After two weeks of full sunshine at the weekend comes the bad weather...well that's not a new! Nevertheless...shit happens but when it does look cool anyway! And afterall I don't really trust the weather forecast that much so we just go and see what happens. After spending a few hours looking at the map and trying different options only to find out that the huts are all booked, we finally decide to go up to the Silvretta hut. And from there...well, we'll see what the weather allows.
Beginning of the route is from the parking place in Monbiel...further is not allowed to drive. Snow conditions don't look that great and in fact we have to walk for a while before we find enough snow. The route follows the road and then the foot path all along the valley. Rather flat one and sometimes even going downhill. Route goes on without problems until almost the end of the valley, at the last barn.
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| Beginning of the valley |
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| Weather is not that good but we are all very happy nonetheless! |
From here the way up to the hut follows a rather sharp "ridge" on debatable quality snow which involves lots of kick turns. I probably did more kick turns in this single piece of uphill as in the whole season! But still, very good training. At the end of this very sharp part a series of sign posts starts which indicate the directions to the hut...even with the azimut angle on them! Quite useful if you are in the fog...We are almost in the fog as a matter of fact but it's easy to see nevertheless. At the beginning of the uphill the sun even started to shine but now it's getting more and more cloudy and the views around are really limited. However is bloody hot so is probably not a bad thing that the sun is not shining!
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| Pointing the steep ridge |
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| After uncountable kick turns we made it! |
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| View back in the valley |
The route follows the Galturtälli until point 2449 and then the last hundred meters down to the hut. On the last part of the way up however we have to fight against snow sticking like glue to our skins and even the way down is not really a pleasure. But the fog is now so thick that even in perfect virgin powder it would have been tricky to ski down. Finally we find the hut almost because we hit the door :).
Atmosphere in the hut is one of the best I can remember in all the years I've been sleeping in huts. There is a group of Italians, strangely not so loud, a group of English people and one of swiss. But the most interesting thing is this. There is woman that came up to the hut on her own with snow shoes. She was lucky enough to find the sun glasses that one of my ski touring partners lost on the way up so we started talking together. Then she sat with us for dinner because we were only three people at the table. Even though most of the conversation goes on in Swiss German, of which I don't really understand that much, we have a really nice time. Until when one of my touring partners self invites himself for dinner at the place of this woman we met in the hut, who also lives in Zurich. And she says "yes of course...we are going to cook pasta alla norma!". At that time I thought she was a little bit joking maybe but no, she was serious! And in fact on the way back from the mountains on Sunday we went to her place for dinner and again a very nice evening all the four of us! I've always believed until now that Swiss people are a bit conservative and that is probably also true...on average. But as for absolutely everything you just cannot generalize. Not all Swiss people are conservative and "close" to meet other people because this one was the exact opposite. Even me being Italian had to struggle a bit with this idea, and I surely learnt something from the whole experience.
But anyway, back to the ski tour. The morning after the plan is to try the Silvrettahorn and then go down all the way to Guarda by traversing the glacier. Part of the route I already did a couple of years ago with snow shoes when I climbed Piz Buin. In the morning we start around 7:30 or a bit earlier and it's rather cold...windy...and the snow is blown in your face. Nice! It's like being in winter again even though spring has again officially started. We follow the way up to the glacier and we are welcome by one of the best sun rises over the mountains of the winter season...truly spectacular in my opinion.
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| In the morning |
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| And there you go...here comes the sun! |
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| Having good company is the most important thing! |
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| Absolutely spectacular...this is my idea of wellness!! |
Going up on the glacier is not really a problem, mainly because we can follow the tracks of other people. There is probably 20cm of new snow so breaking tracks would have not been so tough, but hey...with tracks is always less tiring! The tracks follow the glacier on the left hand side, facing the Silvrettahorn and basically point to the bottom of that mountain. Once we get under it we decide it is not a good idea to go up because the slope up to it is over 35° 40° steep. Which is not that bad with crampons and axe but the wind has been blowing from the back of it so at the top of the ridge there might be some big accumulation of snow that can be rather dangerous! I can see how much the wind is blowing by looking at the ski tracks. After less than 20 minutes they are already fully covered again because of the wind blown snow.
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| In the sun |
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| Silvrettahorn is the one in the coulds |
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| Weather is still holding |
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| On the way up to the pass |
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| That was one of the moments of best visibility on the high part of the glacier |
So we decide only to go up to Silvrettapass passing very close to the Egghorn and then follow the rocky ridge until we are under the Signalhorn. At this point we are once again surrounded by clouds and orientation is not that easy. Wind is blowing even harder now and it feels rather cold. What are you doing up here someone might ask? Well what are you doing on your sofa I might ask. This is surely a bit tiring physically but is the absolute best relaxation your mind can have...my idea of "soul wellness"!
Luckily we can see the group of italians ahead of us that is also descending down to Guarda. Without taking the skins off we keep on going down on the glacier La Cudera until we reach point P2583 under Plan Mezdi. Here the descent starts...and what a descent!!
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| Beginning of the descent...still not steep enough |
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| Small break on the way down |
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| Yeah! Fresh powder just for us! |
There is 20cm of new snow on a very hard bottom which makes one of the best descent I can remember this season. It's quite easy to turn and nice to float on the new snow, even though from time to time you can easily hit a rock or a piece of very hard ice under the snow. But the skis are tool and are supposed to be used! The whole descent down to the Chamanna Tuoi is really good, sometimes even beyond 30° but always quite safe. From that point onwards is all about following the path (sometimes even marked with flags) which is at the beginning rather flat. After some "walking" with skis on the feet it becomes steep enough to ski it down and to have some fun in racing each other at the corners...but the snow becomes less and less until we are literally carving on grass, and the last few meters down to Guarda have to be walked without skis.
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| In the forest |
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| Still in the forest, with still good snow |
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| Hmm...I might have to rewaxe my skis now... |
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| That's all folks...now we walk! |
One of the best tours I remember in the whole winter season. Wonderful company, wonderful experience, wonderful views and snow conditions...only a bit more sun was missing, but you can never have all that you want! More than 24Km of distance and more than 2000m of total altitude gain...not bad :)
What did I learn from this experience? This:
Life is short.
Break the rules.
Forgive quickly,
kiss slowly, love truly,
laugh uncontrollably
and never regret
anything that made
you smile.
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