Silvretta Traverse
Jamtal Hut is luxury, perhaps too much so. It is hard to leave the spacious wood paneled dining hall with its board of fine cheese and bread. And oh the torture to skin up and away from the sundeck and weiss beer tap. But the soul of the alpinist is always called higher — despite any mundane physical distractions. So off we skinned towards the distant peaks which glowed in the morning light like the heaven of corn snow they mostly turned out to be. (Not sure I’ll have internet tomorrow or next day, so slideshow below, more writing later after we get to another hut or back to civilization in a few days).
Goal is to reach three summits and do some good vertical. Jamspitz marked in the distance, return route to deck also mapped out with red dots. Very important.
Ted Kerasote headed up from the Jamtal hut, Vorder Jamspitz to the right has what looks like a nice ski route on it. Perhaps we'll return some day and do it, for now we're headed for the Hinter Jamspitz, which is out of sight behind the Vorder and much more popular as the ascent is a short walk from where you leave your skis.
Jamtal Glacier is blanketed with a frozen and compacted snowpack. Once you're on a well beaten skin track the possibility of falling into a crevasse is nearly zero, so we still harnessed up but didn't use a rope. Most other folks were doing the same, though this group opted for the trad style. When Ted intersected them, they called a halt and raised the rope for him like an extension bridge. Very polite!
Pointer shot! That little bump behind Vorder Jamspitz is the Hinter Jamspitz. It's actually about the same height, just farther away. The ski descent takes all that sweet terrain at looker's left down the glacier.
Near the Jamspitz, classic glaciated peaks poking up out of the firn.
Ted skiing Jamspitz. For next lap we skied to left of the Gemspitz (marked with red dot) and climbed it from the side opposite us. We then continued easterly to a saddle on the divide, where we wanted to circle around behind a few mjore mountains then climb up again, pop over the divide, then carve 1,000 meters of corn down to the Jamtal Hut.
View of Gemspitz (right hand dot) from the next day. You get up on the glacier in this area, and you can knock off summits as long as your legs and lungs hold out.
More.
Clouds moved in during our quest for a third summit, so we skied from another highpoint down this short couloir, then made a beautiful 3,000 vertical foot corn and cream run down to the Jamtal porch, where you literally stab your ski tails into the snow inches from the deck's paving stones and stroll all of fifteen feet to the beer tap. The main logistical challenge to this is remembering to re-apply your sunscreen.
Lou arrives.
Upon completion, a certain kind of grin was had.
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.