This is not the first time this season that I go ski touring...but this is the first time that I actually manage to have a proper ski tour. In the previous ones there was terrible weather with rain and storm winds, a friend cut her hand open with ski edges (good first aid practice) and on the last one we followed the wrong tracks and lost loads of time...
This time weather is absolutely wonderful and it seems there is enough snow, so off we go direction Elm to ascend the Chli Chärpf. It's astonishing how many people are on the same route today...don't think I've ever seen that many on the same ski tour. It almost look like being on a ski piste. Probably there are free beers at the top :)
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| Haustock in the background, shortly before the start |
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| Almost in the sun! Time to take the jacket off! |
Finding the route is clearly not an issue because there are tracks absolutely everywhere, plus we can see people all the way up. If we did not know that it's the 30th of January we would have said it's the mid of April. Once in the sun it gets really warm and the tracks are really frozen solid, exactly like in spring. In a couple of places I was quite tempted to put down my ski crampons, but I thought I would spare this and take the chance as training on slippery terrain. At least skiing down should offer at some point some really nice "sulz"!
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| Sunny sunny sunny |
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| Clouds coming in close to the summits in the distance...bad weather is coming |
At the first stop I regret the decision of having put so heavy thermal underwear and especially to have taken warm tea with me. A t-shirt and some iced tea would have actually been a lot better! Every time I stop to take a picture at least 5-8 people would overtake me, and then I would overtake them again...there are simply people absolutely everywhere. Towards the end of the route however the track splits between those going to the Gross Chärpf and the ones going to the Chli Chärpf, and the amount of people reduces to something a bit more normal...but still far too many of them. At the ski depot a few meters below the summit we leave the ski and start walking up to the top on some really hard snow...quite happy to have taken my ice axe with me!
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| T-shirt on the 30th of January...there must be something wrong |
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| In the shadow the snow is almost like powder...but unfortunately here we only have to traverse! |
After 3 hours and approximately 1500m of ascent all the four of us finally stand on the top. Up to know it was really warm and sweaty but here the wind is stronger (and is getting stronger) and it gets very chilli very quickly. A few pictures on the mountains around something to eat and off we go back to the skis. The descent is not that much fun at the beginning. Still people coming up from all over the places and other skiing down. Not that I'm a good skier, but this time I'm even more afraid than usual because I'm afraid to run into someone else! Also the snow is not that good. Patches of frozen crust alternating to soft or wind blown snow...not that much fun for my poor technique!
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| Just before the ski depot |
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| Last steps before the summit, Gross Chärpf in the background |
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| Constant stream of people coming up |
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| First summit of the season! |
But shortly before the ski hut where everyone stops for a nice cold beer the snow transforms into a wonderful sulz that reminds of the very long descents from the 4000m summits of last spring...is it really the end of January? And after a short beer stop at the restaurant we ski down the last part of the route, but we don't follow the way we took on the ascent. Instead we traverse in the direction of the end of the valley to find even better sulz than before and basically no tracks!
Once down in the valley the weather has well deteriorated, wind has picked up and it's clear that tomorrow will be a bad day. Unfortunately it will also be far too warm again with a snow limit around 1500 and higher. If it keeps on going on like this we are going to go mountaineering again at the end of March!
