Alpine Arc, Part 7. Zillertal-Ötztal.  David Bates, Phil Bates, Mark Bowes, Luke Tasker

Covid had put paid to our ski touring for the last three years, so this year we started an eastern leg of the Arc going East to West from the Zillertal Valley east of Innsbruck, with the aim of connecting up in a couple of years to where we started in Ischgl in 2013. This week the goal was to traverse the Western Zillertal and Stubai alps, avoiding glaciers on the way.

Sat 9^th March 2024.

This was our first tour since I had gained my Ubungsleiter qualification from the Austrian Alpine Club and so our first without an IFMGA mountain guide. Mark had flown in to Innsbruck on Friday morning with Phil, who had gone off to Munich to collect his ski touring kit. I flew in later on Friday, and after a diversion to Munich airport due to a sport plane in front of us crash landing at Innsbruck airport (!) arrived late, but early enough for a quick dinner and catch up with Mark. Saturday morning we left Pension Stoi in ski gear and headed for Kaltenbach in the Zillertal Valley. Grabbing lift tickets, we headed up the gondola, in sunshine looking at all the bare grass below us hoping for more snow above. As we cleared 1600m the mountain was transformed into a winter paradise with plenty of snow on and off piste. We skied across to Hochfugen to get a lay of the land and then up the Waidöffen lift which takes us to the starting place for Sunday’s tour. Exploring the bowls, we found some nice steeps, which promptly slid from underneath me, triggering a small avalanche and exposing a short cliff drop from where I was. Around 1.30pm we got notice that Phil was on his way up, and headed for the very nice Wedelhutte for a beer. We eventually met Phil at the bottom of the Wedelexpress lift, at nearly 3pm as he’d had to take a different route down due to a lift closure. Phil had replaced the Dynafit bindings on his skis with a new set of Fischer Tour Classics, as the Dynafits had got bent out of shape on a previous tour. His bindings had not been fitted properly and came off twice on the way down. They were set too low on the din setting (a 6 -Phil is 6’2”, about 90Kg and has reasonably large boot size – would normally be an 8), so when we got to the bottom we took them back to the shop where the technician tightened them up. We then walked to meet Luke at the Hotel Riedl in Stumm and walked up to the apartment- Ehammer at the top of the village. The plan was to grab some food at the hotel next door, (Märzenklamm) so after a brief change of clothes, we walked up the road in hut slippers we’d all brought with us, to find out it was closed. There was another restaurant, veggie, not far away so we walked down there -on walking in what looked like a diner,, the owner came and explained Him: “We’re vegetarian”. Me: “Fine”. Him “We’re actually vegan”. Me: “Fine”. Him: “We only have a set menu”. Me: “Fine, can we have a look at it?”. Him ”Yes, it starts at 130€ per person”. Me “We’ll go somewhere else!”. He could have led with that! We walked back to the Hotel Riedl and got Pizza for 15€ each. 

Sun 10^th March.

