Author: auffiundowi
Camping
Wir hatten diese Idee schon seit längerem aber nun hatten wir endlich einmal die Zeit und auch um ehrlich zu sein die Lust dazu. Am Freitag Abend ging es dazu los Richtung Axamer Lizum. Am Parkplatz angekommen packten wir unsere Rücksäcke und es ging los Richtung Kalkkögel. Als wir den Kessel um 9 erreicht hatten, stellten wir unser Zelt auf und schlüpften endlich in den Schlafsack. Jedoch schien der Mond so stark, dass das Einschlafen zu einem Ding der Unmöglichkeit wurde und so entschloss ich mich noch einmal aufzustehen und ein paar Fotos zu schießen.
Als es dann dunkel wurde, schlief ich dann doch noch ein paar Stunden.
Um 5 starteten wir dann in Richtung der in der zuvor in der Finsternis betrachteten Rinne. Als wir dann aber am Eingang standen bemerketen wir, dass leider nicht mehr allzu viel Schnee dort drinnen war und somit beschlossen wir auf den benachbarten Bergrücken hochzutouren. Oben angekommen bertachteten wir dann noch den Sonnenaufgang und danach ging es wieder in Richtung des Zelts. Die Abfahrt stellte sich jedoch als steinig, eisig und bruchharschig heraus. Aber im Endeffekt war es die Erfahrung in voller Dunkelheit einen Berg zu besteigen.
Unten angekommen packten wir dann unser Zelt zusammen und waren aber schon in Gedanken bei unseren warmen Bett und Dusche.
Liebe Grüße Rupi.
HOME !
After a long break from riding at home we finally made it back!! It is hard to describe what it’s like to go ski at the place where you learned to ski. From when I used to come back during the Christmas holidays from someplace usually warm and hot, like Malaysia or Sri Lanka to chase my cousin (Rupi) around the resort. Yesterday we got to do exactly that chase each other around in the trees.
We hopped in the car at 8:00 p.m with reports of wind and heavy snowfall back home. After about 40 minutes heading east we started to see the first signs that this plan of ours might actually work out. However 10 minutes later it all changed. No snowfall, just lots of wind on the highway. We still hoped that because we were heading further to the east that things would improve the closer we got. We have this kind of rule; it’s all good if it is snowing after the second tunnel. It was, not as hard as we might have wanted but it was snowing none the less. After a close call with a traffic sign the blew across the highway literally a foot in front of us we made it home safe and sound to light wind and cold dry snowfall. The next morning it had not snowed significantly over night and there were reports that the top of the mountain had taken a beating in the last 24 hours leaving certain aspects completely bare of snow and others completely wind loaded.
The name of the game was safety. The first signs stepping out of the gondola were not positive. WIND FUCKED, WIND FUCKED and some more WIND FUCKED for good measure. Heading over to our favorite spot we had to plow through some pretty interesting snow formations. Looking down we could see that it had snowed but the wind had broken everything from twigs to huge branches off of the surrounding trees. This made for some “keep the faith skiing”, it might be a twig or it might be a branch, sometimes it was just about trusting that it was the smaller of the two. After figuring out what the wind and snow had done the night before it was on. It might be small but it’s not everywhere you are getting in runs that last over a minute.
Praise the place we call home and the faces we get to ski with whenever we make it back. Great mountain, good snow, and cold beers at the end. What more can you ask for?
P.S Chistmas is coming early. We are proud and stoked to announce support by PRAXIS SKIS. They make them long and fat just the way we like them. The skis are currently clearing customs in Vienna hoping to post some ski porn midweek!
POV
It is still early in the season, so any sort of decent skiing you get in should be appreciated for exactly what it is, bonus POV skiing. The last two days were spent up on the glacier. It has been a really strong start to the season here in Tirol, so there is a sort of base above 2300m. We are still dodging rocks and trying to come to terms with flat light but the skiing has been great.
