Trip Stats
Trip Report
Day One
We had arrived by snowcat to the hut the night before. I have
difficulty calling it a hut, as it had private rooms, a nice wine list,
climbing wall, boot heaters and more. Suffice to say, we were impressed
with the lodging and food and slept well. After a filling breakfast, we
grabbed our packs and assembled our gear. We were in no rush to leave
and most of the other groups had already begun their day. Looking up
the valley, you could see them fanning out in all directions.
At around 9am, Tom started up the valley floor under the morning sun. The pace was slow and relaxing, allowing my mind to drift. Although it was the morning, it was already beginning to warm up and we quickly shed our layers. After an hour of skinning, we took a short break and Tom filled us in on some of the history of the Silvrettas and surrounding mountains, including how the Nazi used man-made avalanches to wipe out opposing troops. We continued up the valley and skinned onto a gradual bench the led to the top. Around 1pm, we reached the shoulder of a mountain peak. We took off our ski gear and packs and booted up a couple of hundred feet to the top of the mountain. The views were amazing and we could see all the way to Italy.
After enjoying the sweeping views, we hiked back down and donned our packs and skis, ready for the long descent into another country; we were leaving Austria and entering into Switzerland. After an initial steep entrance, the gradient mellowed out and we carved turns on the corn snow. Every once and awhile, Tom would stop to scope out the conditions and slopes. There was some slide activity, but it was mostly confined to the sun-exposed faces to our right. It was extremely warm, and we were all in t-shirts.
We reached the hut around 2:30pm and shed our gear, put our boots liners in the sun to dry out, grabbed some hut shoes and ordered up some beer. The sun was hot and it felt good sipping a cold tasty beer after a day of hard work. This hut was much smaller than the first one we stayed in, and this time we slept in a communal room with about 10 other people. They didn’t server dinner until 8pm, and I had trouble staying awake, tired from the climbing, sun and beer. After a hearty dinner and a couple glasses of wine, we all hit the sack.
Day Two
We woke up to another beautiful and sunny day in the Alps. Breakfast
was basic, with butter, toast, tea and muffins, but good. We packed up
our gear and started to our ascent at 9am. We had a long and somewhat
steep face to ascend in order to get out of this valley and back into
Austria. Although the sun was out, the surrounding peaks sheltered the
valley and the skin track was very slippery on the way up. We had to
carefully proceed and at times, lay in a new skin track. On the way up,
my brother slipped and has water bottle went cascading down the
mountain. Fortunately, there was a group below us and their guide dove
on the careening water bottle.
We finally reached the top of the slope and were promptly buffeted by strong winds. We decided to break for some food and wait for my brother’s errant water bottle to arrive. After a nice break, we crossed over Vermunt Pass into Austria and traversed along the side of a mountain. We were once again in the sun and we quickly shed out layers. As we wrapped around the side of the mountain, we saw our objective for the day: the Dreilanderspitze.
After a healthy skin up the side of Dreilanderspitze, we reached a bench where we put on our crampons and harnesses and roped up. The climb to the top was only about a 100 meters and did not require technical climbing. Although, the jagged edge we followed did keep my senses sharp. We technically did not reach the top, as there was a line of people waiting to make the final 30 foot traverse across to the highest point. After climbing back down, we got ready for our ascent. The first 500 vertical feet were still in the shade and the snow was hard and crusty. However, we ascended onto a more gentle slope and were treated with some slushy corn snow. The ski down was relaxing and enjoyable, with a moderate slope. After 20 minutes of skiing, we saw the Wiesbadner Hutte, where we would rest for the night. We reached the Hutte and quickly stowed our gear and grabbed a table on the deck. We soaked up the sun and drank beer and Radler, watching groups arrive.
Day Three
We woke up to our first day of clouds in Austria. As we left the hut,
we began a steep climb up a short face. The conditions were icy, and we
had to proceed slowly. I had packed my ski crampons, but I was over
half way up by the time I decided it probably would have been
beneficial to use them. We reached a bench and wrapped around the
mountain, slowly ascending. After an hour of climbing we took a break
and ate some food. My pack was starting to feel pretty light, as most
of our food was gone.
We continued skinning until reaching our stopping point, where we took another short break. The descent of ahead of us was mellow and the snow looked wonderful. There has already been a couple of groups who had descended, but true to the Austrian/German form, they had made tight symmetrical turns and left ample amounts of fresh snow for us. Once we were out of the shadow of the surrounding peaks, the temperature picked up. We reached the flat part of the descent and followed the valley floor out. We exited one valley and entered another, where a very small ski area was located. The road down our exit path was covered in snow and we skated a couple of miles down a cross country track before entering a small Austrian village. The trip was at an end and I was ready for a cold radler!
