Hinterer Daunkopf, Austria

The weather continued to grace us with clear skies, and we chose to go a little higher today...  A route that involved making use of the mechanical uplift from the Stubai glacier resort to get started followed by a summit climb.

Arriving at the Stubai station we were at first dismayed, and then ambivalent to see they had put a new lift up towards our intended destination, we would continue with plan A. The target was the Hinterer Daunkopf ...  the rocky looking summit looking over the ski area.

As we got our bearings and looked around a bloke asked us if he could have a look at the map .. turned out to be leading some squadies but was relying solely on memories. We would catch up with them on the summit later, but they would use the mechanical assistance.

We headed off up the pistes to the edge of the ski area before heading towards the obvious gully leading to the col. One last look back towards the crowds before making our way to the bottom of the gully.

The gully started off wide and worked its way up to a natural step that came across from the lift head.

We caught up with a couple of parties here, one who had come form much lower and a second who were similar to us. But it helped with the trail breaking through the debris of all the previous days descents.

The last section up to the step was quite steep and the sun was beating down with great fierceness... so it was a challenge to manage the tight turns and a great relief to reach the flatter section.

The col itself was a bit of a disappointment ...  it was very wide and almost flat, with the main drop on the far side far enough away to not make the view visible.

At this point we separated from the other parties here ... a large group who had come over form the lift were going up the other side (on foot), and the two other parties were heading over the other side of the col to the Amberger hut.

We headed diagonally across the slope to a higher col, with a prominent bump.

I could not resist going up the bump to have a look over the other side and see the glacier and trail leading down to the Amberger hut.

From this bump we could also see the next section up to the summit ...  another convex slope which belied how steep it actually was until you were on it.

We used the skis up to the depot used by other groups already disappeared over the skyline, and then followed on, on foot. Although we were carrying them we did not need to put on crampons as the foot holes were so big.

Climbing up was a mighty effort after the gully in the heat, and I was very relieved as the route started to flatten off .. but only after some scrambling on loose rock.

Towards the ski area

The summit was quite crowded after a couple of days of only seeing half a dozen people all day. The squaddies were there and several parties who had skied up the other side (where it had more snow and not so steep) from the Frank Seen hut.

Again the sun made the stop very pleasant as we took on calories and drink. Gazing around looking at the other possible routes for another year.

Looking West and the descent to the Amberger hut

The descent started with a reverse of the route to the skis .. then some really rubbish snow, which was heavy and wet.

We cut across to the top lift station and took the black run down to the start point ...  we were both feeling tired after the mornings exertions and had unanimously chosen not to take the glacier descent on the other side of the ridge, and this was followed by the red valley descent - a half pisted route.

Bryon was not feeling himself on the descent and was struggling with an injury ... It seemed he had felt a twinge in his back on the Grubenkopf route yesterday, and had hoped it would wear off ... unfortunately although skinning was OK the descending was more of a challenge .. or rather the turns were.

Back down at the bottom we were so tired we just collapsed into our chairs in the car park and fell asleep in front of the tourists.

After dinner we felt better, but tomorrow would have to be a rest day.