backcountry journal
Back to Kuhtai (Tirol, Austria)
Feb 07
Mio is still in Japan so the dog and I drove alone to Austria again. This time a 6 speed, 2.0L, 140horse, VW Passat let me clear through the first 600km in 4 hours yet use only ¾ of a tank, way less than the auto transmission Volvo last weekend.
Our route up in red and down in blue
Saturday
I met up with Graham again and we toured in the same valley near to Kühtai. We started at 9am and within 2 casual hours stopping to chat along the way we had climbed 600m of vertical to a minor peak. The snow was appalling on the way up: re-frozen hacked up tracks the whole way up. I seriously considered stopping the ascent and making do with a small but relatively untracked area lower down. Motto: Where will you be if you never go? (Answer: where you started… which is the same as nowhere). What will you know if you never look? (Answer: nothing new… which is the same as nothing at all). Afternoon bad weather was forecast so we stuck to our plan and one more time the motto paid off. Every time you are faced with the decision to do nothing new or do something that takes you into new terrain (figuratively or literally) then go for the new experience so long as it is a safe plan under the circumstances. Seeing something new - stepping outside the front door - almost always offers a small window into the next experience.
I met up with Graham again and we toured in the same valley near to Kühtai. We started at 9am and within 2 casual hours stopping to chat along the way we had climbed 600m of vertical to a minor peak. The snow was appalling on the way up: re-frozen hacked up tracks the whole way up. I seriously considered stopping the ascent and making do with a small but relatively untracked area lower down. Motto: Where will you be if you never go? (Answer: where you started… which is the same as nowhere). What will you know if you never look? (Answer: nothing new… which is the same as nothing at all). Afternoon bad weather was forecast so we stuck to our plan and one more time the motto paid off. Every time you are faced with the decision to do nothing new or do something that takes you into new terrain (figuratively or literally) then go for the new experience so long as it is a safe plan under the circumstances. Seeing something new - stepping outside the front door - almost always offers a small window into the next experience.
I scrambled along this ridge for a while seeing if there where anything good. We decided to drop in from the snow patch in the foreground.
Right next to our lunch spot was a perfectly fun couloir entrance. Graham hung back and took some pictures (thanks Graham!). Doing up my bindings.
Put on my goggles. I was riding my 5'5" Dupraz D1. It went ok.
scratch my nose
Have some fun (lecture to myself: stand up over the board and get your hand off the snow! Bad posture). Graham rode it faster and better than I did. Photos of him next time.
From the top of our hike we were able to get a great view into the adjacent terrain which revealed a number of opportunities for various conditions (as it turned out, we capitalised on this new terrain the very next morning). And rather than having to ride (bump and scrap) our way back down the really tracked out snow we were originally faced with, we ended up with a not so bad line down a couloir which gave access to some reasonably untouched snow on the bench and then through a patch of trees and back to the valley.
Half way down the couloir we realised that Lloyd had not followed us and I had to take off my board and pack to climb up the face again and get him. I bought him back down by sliding over snow and some rocky grass patches on my bum whilst holding him. Lloyd is a tough dog, but sadly he is not cut out for steep terrain. Whilst I did up my bindings before dropping in Graham took this shot of him. It seems Lloyd was thinking "to hell with that, I'm not going down there!"
We ended the day by ascending the reverse side of the valley to descend via last week's tree line to where we parked the cars. Again, this gave us good northerly facing cold snow with very few tracks. Its only a short descent but worth the extra 30 minutes of climbing. Lloyd was pretty worn out and getting iced up as the afternoon cold front rolled in.
Sunday
James (aka Bill) has a number of steel inserts in his pelvic and hip bones, plus a 12 inch scar across his stomach from the operation over a year ago when he T-boned a rock after crashing in some powder at high speed. After some complications he was only up and walking normally two months ago. So it was a big event that he came out with us touring on Sunday. Graham went back to Innsbruck on Saturday evening and returned with Bill in the morning. I had 11 hours of glorious sleep in the car park at the trail head, pulling on my boots 5 minutes before the guys arrived. Within 20 minutes of waking up we were heading out on our tour at 8.15am
James (aka Bill) has a number of steel inserts in his pelvic and hip bones, plus a 12 inch scar across his stomach from the operation over a year ago when he T-boned a rock after crashing in some powder at high speed. After some complications he was only up and walking normally two months ago. So it was a big event that he came out with us touring on Sunday. Graham went back to Innsbruck on Saturday evening and returned with Bill in the morning. I had 11 hours of glorious sleep in the car park at the trail head, pulling on my boots 5 minutes before the guys arrived. Within 20 minutes of waking up we were heading out on our tour at 8.15am
An easy day out to get Bill back on the horse. This photo was taken on Saturday after we reached our little summit and got our first look into the adjacent valley. Up in red, down in blue. The bottom half at tree line and below is well out of shot.
Again, the terrain was heavily tracked and re-frozen due to a lot of back country traffic since the last snow. Luckily for us, we branched off the popular route and made our way up the ridge line to access a small but fun bowl with only one track in it. The same ridge line gives access to a few more good (but short) gullies and bowls. All you have to do is keep hiking along the moderately sharp ridge.
Bill handled the 2 hour and 700 vertical meter hike well and followed it up by riding top to bottom without a worry (and the lower half of the descent was a totally icy and rutted out survival course through trees, rocks, dirt, tree roots and big patches of solid water ice). The amazing thing was how quickly we completed a worth while effort: with a fast and constant ascent and no messing around on the descent we were back at the car in under 4 hours. The fastest tour I have ever down. In particular the descent had no hold ups, almost constant momentum and even an untouched line down good dry soft snow just before hitting the tree line. Fast touring is good touring. I jumped back in the car and drove home to Depressingdorf.
I am not sure when Mio will get back, it depends on how the job hunting goes. The Alps have at last been hit with another storm. Austria wont get much, perhaps 40cm max. The western Alps will get up to 100cm. This coming weekend I will likely return to Austria for more of the same. I have a flight booked to Milan on the following weekend, and its looking good: four days of Chamonix or La Grave. Or perhaps Alagna. Mio doesn't have a flight booked so if she makes it back to Europe by then we will just tour in Austria together.
Bill handled the 2 hour and 700 vertical meter hike well and followed it up by riding top to bottom without a worry (and the lower half of the descent was a totally icy and rutted out survival course through trees, rocks, dirt, tree roots and big patches of solid water ice). The amazing thing was how quickly we completed a worth while effort: with a fast and constant ascent and no messing around on the descent we were back at the car in under 4 hours. The fastest tour I have ever down. In particular the descent had no hold ups, almost constant momentum and even an untouched line down good dry soft snow just before hitting the tree line. Fast touring is good touring. I jumped back in the car and drove home to Depressingdorf.
I am not sure when Mio will get back, it depends on how the job hunting goes. The Alps have at last been hit with another storm. Austria wont get much, perhaps 40cm max. The western Alps will get up to 100cm. This coming weekend I will likely return to Austria for more of the same. I have a flight booked to Milan on the following weekend, and its looking good: four days of Chamonix or La Grave. Or perhaps Alagna. Mio doesn't have a flight booked so if she makes it back to Europe by then we will just tour in Austria together.