One cure for jetlag is denial. You “sleep” for a night, get up, and go skiing even though your body thinks you should still be deep in the land of REM. Espresso helps, as does a stiff breeze at the summit of a mountain. Don’t try this on a chairlift, however, as you might nod off and take a plunge. Ski touring works well, as you’re always moving under your own power. The Kitzbuhel and Innsbruck area ski touring locations we normally visit here in Austria are sparse in snow cover, so yesterday we did a long drive south over Brenner Pass to the Sud Tirol portion of the Alps (Italy, near border with Austria), where a more normal snowpack is yielding what I call “low Alps” powder. Check it out.
WildSnow.com after the ski tour tradition. This time in Italy that is really Austria.
As many of these ski tours do, this one began with a flat shuffle up a snow-covered farm road.
Tirol tourism industry results in lots of structures that appear to be rental chalets. This one has a faux outhouse on the deck, replicating the old style of toilet location intended to drop the results directly down into a sewer or waste pit of some sort.
The usual signs in this part of the world. This along with the large amounts of people make navigating perhaps too easy. Even so, the locals we were with figured out a way to enjoy untracked boot-top pow instead of nearby areas that appeared rather crowded even by European standards.
The older structures are what attract our attention. This one has some features I like for what we might build on our alpine land in Colorado.
Check out the firewood storage system that keeps everything above the snowpack and under the building eaves. Only problem with this setup for Colorado is you're not really supposed to be storing your cord wood attached to your structure, due to wildland fire concerns. On the other hand, a quite attractive feature.
Berg hut, the new WildSnow Field HQ?
We were impressed by the beautiful Pflerscher Tribulaun peak 3087 m. I love going to all these different places in the Alps, instead of the usual foreign ski tourist circuit (Cham, Cham, Cham).
Massive crowds of ski tourers were going for the spitz in the background. It was tracked out. Instead, we went for a lower and untracked area and did an extra lap. As seems to be the case in many 'crowded' areas, all you have to do is think a bit outside the box and suddenly it's not crowded. Or at least not until you get to the on-mountain restaurant gasthaus, where we ended up sitting outside for a coffee before continuing down to the trailhead.
When in Rome, do as the Romans do... let's ski together for the photo! Zero avalanche danger at this point, thankfully.
Typical boot-top powder we seem to ski quite a bit every visit.
Reaching the top of the day's high point.
Amazing how popular the rodel sledding is. We anticipate this to become a big deal in the U.S., as it takes very little skill, pegs the fun meter, works for all ages, and can be directly attached to an on-mountain restaurant. I'm actually surprised it's not already more common.
More signs so you locals can comment on where we were.
We hit this gasthaus for a coffee. Totally supported by human powered sports, not a ski lift in sight.
Lunch on the road, still in Italy. Vetter Restaurant was warm and welcoming, totally affordable. Just off the highway. We're headed for Switzerland in a few days, might as well enjoy the low priced victuals while we can.
Tile stove had the place feeling warm and cozy.
More about the big peaks we were gazing at.
WildSnow.com publisher emeritus and founder Lou (Louis Dawson) has a 50+ years career in climbing, backcountry skiing and ski mountaineering. He was the first person in history to ski down all 54 Colorado 14,000-foot peaks, has authored numerous books about about backcountry skiing, and has skied from the summit of Denali in Alaska, North America’s highest mountain.