The bus stop was actually right next to the Märzenklamm, so with everything loaded we caught the first bus to get top the lifts by 9am. A coffee and muffin (there’s no place to grab breakfast at Kaltenbach!), and we took the Hochzillertal lift up. I wasn’t feeling great with a migraine, but we took the Neuhutten and Wedelexpress lifts to the top of Hochzillertal, and then skied down to the Hochfügen lift and down to the Waidöffen lift which finally whisked us up to the Pfaffenbichl peak. From here we took the 2 minute walk up to the observation platform and put on skis. The skies were cloudy but visibility was good, and with a threat of snow I was keen to get off -it was 9:50am so we’d got there in good time. We took the traverse into the Nurpensalm valley, maintaining a reasonably high line to gain as much of the 6km distance as possible on the downhill. Phil had some difficulty clicking in at the top, but with Luke’s help he worked it out, but at the first sign of a turn, his ski came off again. This time I took a good look at it, and it was clear that the heel had not been positioned correctly – there was a nearly 8mm gap between the binding and the heel – barely enough for the pins to reach. This should be less than 4mm. Using a Swiss army knife I tightened up both heels and raised the din to 8 (was only at 7). A good 15 minute delay, we then continued the ski down all the way to the Nurpensbach, where we switched to skins. The west side of the valley looked like it had a steep snow loaded slope above a very narrow side to the river, so we stayed on the east side, taking in a few quick kick turns to gain a bit of altitude out of the river which looked to go into a bit of a gorge, and then found the remnants of a skin track going up the valley to the Haglhütte -a summer hut, which gave us a bit of an opportunity to take a drink. By this time it was gone 11:30 and we still had a way to go. The clouds were coming in, so we pressed on but almost immediately, my binding released going up. For some reason the brakes had come unstuck and it took me nearly ten minutes to re-set them, but eventually they went in and I could continue. Further delays. It’s a long slow ascent up the Nurpens valley towards the Nurpensjoch but once we crossed the stream at 2325m the ascent becomes a little more sustained and steeper. The first opportunity to implement kick turns came soon after and we were on the plateau below the Hasslspitze (2574) at 2450. As we started the last 100m the weather started to close in with very flat light and light snow. My migraine was really starting to kick in at this point and I was just focussed on getting up the ascent to the col, which we finally reached at 2pm. This was significantly later than I had hoped, as I really wanted to be in the hut by 2pm, as the warmer weather was opening up glide avalanche possibilities and with flat light it was difficult to see too much. Fortunately the contrast improved after we transitioned to downhill mode, but the snow wasn’t great – breakable crust in places, and soft in others making it difficult to predict. With quite a few falls on the way down we reached the track that traverse from Geisljoch to the hut about 2:30. The track goes through a couple of gullies, one of which (the second) I knew had the possibility to slide. The avalanche conditions at this time in the afternoon and at this altitude were considerable (level 3), but tired and migrainous, when I got to the first gully, I didn’t take sufficient notice of the fact that the track had been obscured by wind blow snow, and the first gully (the one I considered less of a risk) was loaded. I crossed it – straight in and out, followed by Mark, but as Luke came across it, it slid behind him, triggering a larger slide from above. While he was safely out the whole gully had slid, and Phil was still on the other side, unable now to get into it. He skied the north side of it while I came down the south side – a steep pitch which also was sliding but more safely. Eventually Phil reached the bottom of the gully where he could cross the avalanche debris, and we traversed and poled across the bottom of the valley until we reached the track at the Nafingalm. A hairier than desired descent to the hut, but safely inside and a warm welcome from Rebecca at the hut and the two dogs, was a relief. The Weidenerhütte is a lovely hut, modern with (limited) wifi and great food. As per usual in the huts we were in bed and asleep by 9:30.

Monday 11^th March.

There had been a little bit of snow overnight, and the plan for the day was to head to the Lizumerhütte via the Geisljoch and Eiskar. The guardian’s advice was this was definitely better than going for he circuitous route, so we headed off at 8pm with a long skin up the valley. As we got close to the first gully, before the one that had slid yesterday, we caught up a Dutch group of four who were discussing whether to keep going, while stood in the gully. We quickly went past and then started to zig zag up the side to get over the slid gully. We came out slightly too high and had to ski down across the top of it, and then down to the base of the Geisljoch ascent. The ascent was in sunshine and a good skin. By 10:30 we were at the Geisljoch and transitioned to downhill, followed by a long slow traverse towards the Vallruckalm. With a few sections needing to step up and quite a few needing polling, we eventually made it to the base of the Hippoldanger, and switched back to skins. A group of Germans were in front, so we locked in behind them and followed them up towards the Eiskarjoch, a solid, easy ascent of approximately 420m that took about an hour and a half to reach the joch below the Torspitze. While the group ahead continued up to the peak of the Spitze, we switched to downhill mode and headed down through untracked soft snow down towards Lizumer Hütte, which we reached at just after 2pm. The hut was lovely, with great food, good accommodation and a friendly team. We discussed the plan for tomorrow and was told that the Geier peak we were hoping to ascend to was not an option as the Austrian Army, based in Lizumer, were using it as a firing range! We would have to go via the Klammjoch – a much shorter ascent.

Tuesday 12^th March.

