I had to get the 8:06 bus from Lech again for my last day with Piste-to-Powder. Only Martin remained from our original group, and we also are with a different guide Thomas. Thomas and Alex are also summer mountain guides and climbed together in Yosemite once. Alex spent last month in Patagonia, where he climbed Fitzroy. I told him about our November 2011 trip and the Dick Dorworth story from 1968.
Our ski group is now 6, with some Finns and an Aussie who now works for Google in SF. Pace is a touch faster; our "warmup" is not a piste but an ungroomed line from Galzig to Zammermoos. We take 2 runs on the Schindlergrat lift. View from there towards the Valluga.
First we exit right and climb this step-up traverse.
The pic is from Friday. Thursday was completely clear like Wednesday.
The step-up leads to the Mattun bowl across from Kapall. Top of the step-up.
Like all of the upper bowls Mattun faces south, so Thomas links traverses out to slight wraparounds that tilt a bit east and have lighter powder. The direct south lines already have some crust from Wednesday's sun. View back up about halfway down.
View down from same spot
Eventually we follow a skier packed line on a ridge and then a few bumps to get back to Zammermoos. Next time up Schindlergrat we traverse a very long way skier's right for a shorter section of partially east facing powder. We're now positioned to ski down to Rauz and under the road to Stuben for lunch. After lunch we add a Scot moving up from a slower group. Thomas led us on the identical run we did with Alex Wednesday. Snow was not quite as good as before but still best of the day. Low on that run is a view up the drainage of many off-piste lines.
These are probably reached from the traverse Richard and I saw from the backside lift at Stuben on Tuesday. Thomas said the hike to get out there was more tedious than the one we did. This time I put the skis on my pack to make it easier.
We caught the bus back to St. Anton about 2:20. This gave us time for another run up Rendl. We took the far looker's right Riffel 1 chair, then traversed/stepped up (with me hiking) 15 minutes or so to get into the Rossfall area. Here's what we finally got to ski out there.
Our legs were burning by this time from the hiking/step-ups and there were a couple of crashes, fortunately not me this time. There is also a 10 minute hike/ski track out of the bottom of Rossfall back to Rendl and once again I put my skis on the pack. From there we skied on the piste back to St. Anton. 19,700, about 4K of powder more variable than Wednesday's.
Our ski group is now 6, with some Finns and an Aussie who now works for Google in SF. Pace is a touch faster; our "warmup" is not a piste but an ungroomed line from Galzig to Zammermoos. We take 2 runs on the Schindlergrat lift. View from there towards the Valluga.
First we exit right and climb this step-up traverse.
The pic is from Friday. Thursday was completely clear like Wednesday.
The step-up leads to the Mattun bowl across from Kapall. Top of the step-up.
Like all of the upper bowls Mattun faces south, so Thomas links traverses out to slight wraparounds that tilt a bit east and have lighter powder. The direct south lines already have some crust from Wednesday's sun. View back up about halfway down.
View down from same spot
Eventually we follow a skier packed line on a ridge and then a few bumps to get back to Zammermoos. Next time up Schindlergrat we traverse a very long way skier's right for a shorter section of partially east facing powder. We're now positioned to ski down to Rauz and under the road to Stuben for lunch. After lunch we add a Scot moving up from a slower group. Thomas led us on the identical run we did with Alex Wednesday. Snow was not quite as good as before but still best of the day. Low on that run is a view up the drainage of many off-piste lines.
These are probably reached from the traverse Richard and I saw from the backside lift at Stuben on Tuesday. Thomas said the hike to get out there was more tedious than the one we did. This time I put the skis on my pack to make it easier.
We caught the bus back to St. Anton about 2:20. This gave us time for another run up Rendl. We took the far looker's right Riffel 1 chair, then traversed/stepped up (with me hiking) 15 minutes or so to get into the Rossfall area. Here's what we finally got to ski out there.
Our legs were burning by this time from the hiking/step-ups and there were a couple of crashes, fortunately not me this time. There is also a 10 minute hike/ski track out of the bottom of Rossfall back to Rendl and once again I put my skis on the pack. From there we skied on the piste back to St. Anton. 19,700, about 4K of powder more variable than Wednesday's.