Hirschberg Ski with Riki

Published on 2006-2-19 by Michael Stanton

Hirschberg skiing, February 19, 2006

Our neighbors Ricki and her husband Arne are new parents. Ricki is also into backcountry skiing, but hadn't gone in a long time. So we arranged for a Sunday morning "Dawn Patrol." Ricki has a car which made it possible! She and I left town at 5:30 am, and were hiking up along a ski area below Hirschberg, a mountain of the Bavarian pre-alps near the Tengernsee. Icy conditions caused our skins to slip a bit, but after a great ski up we were on the summit at ten minutes to nine. The air was very clear, with great views of the Zugspitz, the Karwendel Mountains and even (I think) the Grossglockner far in the distance.

The ski down was kind of hard for me. First, I skied right into some kind of hole on the slope on the schluss down from the gentle summit. I got a facefull of cold snow and lost a ski temporarily. Later, there was a steep slope which Ricki skied down masterfully. I was intimidated by it, so I tried to go an easier way, but ended up having to make kick turns on an icy chopped up slope. Finally I could traverse over to the lower part of her slope and it was better. The trip down was really just a matter of minutes. Even though we stayed on the summit for 30 minutes, we were down by 10 am, and home at 11. Really fun!