Pizzo Centrale

At the end of the season I finally managed to put my new ski touring boots into use. Some people migth argue that mid april with 25 degree in the valley is not exactly made for skiing - but there's still plenty of snow - well, above 2000 meters..

We decided on backcountry.ch to go for a tour in the Gotthard area. So Dave, Jeanny and I met at the Andermatt gondola saturday morning at 7:15am (getup at 4:30am..) and took the gondola to the top of Gemsstock at 3000 meters.

From there we first had to descent on frozen snow, not exactly a nice ride. After arriving at the low point we started ascending again, first with skis, then by foot after the ski depot. The last section up to the peak was already pure hiking/climbing, as it was exposed to the south. Arriving on the peak we met two guys enjoing their fondue on a small camping cooker and who even invited us for some bits.

Pizzo Centrale (on the right)

After descending again to our skis we traversed and went on for another peak, "Glocketürmli". From there, we had a really nice ride down in the valley.


But then at some point, spring time showed it's full power: the last hill was almost completely burnt away by sun. So we had to take the hiking path by foot for the last section before starting to walk back on the road to Hopsental and then taking the train to Andermatt again.


To finish off the day, we then went to Flüelen at the Vierwaldstädtersee and had some serious BBQ at the lakeside in the evening, doesnt get better ; )

You can find a full gallery of pics here on rockthepowder.com ! And a short additional description of the conditions here on backcountry.ch .

this weekend

Andermatt, definitely the place to be on the coming weekend. Here's the link to the event. It's on Saturday, 14 April. Too bad I won't particiapte, but I figure it's the smart choice given the condition of my right leg, although it feels pretty good when I go biking etc.; So I figure I gonna take it easy, some laid-back skiing and watching other people race.. ; (

new skis

Haven't mentioned it here but I broke my skis in Engelberg two weeks ago. So the day after I rented this beauty (Made 'n' AK) here and fell in love. It's soft like chewing gum and floats on powder like a feather, well, a feather made of stell I guess. As far as I can tell it's build for going fast in powder and jump big stuff...





So some days later I got me the successor of the Maidn, the " AK Enemy" . I find it's hard too argue which one looks better. I probably would've gone for black if it was still available but start to like this one with my marker M14 free with red flames as well a lot.


The only thing it can't handle as far as I can tell is the combination of icy slopes and high speeds, but then again it's not designed for this and excels in what it does best: powder & speed ...

samuels gallery

this is a pic from Samuel's gallery, a friend I often go freeriding with. check out his whole gallery here. by the way, he is aiming to become a pro-rider, so just in case you have a ski company let me know and I'll forward his details, I can assure that he's really a strong and stylish rider.

Finally update again..

Wow, I don't feel too good about not posting for 10 days or so.

Well, gonna try to catch up with what happend from then to now. First things first I went skiing on Sunday and monday (25./26. March) in Engelberg. It was incredible. Sweet pow-pow at its best. Make sure to check out the new GALLERY. yes, HERE !!!




Then some more skiing on Wednesday at Schilthorn, but it was kind of disappointing compared to the glorious two days at the beginning of the week. So Tobi and I spend most of the time eating and drinking in the sunshine, but still checked out one new line which sure will come in niceley when there's better snow (well, next season..)

Then, from Friday to Monday I was in Prague with Eva. So that's a bigger thing. I'll put up a gallery and some text and some tourist tipps a.s.a.p. ...

Engelberg Saturday March 17th

Here's the promised report on Saturday. Picked up Samuel in Luzern, then we rode together to Engelberg. Snow was of course not exactly fresh but skiable with some patches of untracked powder look-alike (almost..).

We skied mostly stuff around the Jochpass, and did one descent from Titlis, here's the playground:


And here's the route we did:

The station on the top left is Titlis. Now you ask: what's that funny circle the red line is diong there on the top right? Well, talk about navigation problems ... ;)

Hiking up the ridge

Enligthened

Samuel rocking the "Nadelöhr" from the small down to the big "Sulzli"

Jochpass descent

On of the Sulzli couloirs

it's steep, yes..

Weekend summary

Wow, nice weekend. Some explorative freeriding in Engelberg with Samuel and Georg on Saturday, and then the team weekend of the TVISnow, my skiing club, on Sunday with blue skies (probably the only place in Switzerland) on Sunday. Update on both coming soon..

Samuel in a nice face on Jochpass, Engelberg.

Mission freeride weekend

Ok, posts were not very frequent the last days. So here’s some update.

The (long) weekend from Friday to Sunday was really sweat. On Friday, I picked up Charles in Bern and we drove together to the Schilthorn next to Grindelwald. Weather was excellent and so was the snow. Below some pictures of Charles rocking it on Wassenegg.

Then, Saturday and Sunday it was of course time for Mission Freeride, the 5^th time this really cool event took place. Make sure to check the homepage, there's also the feature that was broadcasted on swiss TV on the event on the front page.

You can also find some detailed comments in german from me in the board of backcountry.ch here.

