April 22, 2006, Hoehe Goell (near Salzburg)

We learned today where the Salzburgians go weekend skiing when the snow is nearly gone.  Quite likely there were more folks ski touring at Hoehe Goell today than a normal Saturday at Paradise.  So many people that there were moguls on the slopes.  Got about 4000' vertical on our final day of a fantastic trip, skied 20 of 23 days in Austria and Italy. 

The past week we skied a 3000m peak near Brenner Pass, about 5000' vertical to reach a col where we found one of the highest lift areas of Austria on the other side.  Then used lifts Wed, Thurs, Friday at Kurzras in Italy to ski Weisskugel and Similaun (including a visit to the place they found Otzi - the 5000 year old man about 20 yrs ago).  Friday we used Pitztal lifts to ski Wildspitze (my namesake?)  Each tour allowed us to avoid going up the slushy slopes below 2000m, and to ski right down to the car in the valley! 

This trip we have found great places to stay on farms in the valleys with more comforts and less expense than huts, as well as the option to drive somewhere else if the weather is bad in the AM.  It will be very hard to return to reality Monday morning at work.  Also, I'm sure my ski touring condition will suffer as well.  Hope the NW spring conditions will ameliorate the painful reentry to "civilization."!

Here are a few photos from today, my first try at posting photos here, sorry if I made a problem.