Austria & Germany April 2002 Snowboarding & Shoeing Dachstein!
Krippenstein... My friend Mario - who I met while hiking Austria during the summer of 2000 - led me on a two-day expedition across two glaciers. We started at the top of Krippenstein ski area (2000m), snowboarded down the back side and then slapped on the snowshoes and hiked for 3 hours up to the top! It was a perfect day to begin the trek, 2 meters of fresh snow had fallen just two weeks prior, avalanches had cleared and the sun was out making a t-shirt the desired attire. Dachstein Glacier...You'd think that at 4pm in the afternoon, snowboarding down 2 week old powder at the end of the season would be a bit icey and ugly... but not where its on top of the glacier! It was the equivalent of a foot of fresh powder just dropped that morning! And as we reached the top of Dachstein, before us lay a virtually untracked snow field descending to a little dot far off on the side of the mountain- the hut where we'd spend the night.
Simony Hutte... The hut provided us with a mattress and a blanket, warmth to dry our clothes, pancake soup and leberkase for dinner and a bit of entertainment when we first arrived. The daughter of the hut owner had driven off on the Skidoo - with the 20 or so huskies chasing after for their evening walk. Talk about taking the dog for a walk! About 15 minutes after she had dissappeared over the ridge, I saw Mario now on the other Skidoo with her heading out over that same ridge. Turns out she had overturned the snowmobile, walked back and needed help to push it back upright. A good job for Mario after a full day of trekking!
To the top...The next morning, we hiked up for an hour or so to the other edge of Dachstein. Along the way we passed by Mario's next conquest. When the snow is right, he hopes to be able to snowboard down this chute. And he will! Growing up in these alps and being a mountain/snow guide makes him a pretty damn good boarder!
Over the top...We arrived at the saddle leading to a new glacier around 11am, soaked up the view and climbed down to strap on the snowboards again!
Gosauer Glacier... This one was absolutely untracked and even more expansive than the day before! We boarded past the Ademke Hutte - which is closed during the winter, through gullies and drifts, lower into the trees and then we had to rappel down a cliff. From here we boarded down to a lake, snowshoed alongside, boarded a half mile down to the next lake, snowshoed... boarded... and then hiked the final bit along Gosausee to where the our car had been dropped off... in this final shot, you can see where we started that morning - the top in the background! We stopped by a cafe in Gosau for some real food and then headed back to Mario's place in Obertraun. I want to make a similar glacier expedition in 2004, who wants to join?!
