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A volunteer is sought to assume complete editorial control of the Club’s quarterly Newsletter from the end of 2011, soliciting content, selecting that which is most appropriate, liaising with our proof-reader and interfacing directly with the graphics designer who takes care of layout. If this challenge is of genuine interest to you, please contact the Club Secretary via the AAC(UK) Office for further details.  

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Membership includes at no extra charge:

  • Mountain Rescue Insurance: worldwide, without age limit and inclusive of repatriation;
  • Alpine Hut Rights; members' discounts at huts belonging to the national mountaineering federations.

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Beginners' Ski Mountaineering Course, Spring 2006 at the Neue Bamberger Hütte

by Gillian Smith

This 5 day, hut-based course was just right for an introduction to, or a refresher course for, ski mountaineering. There are plenty of mixed ability day tours that can be tackled from the hut and the only caveat would be that having to don skins actually to reach the hut, up a winding forest path, might be a bit daunting for a complete novice.

The first day was a fairly easy intro­duction, just skinning up towards the Salzachjoch and practising a few kick turns. It was more than somewhat marred by one of our party falling on the return and having to be heli­coptered off to Kitzbuhel with torn lig­aments! The next day saw us heading for the Schafsiedel. The weather start­ed to close in, however, and we beat a retreat to the hut where it was fine enough to do some practice kick turns and transceiver work nearby.

Next day dawned fair but it had started to snow by the time we left the hut, heading for the Schwebenkopf. Luckily it cleared again and allowed us to reach the ridge. After skiing back down we found a lovely sheltered spot for lunch and then decided the slope above us looked so inviting we just had to climb and ski it. Surely this is what ski mountaineering is all about?

The following target was the Dristkopf at 2361m. The day started well, cloudless and with morning tem­peratures of -16°C. The views from the col to the Gross Glockner, Gross Venediger and the Kitzbuhler Alpswere magnificent. Two of the group managed to make the summit cross with Hannes, our guide. The ski back down was wonderful; were those really our tracks?

The last day showed how things can change in the mountains. A very stormy night meant all our lovely powder snow had been compacted into crusty wind slab. The sun did come out eventually and we headed out towards the Salzachjoch. It was still very windy and we could see several spontaneous avalanches. Some groups appeared to be taking a lot of risks but we carefully made our way to the lovely wee church at the col with barely room for us to squeeze inside. The ski back to the hut was more difficult than before, due to the wind crust, but it was all good experi­ence.

The culmination of the week was the run back down to the valley next morning. The wind had dropped dur­ing the night and it had snowed and was still snowing when we left at 7.45am. It was back to fun powder and, with the trees heavily laden, it was a perfect end to the week.

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Last updated 04 December 2007



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