Schoentalspitze ski

Published on 2012-1-15 by Michael Stanton

Josef and I had the day to ski. But I never saw Josef! A series of mishaps prevented us from making our rondesvous at 5:30 am in Holzkirchen. Basically he and I waited for each other separately, then like good alpine citizens, set off on our own solo adventures. While Josef stayed closer to home (building a nonetheless punishing regime of up and down among the smaller peaks), I went for one big mountain: the Schoentalspitze.

I'd first skied it a year ago, but there were too many clouds to get a good view. Today was very cold (-17 C in the bottom of the valley!), but clear, and I couldn't wait to see the sun. I started skinning up around 8 am. I passed a bundle of folks, surprising myself because I am hacking up mucus and generally sounding like someone who lives on the streets! Must be Crossfit...

Below the summit, a guy psyched me out by looking sketchy above, and so I took off skis pretty low on the slope. Climbing up in boots was hella awkward, lots of post-holing or granite slabs with thin layers of snow. Finally on top, I found a wind-protected place to sit. Some other guys came up and soon there was a big crowd crammed into my little "park bench." I freaked them out when I left, because I accidentally grabbed somebody elses ski poles. I couldn't understand that they were telling me to bring them back! Then I climbed back down into the wind shelter area, and promptly stole another persons poles instead. Oh brother...

The ski down was good. Great actually, I had a lot of powder to practice in, and felt like I really improved. Of course I crashed twice...plastering my face with icy crystals of death! Yowwww!

I can't wait for the next chance to ski powder...I think I'm getting somewhere. Of course the last slope was a crusty, skied-out narrow chute of fighting, scraping, jump-turning, just whatever.

3 hours up, 1 hour down. 1400 meters elevation gain.