So here a short summary:

Saturday started of cloudy, looking out of the window at 7am I decided to roll around once more instead of going straight to the breakfast. (tipp if you want to stay in Mürren: Sportchalet, 50CHF per night incl. breakfast and free entrance to the public pool at the Sportzentrum). But already at 8am, the situation had changed completely: blue skies and around 30cm of powder from the night. Doesn’t get any better.

But still the problem of clouds coming in remained over the day so starting the contest was kind of a problem. To everyone’s disappointment the contest was also placed again in the “Wilde Wand” and not in the north-face below Schilthorn. Therefore the whole contest was kind of bushwhacking and trying to figure out a line between the obstacles. Well, still it was fun. Don’t know how I did, results are not. I’ll let you know as soon as they are published.

the comfortable "Turnhalle" Mürren, Saturday night.

The evening in the rotating restaurant on the Schilthorn at 2970m was as always straight fantastic. Perfect pasta and salads surrounded by perfect sunset. Unbelievable.

View from Schilthorn at around 6:30pm...

Next day: as on Friday rocking the Wassenegg part of Schilthorn, here is a
pic of some of our lines, the camera broke during the action shots..

You see the nice, almost straigt line in the only sunny part in the left-hand part of the picture? well, that was my last line of the afternoon, golden powder.

piz crispalt tour

As announced yesterday here the full report on the trip.

Ändu and I started at 8:15 at the Oberalp (~2000meters) station (Gotthard) to the north, direction Alp Tiarms. Then hiked further up in the Val Val and a steep final section up to the Crispalt (3040meters). The very last section was a bit of climbing to get to the peak, always interesting with skiing boots - but the views were well worth it.

After lunch at around 12:30 we descended in diverse conditions. The first section was somewhat steep but very rocky, so only partly skiable. Yet the east facing couloir below was almost perfectly preserved powder! As soon as the exposition of the mountain changed to soutwards, we had spring conditions (= sulz , i.e. very wet snow). After skiiing down the last part on the slopes of the ski area Sedrun we had well deserved beers & ice cream.


View of the Val Val to Oberalppass

Ändu on the saddle of the Crispalt


View from the saddle of the Crispalt

If you draw a straigt line from where Ändu skis to the top you arrive at the saddle where we stored our skis before climbing up the the peak which is the highest point in the very left of the picture. From there we skied down the rocky section below the saddle before we encountered the open & nice powder slopes..

East facing powder slopes - sweet



Further descending, below you can see the ski area of Sedrun, the following pictures are all taken in this valley while continuing to ski down to beers & ice cream ; )

preview tour oberalpass II

wow, today a second tour on Oberalpass, Gotthard area. Stunning weather, pretty good snow, almost powder on 3000 altitude meters, and spring conditions in the lower parts, full report coming tomorrow...

tour oberalppass

Yesterday, finally, my first freeride tour this season. We started in Andermatt in the Gotthard area and took the 7:50 am train to Oberalppass. From there we hiked up (around 700 altitude meters) the first peak of the day, Pazolastock (2740meters).

This is the crew of the day on Pazolastock: Markus and Dave, Dani, Matthias aka Davski, Danski and Matski ..

View from Pazolastock to the south.
From there we descended down to Plidutscha.
first powderturns of the season

After a short ascent we arrived at Maighels hut for lunch.

After lunch a short but steep ascent to Piz Cavradi (approx 300 altitude meters) - earn your turns. Arriving on the peak (2612meters) it was time to harvest. We descended on the pretty steep west side of the mountain, the steepest party around 45 degrees.

Entering the first couloir of the Cavradi descent.

In the lower parts of the couloir, the snow was surprisingly sweet. I think this gets obvious looking at the spray turn above..

Danski AK-Style

Lower part of Cavradi, in the back you can see the train line between Tschamutt and Andermatt.


Below you can see the final part of the Cavradi descent. Huge turns at Mach3. Note that the turn above and to the right of my line are already pretty big, so it was quite an amazing ride for my first freeride tour of the season.

Afterwards we descended further through the bushes to Tschamutt and took the train back to Andermatt where we had the standard beers in "Spycher bar. Wow, what a day.

Check out rockthepowder for a full foto report of the tour (around 50 pics!) - its really worth it. Browsing the homepage go to the subsection "ski" and then the gallery Pazolastock - Piz Cavradi. Currently you find a direct link on the frontpage

The tour was organized throug backcountry.ch , so go check it out, too.

where's the snow?

friends of mine started a really cool website called backountry.ch . it's all about the fun stuff in life related to mountains: skiing, skitouring, climbing, hiking and biking. basically a plattform to organize trips and post reports of past trips. and most important it's not in the spirit of those all-so-cool sometimes brainless kids that think mountains are a playground. rather it's organized by folks that are all members in the SAC (swiss alpine club). go check it out.

So far so good. The only problem this season is right here:


the mindful observer will note two major problems with this graphic. 1. the darker areas are way too small 2. the darker areas are only associated with a max of 1.20 meter of snow. so how are you supposed to go skiing off-piste if there's still stones lying around with 1.50 meter in height?? By the way, the above graph and much more interesting stuff about snow conditions and avalanches can be found here .