 It had snowed overnight but the forecast was for it to clear from around 10am, so we set off a bit later (8:30) and as we left it stopped snowing and gradually the sun came out. An ascent up the side of the T bar used by the army for training, was a lovely skin through the forest, and then up to the Klammjoch, where we were the first people up. As we neared the top a snowcat came up behind, obviously to groom for the army training. We just got here as they did, and switched to downhill just as the light closed in. A traverse across the Kuchlböden underneath the Klammer Schober should have left us a descent to the Klammeralm and a ride down the toboggan run to Navis, but we went too far right into a superb gully, steep and narrow, untracked with fresh snow. As I descended in a herd of Chamois came bolting out of the trees on the right. However although the snow was untracked there was not a lot, so by the time Luke came down he was grass skiing. Once out of the gully there was a lovely decent angle down in fresh snow. However, we were now too far right and too low to get back to the KlammerAlm so headed down the traverse to Tischleralm. This meant picking our way across various streams, and
Map of the second half of the trip, from Fulpmes to Niederthai. Green circles switch
 to downhill, orange circles- switch to skins. Yellow, huts. Red-ski lifts. Blu=track taken
a tricky traverse above the Navisbach, which Phil managed to fall off, fortunately not into the river, but caused some consternation from the rest of us. Eventually we reached the Klammerweg road before it ascends across the river and poled round to the Tischleralm. The toboggan run starts here but being on the south facing side of the valley we got barely a kilometer down it before running out of snow, or in Phil’s case, running to gravel. From there it was a half hour walk down to Navis, where the pub was visible. Unfortunately it was closed on Tuesdays, so we waited for the bus down to Mattrei. When we got there the bus driver arranged a taxi to Fulpmes which dropped us at the superb Sporthotel Cristal. Phil disappeared for massage and the rest of us grabbed a quick shower, before Luke and I walked into Fulpmes to stock up on supplies.

Wednesday 13^th March.

A sharp breakfast and the hotel shuttle leaving early for us got us to the Fulpmes lift for 8:15. After buying tickets we were almost first in the queue to go up and made the first lift up. With a bit of a biobreak delay, we skied down from 9:15 to the base of the Schlicker Schartl at 2100m and put skins on. The ascent up started well with a good skin track already laid in despite snow overnight. However, as we ascended the track it became steeper than we expected and we realised it was going up the wrong side of the valley – the steeper side, and the skin tracked stopped halfway up, where someone had decided to halt and ski down. We traversed across to the other side of the valley (about 50m) and then ascended the rest of the Schartl with no difficulty. The col is at 2456m, so it was only a 3345m ascent but had taken us an hour and a half so it was 11:00 by the time we got to the top. Transitioning to downhill we traversed into the Seealbach valley underneath the Schlicker Seespitze – a beautiful rocky peak, with fortunately no snow loaded areas. At 2400m we switched back to skins and climbed up the Seejoch, only 118m ascent, but large cornices below the Seejoch meant picking the line carefully and coming in 40m above the joch. Here the wind was blowing so we dropped down to just below the joch and switched back to downhill mode. This then gave us a fantastic 300m descent down perfect north facing powder and into the Sendersbach valley. The breakable crust started just above the stream as we came round to the east facing slopes. Once down by the river we again switched to skins – with Mark not securing his binding, his ski slid off into the river, and he had to climb down to retrieve it. It was nearly 1pm by the time we set off to climb the Schaflerkogel at 2405. Again from 1940m up it was a lovely clear climb without any particularly steep areas, with great views back over towards Azamer Lizum. When we reached the top it was almost 3pm, but we took time to ascend right to the peak, and take some pictures while switching over. The descent down through breakable crust and heavy snow was… interesting, and we cut left through the trees to get as far up the valley as possible. We could see the bridge at the Seealm (1750m) at 1820m, but I thought we could cut further through the forest. Turns out I was wrong, and I had to double back. Mark didn’t quite make the double back and tried his hand a ski spelunking – dropping down into a hole that appeared underneath the snow and having to climb out again. By the time we got down to the road, and ready to climb up to the hut it was quarter past four. Although it’s only 250m up the track, it still took us just under an hour, and exhausted we made it to the hut just after 5pm. With a total ascent of about 1500m, broken into four climbs (and therefore five transitions) this was a long day. As we were waiting for dinner, I felt another migraine coming on, and by the time main course arrived I had to go to bed.