The more often I get up at 5:30 in the morning, the more I am falling in love with it. Most skiers only know starting their ski day at 8:30 or 9:00 but because Austria, and especially Tirol is the premier training location for aspiring ski racers the glaciers start running their gondolas at 7:30. This is perfect for us because on the days where we only have class in the afternoon we can get a full 4 hours of skiing in before heading back down and to class.
Another experience that is completely unique to this situation is getting to the parking lot while it’s still dark and stepping into the lift just as the dawn is breaking. Now this might not seem especially exceptional to people who tour, and are used to doing dawn patrols before work, or starting early in the morning when trying to conquer larger objectives. However the sensation of stepping off the lift as the sky and mountains are catching the first light in pinks and oranges is completely unique. A sort of mind trip in a way, these are the sensations most skiers associate with tired legs and a long ski day not your first run with fresh legs. The sun is at the opposite side of the compass, the faces you are used to seeing in an alpenglow are dark and in shadow while their counterparts are lit up all pink and orange.
There is one thing about early season and that is rocks. It’s still rock out there and while the crash at the beginning of the video looks pretty tame but it left me with a pretty big bruise… As seen in the photo below.
Today was especially cool because it was just the two of us. I learned to ski chasing Rupi through the trees back home in Salzburg, but today above the treeline it felt exactly the same. Laughing and hollering after each run only to start bickering on the tow lift as to who was too dumb to ski in a straight line. There is one thing about Rupi he doesn’t sketch out under stress whether a small slab is ripping on him or he is about to fall in a crevasse somehow he deals with it is truly Austrian to blurt “alles locker flocker”. If there is one thing that can be said about when we ski together is that we never have to talk about what to ski next. I see exactly what he wants to ski and vice versa hopefully the edit will satisfy some early season cravings.
In addition, as we get more comfortable with using our Gopro’s the both of us are gaining a huge amount of respect for all the skiers putting out fluid and beautiful edits. Skiing stuff top to bottom at speed and in control is our new focus. I did this edit using a Netbook so being able to really edit the clips to the beat of music is near impossible and checking fades is not really possible because the play back is a joke as my computer has a hard time handling these massive Gopro files. It was a fun learning experience and hopefully better, smoother and more entertaining edits will follow.
Cheers,
Bernie and Rupi
Sonne, Wind & Kälte
Die letzte Woche war mehr oder weniger geprägt von sturen Nebel und die ein oder andere Schlechtwetterfront (Neuschnee!), aber als dann die Sonne am Freitag das erste Mal auf den Webcams zu sehen war der Plan fürs Wochenende festgelegt .. SCHIFAHREN !
Am Samstag ging es wieder einmal ab ins Stubaital auf den Stubaier Gletscher. Diese Idee hatte wohl nicht nur wir und so wurde aus der 45 Minuten Fahrt schnell mal eine 1 ½ Stunden Fahrt.
Oben am Gletscher angekommen wurde allerdings die „lange“ Fahrt schnell belohnt. Bei Neuschnee und Sonnenschein zogen wir die ersten Kurven in den Schnee.
Aber dann die Ernüchterung, unter der anscheinend schönen Schneedecken befanden sich doch die ein oder anderen Felsbrocken und so wurden die Ski doch recht zur Mitleidenschaft gezogen. Danach mussten wir uns eingestehen, dass doch erst November ist. Dennoch ließen wir uns nicht entmutigen und suchten einen geeigneten Hang. Gesagt getan, kletterten wir schon einen Hang hoch. Diese Abfahrt des Hangs stellte sich als passabel heraus und endete leider mit einer Arschbombe (Video). Ich war wohl doch etwas zu schnell.
Den Tag ließen wir gemütlich bei Sonnenschein und Jause ausklingen. Das Highlight des Tages war aber definitiv die Heimfahrt mit den „Best of“ EAV Klassikern.
So wie das ein vernünftiger Student das halt macht, wurde am Sonntag mal eine Lernpause eingelegt!
Am Abend erhielt ich dann einen Anruf ob ich Lust hätte auf eine Schitour mit zu kommen. Die Antwort war klar : ja!
