hike2ride hochkar, 13.03.2011

on sunday, we decided that we would try to find decent snow somewhere near our home.
since we knew that the conditions were pretty bad in the semmering region, we thought that our only option would be to drive to the west and try our luck at the hochkar.

when we arrived, we were sceptical if that was a good idea – down in the valley everything was green (well, brown) already. i was already pretty bummed, but we still wanted to see for ourselves if there was enough snow for a small tour or not.
so we went up to the top of the leckerplan chairlift and checked out the schmalzmauer from there… it looked pretty okay, so we repacked our stuff and started to hike.

hiking…

we hiked along the ridge, where we were able to enjoy wonderful views of the mountains surrounding the hochkar. as if this had not been enough, when we arrived at the peak and started our descend, we noticed that there was still enough snow and that it was not hard or icy at all, it was rather soft

guido.

roman.

guido and roman.

proof that i was there too

it was a great feeling to hike up a mountain and ride down again – nothing beats this. it always feels like having accomplished something big.
i’m really thankful that we have such great landscapes in austria, within the range of a short drive by car.

this might have been the last freeriding adventure this season
a great goodbye to a great winter!

ötscher tour, 27.02.2011

finally we were able to hike up and RIDE (not hike, like the last time) down! we were pretty happy about that!
we arrived in lackenhof at about 12:30 am (rather late), packed our gear and then took the chairlift up the großer ötscher.
from the top station of the chairlift, we started to hike upwards to the peak. this took us about 1,5 hours (480 meters difference in altitude). we came to the conclusion, that it would be a good idea to invest in splitboards, because carrying about 10 kilograms of gear on your back when hiking upwards for 1,5 hours is not exactly the nicest thing to do

the weather was fine. in the beginning, it was sunny, later on it got cloudy and a bit foggy – thankfully not too much, it didn’t affect the sight.
when we arrived at the peak, we took a short break to drink something, change our clothes, repack the backpacks and take a snapshot as proof that we made it to the peak.
funnily, roman met a couple that he knew up there… the world’s very small obviously!

prooooof!

 

after about 15 minutes, we were ready to start the descent. we traversed to the left (west) for a while, the snow up there was rather hard and icy, since the peak is pretty exposed to the wind. a bit further down, we got into the fürstenplan couloir and found soft, but wet snow there. the conditions were pretty good, we were expecting them to be much worse. we really enjoyed ourselves in the slushy snow.

towards the end of the run, we had to pass through the woods. we couldn’t avoid carrying the boards and walking, since there were so many stones visible.
after about 30 minutes, we reached the black slope and rode down to the parking lot. that was it – our first proper snowshoeing / freeriding tour! we were very stoked on that… also, we were happy that we were not really exhausted after this trip. obviously, leading a more active life really changes things, builds up stamina and strength!

for more pictures, click here! there’s a slideshow with all pics!

strolling around on the rax with my mom

recently, i invited my mom to come to the rax with me. the rax is one of the bigger mountains in the eastern part of the alps, about 1 hour by car from vienna.

we took the cable car to the top and went for a walk to the ottohaus. it was rather windy and a bit of snow had already fallen there, so we tried to make our way through the snow without getting our shoes wet.

i really enjoyed this little getaway together with my mom. it’s nice to spend time with loved ones!

here are 2 pics.

my mom enjoying the view – yes, it was windy!

me looking good in front of an even better looking mountain