Niedererberg, austria

The skies were clear again, and we wanted something relatively challenging to see how Bryon's back would cope ... was it truly crocked, or just a niggle.

We drove the half mile up the valley to Vinaders - the jump off point for this route by the church..  Not really sure how the bottom of it would be with all the recent melt and snowline retreating.

Once there it did look like we would be able to make a day of it, without too much walking!

We set off up an obvious track beside the river, following a number of trails made several days before (when there was more snow). All was going well following a wide track, until it came to an abrupt halt at a weir.

This was the water take off point for the village, and although people had used it for the descent the track was somewhere else in the trees. So skis on we fought up a very steep bank, balanced precariously above the river and wound a tricky route upwards.

We followed the track for a short while as it crossed the stream, and then cut back up the river following the ski trails.

As this went through the pasture it was very pleasant, until it steepened again and we were alternating between meadow and woods .. in the woods were a few bare patches to be negotiated.

Unruffled we continued and eventually the tracks brought us back to the main trail, which I assume is the access track in the summer.

A short steeper section brought us out into a wider section of the valley and finally we could see the frontier ridge at the head of the valley. This gave some perspective to the day, and the remaining climbing.

I did not feel it at the time, but looking at the pictures there was a quite a slope across the track, as we approached the niederbergalm - a summer farmhouse serving the upper pastures.

Panorama from the Niederbergalm looking South to the frontier ridge

Now we were into the upper pastures, and leaving the trees behind. the slopes were very wide with long islands where the snow had melted to show the heather and grass tufts below.

We made a diagonal ascent, avoiding the grassy bits where we could. The route we were following went below the summit to the col beyond and then back on the ridge line.

As we neared the col, it became clear we would need to cut back up early to keep on the snow, and meandered through some very interesting "features" to get up to the ridge line.

Once on the ridge we could see the frontier ridge behind us and across to the Grubenkopf and the other peaks we had been among a couple of days ago.

The summit cone was a small rocky lump very reminiscent of top in North Wales and Scotland.

By some good fortune and a circuitous route we were able to find a thin trail of snow all the way to the top.

The summit book was very wet and mouldy, but there was enough definition to see that no one had been up for a week.

Sattleberg, and over to the Vennspitze and beyond.

The day was very hot and muggy, combined with the lack of a good hard frost the night before, we determined that we need to turn around quickly.

The original plan was to come down the route to the North, but with the patchy snow we chose to return the way we had come as at least we knew where the snow was!

The snow was quite heavy, but was still corn like - so gave us some easier passage.

After the top section we dropped onto the open slopes below, and other than worrying about the event of wet slip avalanches, we were able to make excellent progress and also good lines.

All too soon we had dropped into the valley bottom above the Alm

From here it was down the track .. with the occasional corner taken directly.

Combined with the odd tricky section with a compression.

Bryon's back was playing up with a vengeance, and anything other than straight schussing gave him a problem. So from here onward we took it very gently and carefully

We opted to follw the track properly all the way down rather than our ascent tracks ...  this worked well until the patches of snow became less frequent than the road sections, and we ended up walking - the nature of which (on snow and slush then on road, etc.) was not good for Bryon.

Eventually we came out on the paved road, and a convenient seat, so we could rest and prepare for the last walk down to the van.

An enjoyable day, which tested Bryon's back, unfortunately the signs were not good. Tomorrow we would have a travel day and then see what was still possible.