So wurde am Abend noch die Tourenausrüstung eingepackt und am Montag gings dann gleich wieder auf den Stubaier Gletscher mit dem Ziel der “Hintere Daunkopf” (3225m).
Der erste Teil des Aufstieg war schnell bewältigt und das Wetter hielt auch noch anders als der Wetterbericht es vorausgesagt hatte.Allerdings als wir das Daunjoch erreicht hatte wehte uns ein eisiger, starker Wind um die Ohren und erschwerte uns den Aufstieg.
Das letzte Stück zum Gipfel wurde dann zu Fuß beklommen und oben angekommen bot sich uns ein erstklassigen Panorama.
Die Abfahrt war anders als erwartet extrem gut und so fanden wir uns nach 600 hm Abfahrt in super Schnee wieder am Ausgangspunkt. Unten angekommen blickte ich zum Gipfel hinauf und konnte mit Guten Gewissen mein verlängertes Wochenende abschließen.
Liebe Grüße,
Rupi.
So I guess this is a blog
So I guess this is a blog… What is it exactly that you can expect from it I don’t really know but the plan is to just start documenting what the boys and I are up to and sort of go from there. In reality it is mostly going to be about skiing and walking. Walking from point A to point B and then skiing back down to point A.
We are however not purists, we still like lifts cause it shortens the walks and increases the skiing. So far the season has started off really strong from the first 50cm dump on Pitztal glacier, it was too deep to ski where it was flat and not deep enough to ski something steeper. Between the first days of driving on snow covered roads on summer tires in October debating whether to just risk it or do the smarter thing and mount chains. We didn’t mount the chains and ended up white knuckling it, well at least I white knuckled it. So far November has brought smatterings of snow here and there to keep us happy in the early season all the while building up the base for later in the year. It has been more a story of getting our legs back and working out all the kinks that walking, the most unflattering mode of transportation in our minds has done to what we consider the most elegant mode of transportation, skiing.
There are some experiences that only the early season can provide from wrestling with young ski racers in the gondola line at 7:30 in the morning to as mentioned above white knuckled drives on summer tires. All of that in the greater scheme of things is all insignificant because after long hot summer days, where we dream of winter, the cold, the snow, autumn finally gives us a glimpse of what is right around the corner. Seemingly so far away for so long, the smell of winter is finally in the air. The cold bite of morning temperatures as one walks out the door to the pins and needles in cold hands and feet are all the teases of the winter mistress.
Today we decided to head to Stubai Galcier really early, waking up at 5:30am, in the car by 6:00am, in the parking lot just before 7:00am. This gave us a prime spot in the line getting one of the first gondolas up.
Now lets be clear there was new snow but this was not a full blown POW day. Visibility was low and it was still snowing lightly. Up on the glacier this meant near to no sensory input. Sticking to the flatter stuff we just cruised about finding out which lifts were open and which were not. Sadly the lift that we had in mind had been closed for the day due to avalanche risk so we went in search of something different. After about an hour of skiing it was only 9:00am. At this point we decided to head in for a coffee to warm up and hopefully wait for the sun to burn off the rest of the clouds.
And it did, that was till we were 15m from exiting the lift so we went and cruised about some more trying new things out mostly failing miserably. Once again we found ourselves on the lift in low visibility seeing the lines we wanted to ski come in and out of focus as the fog and sun played about. At this point we thought we might pass the time by taking some photos but like all things photography memory should always be on your mind no card no photos. Only S3 photos this round and a Gopro shot.
Towards the end of the time we could actually spend on the glacier because of menial tasks like Uni were calling as back to the valley floor we finally got our 15 minutes of sunshine.
Exiting the lift we headed straight over to two mini couloirs so that we could get a piece of them before they were snaked out from beneath us. In the end the day paid off. Skiing around on what felt like the surface of the moon with no sense of gravity or up and down to getting two fun runs in made the day. Lest we forget it’s November 11 and we still have the whole winter ahead of us!
Cheers,
Bernie & Rupi.
auffi & owi 