02 April 2014

Ski touring in Silvretta

Another trip proved that ski touring is the most fun sport ever invented.

Thursday

Our plan for Thursday was to go to Chammona Tuoi hut first and maybe do some light skiing afterwards. The plan quickly changed after Martins hyperglycemia, so we took a rest at the hut but we did some avalanche rescue training after dinner.


Friday

On Friday, we climbed Hintere Jamspitze (3156 m) without trouble in great weather with awesome views.
Great view
On the way down I made one of my best ski runs ever on an untouched steep slope (about 36 to 38 degrees). The snow was getting wet and heavy and I fell in the middle of it, but it was pure joy and I had to shout at the whole valley when it was over.
You can see the place where I fell
Even though we were taking it easy today, we were already at the hut at 1 pm and just relaxed before the big trip the next day.

Saturday

We woke up at 5 am to get an early start. I made a mistake of not looking into the map for 2 hours and just followed the main ski track on the La Cudera glacier. We crossed the wrong saddle and ended up under a peak we didn't plan to climb – Silvrettahorn (3244 m). In the end it turned out to be a very lucky mistake! We wouldn't be able to climb Piz Buin (3312 m) with our equipment anyway; our plan was to climb as far as possible and for Silvrettahorn we only needed an ice axe and crampons. The view was breathtaking.

Piz Buin (3312 m) and Ochsentaler Gletscher
Piz Linard (3410 m)
The return back to the hut was a bit too long and annoying, especially with the wind blowing snow on our faces on the glacier. At least the last meters were a very enjoyable downhill ride. After returning back to the hut, I learned some useful facts about Kussmaul breathing which you get during diabetic ketoacidosis. Luckily Martin didn't die in the end, so we survived another great trip in the mountains!

As usual, a selection of my photos is on Flickr and an album merged from 2 cameras is on Google Photos (with David Hasselhoff).