Erlspitze 27.8.2016

Another backdoor trip. From Hochzirl (900m) up towards Solsteinhaus (1806m) for a quick coffee break and then continuing on towards Eppzirler Scharte (2100m) on the west ridge of Erlspitze (2405m). From the col there is a nice ferrata that follows this west ridge all the way to the summit. The summit was crowded with flying ants but otherwise the views were nice. From the top you descend down the steep east face back to the hut for lunch and finally back down to the car. A long but beautiful day.

Locals
Not a bad location
Destination
Looking back from the col
Topping out
Summit with a view of the Karwendel randge

Alpinisteig 30.7.2016

After work I drove down to South Tirol to visit a colleague and enjoyed some proper Italian pizza and “other” specialties. That made getting up at 4 in the morning a little difficult but once we started going up and the sun come about it was all good. From Sexten, on the edge of the Tre Cime natural park it is about 2 hours up to the Zsigmondyhütte (2224m) and from there another hour to the entrance of the classic Alpinisteig Via Ferrata. We first did a little detour to climb the saddle of Forcella Giralba (Giralba Joch) to take a peek over to the “real” Italy. Then back down to the Ferrata entrance.

The Ferrata is sort of split in two parts. The starting eastern part is more a path with a rope for security but it is not really needed unless you are super scared of heights. This is also the part where you can take the famous “shadow” foto. After crossing some snowfields the route climbs up to Elferscharte. Things get a little more serious there after the path turns east towards Sentinellascharte. The terrain here is very wet and slippery. There has also been several big stone falls directly on the ropes so parts of them are gone. Still, with some sure footing no real problem. The last part you have to down climb to get to solid ground and from there it is another 2 hours descent back to the hut in the valley below. A long but easy Ferrata in magnificent setting. Unfortunately (again…) the clouds were hiding the famous views of the Drei Zinnen but that just means i’ll have to visit again. And that is not bad at all.

Morning caught us above Fischleintal
Großartig!
Zwölferkofel (3094m) up close
Zsigmondy-Hütte wakes up
On the Giralba Joch
Where is the rabbit?
Interesting walk
The game of shadows
Salve!
Snowy waterfall
The path is well secured…
You can clearly see the path dug into the rock
Still plenty of snow
Hard not to sit down and enjoy
The last part is sort of missing

Sölden 23.7.2016

The locals told me the bike park in Sölden (1368m) is well worth a visit so we took advantage of the nice forecast in the morning and drove to Ötztal. It’s a big park with several flow and many more natural singletrails. We rode the main 7km Teäre line which has been opened in 2015 and drops some 800 verticals in 130 turns from the middle station down to the valley. After 3 runs we were almost happy it started to rain 🙂

Here we go
Flowing

Saile (Nockspitze) 17.7.2016

I can see Nockspitze (2404m) from my bed and it’s been tempting me since i moved. The weather forecast for the weekend was decent so we drove up to Axamer Lizum (1565m), another resort 30 minutes from my place that hosted the Olympic games in 64 and 76. There are plenty of options to get up and we took the route that leads through the little col of Halsl (1992m). Unfortunately the weather was not playing along and it was freezing. With the north wind on the summit we were wearing puffys and hats. Since there was not much of a view we were quick to go back down, stopping for some strudel in hut along the way.

Brrrrrrr
What view?

Patscherkofel 2.7.2016

New home, new adventures. Plenty of options right out of my new door. Unfortunately Innsbruck seems to be a place of constant rain so it’s kind of hard to do anything. At least it’s not hot 😛 Still there are windows of nice weather and we are slowly getting to know our new home better.

Patscherkofel (2246m) is a mountain in the Tux Alps, just south of Innsbruck where they held the downhill races during the 64 and 76 Olympic games. Since it is (kind of) summer we used our bikes to get up. I guess Patscherkofel is a good overall representation of Innsbruck we experienced so far and it boils down to one word: steep. Almost 1400 verticals of constant, unrelenting climbing. I guess that explains the huge number of electric mountain bikes 🙂 We prefer to suffer.

P7020017
Our new home from the top of Patscherkofel