December 31, 2005, Schartenkopf, Tirol, Austria

Day 2 in Austria - After a decent snowfall of about 15-20cm, Kam, Michael, Corinne, Arno and I woke and headed out for another day of touring. We were a little apprehensive about the snow stability after several days of sub-zero (around -22 to -24 centigrade) with a dump of warmer snow on top, but we walked down to the center of town and got ready to go. We took the "lazy man's" option of getting a snowmobile tow up the flat 6 km road to the hut, where the climbing started, feeling a little guilty until we saw the Austrian Mountain Rescue guys show up on another sled. Luckily, the four young super-fit guys took off ahead of us, pounding out a nice skin track through the foot deep windcrust at a speed that was hard to follow.  

Natural releases were happening everywhere, making the route-finding a little tricky, but the mountain rescue guys picked a nice route with a minimum of risk. They chose to do a peak that looked pretty rocky at the top, while we went slightly to the left to the Schartenkopf, which was a nice skin except for a slightly sketchy section of the ridge where a slip might have been a big problem.

Great views again, with an incredible panorama of the Alps stretching across Austria and into Switzerland.

The ski down was less than ideal; definitely not as nice as the day before. Michael's brother-in-law to be, Arno, set off a good sized avalanche from the top that triggered another larger slide in an adjacent chute - after that, we stuck to low angle stuff on the way down, and the thick wind-crust made it hard to exceed 10 or 15 mph all the way back to the hut.

When we pulled into the hut, the hostess, who Michael had known for years, sent a complimentary round of schnaps to the table, which sent Kam into an immediate bout of sweating. We finished off lunch with a bowl of frittatensuppe and cookies before skiing back to town . . .