Thursday 14^th March.

We knew this day was going to be a long one. We left the hut at 8am sharp, and began the 800m ascent up the Auf Sömen peak at 2798. The weather was beautiful, and the ascent was glorious. As we reached the peak after 3 ½ hours with a couple of drink breaks, another group arrived from the other side, with their dog. We took some photos, switched to downhill and started the long descent down to Praxmar. Starting in high Alpine, though with dodgy snow (crust, soft, sticky, sun baked), we descended down to the trees at 2000m, then further through a well worn series of forest tracks keeping as much snow as possible down to the car park below Praxmar at 1600m. A descent that was over a 1000m but the top was not in great snow. However, the weather was lovely, light was good, so we stopped for some lunch and switched back to skins. From here we had a long flat ascent up just 100m over 4km past the Lusens alm in front of the Lusensgletscher – a very impressive end of the valley - before starting the proper ascent up to the Westfalenhaus. This ascent is along the cross country track, and the debate we later had long into the night (well until 9pm), was whether this would have been better skating rather than skinning. Either way, it took nearly two hours (with a loo break at lusens) to get to the base of the ascent up to Westfalenhaus. This is a forest mogul run, quite steep but equally a rapid climb along the Langertalerbach up to the LangentalerAlm - a few cottages, then a shallow skin along the valley slowly climbing until you come round the ridge and can see the Westfalenhaus 200m above the valley at 2300m. the last 45 minutes seemed to go on for ever, but we arrived at the hut exhausted and hungry just after 5pm. The Westfalenhaus is a lovely hut – friendly staff, nice food, and quite good wine list, although on this occasion beer was sufficient.

Friday 15^th May.

For the last leg to the Ötztal valley we needed to get over the Winnebachseejoch from the Westfalenhaus. It’s a short trip but snow was forecast for the afternoon, so we left at half past eight starting the 400m ascent up. Once the initial first 300m or so had been negotiated, which did require a few kick turns, it’s a reasonably gentle skin from the hut up to the joch with only the last thirty metres needing some steeper traversing. Once up to the joch, we took the high traverse underneath the Winnebachseeferner (which has lost its glacier over the last ten years), over the cornices onto the winnebachkar, and down to the hut. There was very little in terms of fresh snow, just a few turns while trying to stay on the north facing slopes above the hut, then a crusty run down to the hut, which we reached at 11:30. After the hard previous two days a light day was welcome, so we spent the afternoon sleeping and chilling in the hut before dinner. Lukas and Michel, the staff were very kind, provided fantastic food, and schnapps at the end of the night.

Saturday 16^th May. As a potential backup day, we decided to head up towards the Breiter Grieskogel over the Zwiselbacherjoich (2818) and descend down past the Schweinfurter Hütte to Niederthai, where we could get the bus down to Umhausen and then to Oetztal Bahnhof. It has snowed about 6cm overnight, and the weather was cloudy with some snow in the air. The light was very flat, and leaving the hut at 8am, skinning was tricky trying to find the right route. Twice I took us too far left and had to traverse back across to the track, and with my sunglasses failing to provide contrast Luke took over leading for the last 300m up to the joch. Despite this, we made good time, reaching the joch at 10:00am but decided not to head further up to the peak as it was a whiteout with snow coming in and zero visibility. A quick change to downhill mode and we dropped into the Zwieselbachtal. Fortunately the visibility rapidly improved, but it kept snowing and the wind started to pick up. The descent, once into the valley is long (6km) and shallow, meaning a fair amount of poling, but eventually we reached the Zwieselbacher Sennhütte and could ski out to the Schweinfurterhütte for coffee around 11:00am. After a welcome break we skied down the toboggan run to Niederthai, and a well deserved final beer at the Falknerhof, before catching the bus down to Umhausen.

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