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| We drove to Aschau, a fringe town of mega-resort Kitzbuhel. Plan was to utilize the piste in case snow conditions were too horrendous because of the foehn winds. Plan worked, we had a nice tour and everyone had fun skiing down. Also fascinating to see industrial tourism on a scale I’ve never experienced. Manfred spoke quite a bit about slopes he used to tour that were now served by ski lifts. Kinda sad. |
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| Ever interested in Euro ski touring culture, I’ve been noticing the lockstep thing. Sure, we do that in the US, but not quite so diligently. I also continued my informal binding use survey. For the first time in Europe, I saw more people on Fritschi than Dynafit. A Kitzbuhel thing? |
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| The old farm buildings continue to delight me. |
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| At the summit of the Schwarz Kogel, just a small highpoint near Kitz. Everyone was quite friendly. Much of that is produced by Manfred, who’s been touring in this area for longer than just about anyone, and is quick to share helpful knowledge. His dog Cato provides amusement, especially when strangers have to defend their sausage sandwich from his snapping jaws. |
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| While hanging out at the highpoint, Manfred explained how the foehn winds dump over the alps, dropping moisture up high then blasting down as warm gusts once they get to this region. In this photo, the foehn is roiling up the atmosphere in the distance, and we’re standing on ever softening mucky snow. As a boy I’d read about the infamous foehn of the Alps, fascinating to see it. |
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| The master also pointed out all their beautiful and classic mountains (Gross Glockner just out of photo to left, highest peak in Austria.) When we head for the Dachstein in a few days we’ll be going this direction to the high Alps. |
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| We use some of the piste for descent. Kitz area has so many runs they don’t bother to name them, they just assign a number. Bogus. As in “hey, I’ll take 95 and meet you at the bottom of 56.” |
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| Quite a few people were doing this tour. On the way down, Manfred stopped to help these guys with their map navigation. The variety of touring gear is amazing. I saw people with no backpack and a jacket tied around their waist, contrasted by folks outfitted more snazzy than myself with all my test clothing from OR, Cloudveil and Dynafit. |
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| So, to make the industro day complete we head for Kitzbuhel proper after the tour. The town core really is kinda cool. It dates back to Roman times as a mining area, and super old buildings still create mood. 1360 is the date this building hearkens back to. A bit different than Colorado, where you have trouble finding anything Anglo that’s more than about a century old. |
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| I snapped a bit of street photography. This guy looked like he belonged there in a nice sort of way… |
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| While this gal was simply too much…as in, how does one ski all day and keep their rear so white? Perhaps skiing was not in the program? |
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| And the prize went to this shop window, where you could check out 2,200 euro skis paired with a set of Fritschi Freeride Plus rando bindings. Just shows you how stylish AT skiing has become. Only question, should one really mount Freerides on a pair of approx. $3,000 skis? More, you have to wonder how they ski. And titanium? Are they light? How much will you pay to save 12 grams? Most importantly, are downhill racers in the nearby famous Kitzbuhel Hahnenkamm World Cup downhill using them? If no, I’m not interested — ho hum. |
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| Back during my alpine climbing phase, I had a pair of custom Haderer boots made in Kitz and shipped to the States. Haderer still exists, though in this location it’s more like a Prada store. |
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| And of course, the traditional completion of any good ski tour. This time I inhaled some sort of confection that was mostly whipped cream (as indicated by the red arrow). It worked. I’m still sitting here blogging. |
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| What really gives the Kitzbuhel area plenty of alpine spirit is the Kaiser mountains rising dramatically across the valley. Much of early Euro climbing history was written here, and it’s still a destination for summer rock and winter (human powered) snow. Quite a contrast to the industrial tourism of Kittz. But then, contrast is frequently what it takes to create appreciation. Just give it to me in small doses please. |
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.
