 1.75 tanks.
I have started to gather snow profile observations, particularly if I expect to return to an area. Here is my first attempt at computerisation of the profile. It could do with some work.
ps - Because I had heaps of spare time I decided to experiment with relaxing driving and so in an attempt to get home using the least amount of fuel I averaged a mindnumbingly slow 100kph for an entire 650km. Driving slow is dangerous as your mind is not engaged and so you switch off completely. But I did it in less than a tank, rather than one and 1.75 tanks.