Just because it’s late December and 1.5° at the car, it doesn’t mean that you can’t go trad climbing. En route to a New Year's week in the Lake District, I persuaded Clay to squeeze in a quick climb. After getting lost three times on the approach, Clay bravely dodged the hot aches and ice patches to follow me up the easiest route of the crag.
After our week of poor weather the clouds cleared for an incredible descent of untouched powder beneath blue skies. A great end to our first week of ski touring.
We began our traverse with a very challenging descent from the top of the Ischgl resort in a thick whiteout. Foolishly following two French guides for a short while, we eventually abandoned them and made our own way down to the hut (they later turned around and followed us!).
Day two was a pleasant skin up and over to the Jamtalhütte, stopping only to cut Steve's rental skins to size so that they fitted his skis correctly. Technical problems sorted, our third day took us up to the Ochsenscharte and down the descent to the Wiesbadenerhütte.
Autumn is definitely the off-season in Austria, with self-proclaimed "Ibiza of the Alps" (Ischgl) more like a ghost town. Erinna and I made a rainy hike to the Wiesbadner Hütte, a location I'd last visited on my first ever ski tour in 2015. On Sunday we were sad to discover the longest staircase in Europe was closed for repairs, so instead we made a surprise hike up to Versalspitze on the opposite side of the valley.
In December we hosted three sets of friends from England on mini ski-breaks to the Austrian mountains. Thanks for the fun visits Louise, Marcus, Aisling, Mark, Moffatt & Anna!
We returned to Obertauern to meet up with our friends Anna and Veronika visiting from the Czech Republic. A few more lessons for Erinna and some long, whiteout descents for me and Anna.
