Short Reports 2024

Published on 2024-1-1 by Michael Stanton

Stanser Joch

May 2, 2024

I hiked up from Stans, following the bee-line straight from town up to the little broken-down house 1400 meters up the slope. I listened to interesting podcasts, especially one about the archeology of Sodom. Fascinating! It seems that God rained hellfire on the city as the Bible states. What a strange story that is...I think a mark of it's truth is the rather poor behavior of Lot, who, rather than turning over the angels to the wicked men of the city "so that we may know them," was happy to turn over his virgin daughters to them. What the heck? It is a dreamlike story (a very bad dream). It is good to have a God who reaches into the world to correct us, I am certain.

Anyway, my feet became cold on the march to the summit in recent and sometimes knee-deep snow. Bad weather was brewing to the west. I decided to continue along the ridge to the east and come down to Jenbach. This went well enough for a while, but gosh, the toes were getting cold. I should have worn thicker socks! Finally I reached a little hunting stand where I could leave the ridge to the north where I saw tantalizing dry ground below at the Heiterlahn Alm. I wished for an ice axe as I traversed steep slopes in the snow. In total I made 4 traverses to stay on the trail which cunningly avoided steep ground amid latschen bushes, scruffy cliffs and smallish trees. I had old tracks of a beast to follow (probably Gämse). Near the bottom, I had to reclimb because I'd left the trail and ended up, predictably enough in a miserable grove of latschen and rotting snow. I limped on frozen feet to the Hochleger at the Alm, squeezed the water out of my socks and set to drying and warming them. Whew!

Below the Alm, steep trail and many Gämse around got me down to the Rödelhüttenweg. Great views of the Rofan Mountains from here. I walked through Jenbach, then another 6 kilometers back to my car in Stans. I rested aching feet and lay on the grass for a while at the Tratzberg castle.

An interesting, varied day -- and a lesson on the importance of good, thick socks for walking in snow in trail runners! 1600 meters up/down and about 20 kilometers.

Heuberg

May 1, 2024

A wonderful day with Barbara and Sammy. On the way down I discovered how to get Sammy to walk behind me, somewhat unwillingly. I keep at least one hand or both behind my back, with the leash, and keep it just on the edge of feeling where he is. He gets more slack if he stays back there. This is really helpful on steep trails where he can easily pull me down the hill if I'm not careful. We also tried letting him off the leash a couple times. The second time was a disaster. We spent 10+ minutes criss-crossing steep slopes trying to get him back. Uff!

Sulzberg

April 26, 2024

Nice hike up with Barbara and Sammy. We went down a pleasant trail to the north this time.

Flintsbach climbing

April 17, 2024

Time to try out some rope soloing! I led "Frauenschuhe" (5+) with my solo setup, then top-roped it 2 more times. Then I led "Kinderleicht" (6-) and top-roped that twice. Then I went around to the Steinbruch sector and admired the fresh rockfall, apparently from earlier in the month. But I could still climb the first pitch of "Normalweg" (probably rated 4), then did a top rope of the first pitch of "Kombination" (6-) and traversed left to the anchor. 8 nice pitches on a fine, windy evening.

Wendelstein

April 5, 2024

Barbara, Sammy and I hiked up the Wendelstein from Bayrischzell. A great hike, but marred slightly by Sammy jumping up to surprise a woman because she had a small dog in her jacket. I pulled him away and the party was angry with us.

Spitzsteinu

March 22, 2024

We'd never been up this peak, but had a great time. This mountain is sure to go on the repeat list! Quite rocky and rather slow near the summit. Barbara said she might start drinking beer at a hut, because the coffee is way too variable!

Naunspitze

March 15, 2024

Barbara, Sammy and I hiked up the Naunspitze from a very steep trail that passed a climbing area. On the way down I had a beer and Apfelstruedl.

Rehleitenkopf

March 8, 2024

Barbara, Sammy and I hiked up past the beautiful waterfalls beside the great quarry. Her first visit to the Rehleitenkopf summit. It is "International Womans Day." A day invented by communists to divide the family. To create resentment. To break the good shells that shelter us, and leave us exposed, supposedly "free." I want nothing to celebrate "me." I only want to celebrate us. Resentment is battery acid.

Zischgeles

March 3, 2024

Standing on Zischgeles, looking across to Schöntalspitze.

A scene at the ski depot on Zischgeles.

After staying the night in Axams, I got up early and skinned up Zischgeles. What a huge mountain! Entertaining scrambling to the summit from the ski depot. The sun came out right at the summit, which was nice because it had been cold, cloudy, and sometimes too windy. I took the left variant down, visiting a hanging valley west of the normal ascent way.

Schöntalspitze

March 2, 2024

What a great ski tour. Well, the snow in the lower section was quite difficult refrozen crust. But the upper section was great. Tiring skinning in the last 100 meters to the ski depot. In fact, I slipped and got a muscle cramp in my left arm trying to stay attached to the slope! A good day.

Michael on top of Schöntalspitze.

Sitting on Schöntalspitze, looking across to Zischgeles.

Wildbarren

March 1, 2024

Barbara, Sammy and I hiked up the road, then the north ridge, and down the southwest side. Wonderful day.

Sulzberg

February 25, 2024 A great hike with Barbara and Sammy

Kranzhorn

February 16, 2024 Me, Barbara and Sammy enjoyed ourselves here.

Gindelalm

February 9, 2024

Barbara, Sammy and I hiked up the Gindelalm.

Heuberg

February 4, 2024

Me and Sammy hiked up Heuberg. My first time taking him alone.

Hike above Klausen

January 27, 2024

Interesting visit to the abbey above the town on the hillside. I prayed a bit in the church, then wandered back into the cold, cold valley floor of the Tinnebach. Thence up and back around towards the sun by an old mine, and out into the sun on the road down to Villanders, where I looked in vain for a restaurant. Galumpfed thence down to Klausen and a early dinner in a good pizzeria. About 1100 meters up and down.

Königsanger

January 26, 2024

Nice hike up Königsanger from Verdings. I got a hitch down from the official parking lot back to Verdings from a nice cross-country skiing fella who lives in Feldthurns down the road. He grew up nearby, nice guy. I used snowshoes for the upper half, though snow became wet, deep and heavy on the way down. Day started out sunny, later with ominous clouds.

Feldalphorn ski

January 19, 2024

Skied up and down the Feldalphorn. Snow not super awesome. It was very cold. I used a little video camera to film, but threw the footage away (boring).

Ski with Josef and Kirill

January 14, 2024

Great day with Josef and Kirill on Gerstinger Joch. We didn't visit the true summit, but came close. Pretty nice snow! On the way down, we lost Kirill for a while, and had a fun time searching with avalanche beacon on the slope.

Kranzhorn

January 5, 2024

Nice hike up and down.