More skiing with Barbara

Published on 2022-3-5 by Michael Stanton

Friday

We skied up the Kreuzjoch from the road just before the Kühtai skiing area. I mistakenly thought we were at the saddle near the Rietzer Grieskogel, however my memories of that mountain were too hazy! We enjoyed the view up here, then skied down. Southern slopes were not great, but we eventually found some shaded powder regions.

We enjoyed watching a guy ski up to the saddle west of the Kleiner Mugkogel, then enjoy a fantastic powder descent after a rest.

Afterwards, time for sauna, dinner, bed!

Saturday, a run on the Sulzkogel

We skied up rather tiredly below the dam of the Finsterbach. "Do you call this fun?" asked Barbara at a particularly annoying icy switchback. "Yes!" I said.

Hee hee...but seriously, I found that if I allowed myself to ask (myself) that, eventually I would answer "no," and then where would I be? I'd either have to turn around, because by posing the question, I indicate to myself that fun is apparently the goal. Or somehow "fix" the problem and go on. But there is little chance of that! The only reason the question was asked was that all attempts to fix things already failed. So it must simply be endured. And how hard it is to suffer...to "endure" when the lack of fun is uppermost in mind.

Since I don't want to suffer, I won't ask myself if I'm having fun.

When track is icy, I am icy-track.

Basically, I don't micro-manage the self. I let it run as it will.

Higher, we had to traverse the side of the great lake, though we enjoyed the blocks of blue and green ice below us. I felt that Barbara was pretty slow today. I realized that she didn't know how to get a little bit of glide with each step on (fairly) level ground. It's amazing how much that gives you, even if it's only a few centimeters per step. So this day was a real hard one for my darling.

Eventually we were climbing, up into the valley southeast of the summit. Some people turned around here, giving us a bit of worry about the time. We knew we had to cross above the lake again, and that was quite long. This place felt remote. Barbara had a slight headache, but was ambitious for the summit too (she knew it was over 3000 meters, and had never been that high!). We pushed on to the final slope. About 200 meters below the summit, it was, however, enough. Fighting with an icy track and by now a pounding headache, it was time to turn around.

I showed Barbara that we could transition our gear even in a steep slope like we were on now, simply by stomping out a kind of "home." This worked well, and soon we were zooming down. Barbara, a bit too tired to enjoy the fairly decent snow, which meant she really was tired!

At the lake, we watched a couple guys write in the snow and ski across the frozen lake. We opted for the less comfortable shore however, having been warned that the water level could be lower than an ice shield that forms across the lake. We made it across as the sun disappeared (very, very cold in the shade now!). Quickly down to the car...

At the Kreuzjoch

Another scene at the Kreuzjoch

Above the Finsterbach

A broader view

One smile and one only!

Back at the lake...

Shadows descend on the place of our working

Sunday, an old friend

Sunday we drove partway home and hiked up the Kranzhorn in hiking boots. Oh, how easy...how fun! This was a great way to end our long weekend.