Working until 1pm on Saturdays can sometimes make weekends feel not very weekend-y. That certainly wasn’t the case this weekend. An evening ascent of Spitzkofel and overnight in the Linderhütte bivouac, followed the next day by Große Gamswiesenpitze and descent to Tristach was planned. The forecast was looking good, with the wind building strength through the night and into Sunday.
Entrance to the Lienzer Dolmites via the Kühboden valley is usually off limits in winter due to danger of avalanches. As every cloud has a silver lining – the lack of snow so far this winter meant we could approach Spitzkofel via this much more remote and beautiful valley. However, also due to the lack of snow, before we could actually start ski touring we had to overcome 900m ascent hiking in ski boots. Thankfully Scarpa Alien RS boots do make the normally arduous task of walking in ski boots almost enjoyable.
At around 1650m elevation we were able to get our skis on, albeit to consequently spend the next 30 minutes teetering on our edges above a gorge on steep boilerplate snow, cursing that we were too stubborn to put our ski crampons on when we had the chance. I don’t know of a better core workout than traversing a slope trying to avoid your skis slipping away from underneath you. The snow conditions made it slow progress all the way to Kühbodentörl, from where we had a frustrating 100m descending traverse before the next section of ascent to Spitzkofel. The snow crust was not strong enough to support our weight and – not wanting to waste time taking skins off – we performed the least elegant skin-skiing one could imagine.
The evening was setting in fast and we still had 300m of ascent to get to Linderhütte, nevermind the ridge line along to Spitzkofel. Skis on our back, we boot packed up/through more breakable crust to the gully to find the approximate start of the summer Klettersteig. Following the rough the line of the cable where it wasn’t buried beneath snow, we made it to the Linderhütte for sunset. At this point I was ready to setup camp, start warming the bivouac shelter and enjoy sundown. Christoph had other ideas. Instead, we dropped all our gear inside the shelter other than headtorches, axes and the crampons already on our feet, and made haste along the ridge into dwindling light. After negotiating some very precarious slopes above what was now the dark abyss, we reached the summit of Spitzkofel. We had a great view of Lienz and I – now looking back, rather foolishly – called Caroline to let her know we made it safely to the summit.
Retracing our steps as best we could, we returned to our home for the night in the recently rebuilt Linderhütte bivouac. It was only now that we realised there were no blankets in the shelter. We had gambled the wrong way and only brought thin liners with us, expecting there to be the typical thick, never washed, scratchy woollen blankets. Trying to ignore that cold reality, we lit a few candles, put every item of clothing and accessory on, slipped into our paper thin liners, then into our improvised rucksack sleeping bags, and tried to fall asleep. Tried and never succeeded. Sleeping was not just made difficult by the desperate cold, but also by what felt like the shaking of the entire bivouac. Every structural joint rattled under the beating of the Northerly wind ripping up over the cliff. The noise gradually crescendoed through the night into a symphony of constant banging of what sounded like rocks landing on the roof. Every now and then we checked on each other to ensure that neither of us were asleep, to not feel alone in this bombardment. During this assault on our sleep, I think I managed perhaps 1 hour of shut eye.
Without any interest for a lie in, regardless of how tired we both were, as soon as the first inkling of light slipped through the gap beneath the door, we gathered our things and got going. We opened the door of our freezer to an incredible sunrise. It was so good it made that 1 hour of sleep feel like 10.
We battled the wind back to the base of the Klettersteig and enjoyed some surprisingly good skiing. A short ascent to Hallebachtörl before the next ski down to Kerschbaumer Alm. The wind in this valley was surreal, blowing us back uphill as we tried to ski daintily as possible so as to keep on top of the horrid snow crust. We kept our heads down and kept moving in the direction of the SW gully up to the notch between Gr. and Kl. Gamswiesenspitze. From there, now on in the lee of the wind, we carried on up to the summit of Große Gamswiesenspitze. Skiing back to the notch on fairly good snow, we had another 1500m of descent to ski on what was a mixture of breakable crust, crud, deceptive powder, rock stained snow and slush. A good fun, not so weekendy, weekend.
Mountain Movement 