Ski Touring from Kühtai, Spring 2006
by Bob Cockeram
Having been blown off the hill twice in my previous three European ski tours before reaching the final objective, I could not resist the advert in the 2005 newsletter "Ski Mountaineering! hotel based — day tours with comfort at night". Now don't get me wrong! I have suffered with the best at -40°C on Denali just five years ago, when celebrating my 50th birthday, but for once I thought I would hedge my bets. What I had not taken into consideration was the 'Beaumont factor'. Guy and Berni, it would seem, always get good weather out on the hill and, as organisers of this splendid hotel based event, they once again struck gold.
We arrived in Kuhtai, the highest ski resort in Austria, following a large snowfall, but over the next six days the sun shone and with light or no wind the climbs and descents were done in near perfect conditions. I had done my usual pre-trip preparation in the pubs of North Yorkshire, but why change the habits of a lifetime especially if you're mountaineering hero was Don Willans? The only problem is that Don had long walks to base camp getting fit on the way there; I arrived by post bus.
Did we do anything of merit? Well as a warm up to bigger and better things it was the perfect setting and a super opportunity to learn a great deal more about ski touring. Being a non-glaciated area and based on day tours, our packs were not sherpa size and one had time to work on technique in the spring snow conditions.
Day one was shake out time; the ski lift was outside the door and at -18°C, it was the coldest day of the week. After a civilised lunch, following morning runs on and off piste, with our excellent guide, Burkhard, we climbed the nearby peak of Die Mute, 2398m, with some 418m of ascent. The next 3 days were a mixture of hard, 1400m of ascent reaching 2525m on the Windegg (2577m), and easy, Faltegatenköpfle (2185m), but the height gained was only 415m, majoring more on technique than distance. Wetterkreuzkogel, with 800m of ascent, was somewhere in between. We ascended in style on the last day, climbing to the summit of Sumen, with some 1450m of ascent. I cannot say I descended in style. Trying hard with tired legs, I was soon buried several feet under the soft spring snow but lived to tell the tale.
I am sure the others enjoyed the week ski touring from the very friendly and accessible Hotel Alpenrose, as much as I did. Burkhard made the week even more enjoyable and I, for one, would be happy to return to do day tours and relax in the evenings over beers. Many thanks to the Organisers.
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Last updated: 04 December 2007