This year we decided to go to the Silvretta area of Austria, which borders Switzerland. A group of eight of us met up in Galtur in the Tirol : Anna and me, Chris, Steve, Brian, Jo, Chris and his son Dan. A few of us, myself included tried new gear this year; “light is right” was the motto and I was very impressed with my new skis and dynafit TLT bindings. Unfortunately my new boots, despite the hours of fitting, were another story and I ended up hiring boots (which didn’t really fit) and getting blisters and swollen feet. Oh well, I’ll get it right for next year……
Anyway on with the tour:
The Silvretta region lies south west of Innsbruck and there is no set route to follow. The idea is to tour the area and take in some peaks. We chose to start in Ischgl and travel first to the Heidleberger Hutte, an easy ski down from the lift system…. from here we climbed Piz Mottana the following day.
From the Heidelberger Hutte we traversed to the Breit Krone and down to the Jamtal Hutte, a modern, large hut with a bar at the door, showers, a climbing wall and all modern amenities………….. who said we were roughing it???
We had two nights at this hut and spent the follwing day on an ascent of the Gemspitz (3107m), followed by an early night and an early start to get across to the Wiesbadener Hutte……..
This was a very friendly hut with two eastern european girls constantly trying to sell beer to all newcomers….. watch out for them at Hunters in Cockermouth this summer!!!
With news that the Saarbrucker Hutte was closed we opted to stay an extra night at the hut, so took in the Rauherkopf and Oschenkopf……..
Our intended journey to the Silvretta hut via an ascent of the Piz Buin neccessitated an early start, but despite this we couldn’t beat the weather and after only an hour, the valley had been engulfed with cloud. With a tricky glacier ascent ahead and a descent of unfamiliar ground to the next hut, we turned tail and retreated back to the Wiesbadener Hut where a day of gin rummy followed. It’s easy to get very lost very quickly on skis….. and the hut was very comfortable.
The follwing day was a lot better though, but fate conspired against us…….. a slightly later start and Chris’ binding breaking and quite a wind higher up led us to bypass the Piz Buin and leave it for another day. It was still a fantastic day though and a great ski down to the Silvretta Hut; beautifully positioned above Klosters but small and traditional with great cooking. Easily the best hut and worth another visit.
All that was left was a steep ascent to a col the following morning and a long descent back to Galtur on fast disappearing snow. It just lasted to the resort but involved a lot of poling on flatish terrain. All in all though a great area to tour with some very accessible peaks, fantastic huts and great company!
That looks like a wonderful touring holiday! 😛 Terrible news about your ill fitting new boots though – what a bugger, after all that effort finding them, getting them fitted, and everything! I hope you can trade them in for the correct size OK? At least you are still keen on the Dynafit bindings. So much lighter!
How did you get on with the clipping in process? A bit more fiddly than step-in bindings huh?
I thought the bindings would be really fiddly, but even after a couple of wipeouts in soft snow, they were easy to put on 🙂 I’m a real convert :love: :love:
As for the boots, I’ve chatted to the shop and there is no issue with a refit, bigger size or different boot, so I’ll be fully kitted for next year’s tour of the Vanoise 😀 😀
How very frustrating to have ill fitting boots after so much prep! Still, it obviously didn’t spoil your enjoyment of the holiday. Looks great!
Looks like a fantastic trip. Love the snow shapes in pic 8. Thought I’d had enough of snow this year, but suddenly I’m missing it all again.
Glad to hear the boots are going to be sorted.
Fantastic pictures!!! :star: :star: :star: I especially love the ice-covered mountain glittering in the sunshine on pic 12.
Is this cake one serving? 😯
Yes the cake was for one person (and surprisingly it is not me eating it) :yum:
Not unless you’ve developed hairy arms!