During the night the snow/ rain had cleared up, the rain had cleared the slush off the roads, but the there was still a good covering on the fields opposite the apartment.
The sky was clear, blue and it woudl be a sunny day for a change. With the avalanche status showing 4 we opted for a safer tour following the valley south to the Lindauer hutte.
We would walk over the road and skin directly up to the start of the trail we had reconnoitered 2 days before.
Working up through the sporadic houses of the village, and across a couple of roads, which needed careful stepping, we soon met the track coming from the valley station and car park.
It was Saturday and already there were a number of people doing very similar things, it would be a popular choice.
Start of the hut trail proper ... in the summer this woudl be a paved surface, but for now was a toboggan run.
As it turned out, you hired sleds at the hutte and left them in a depot just around the corner. A skidoo with trailer then returned them to the hutte.
Soon this rose out of the river valley and into pasture and farm houses scattered around .. the track here was relatively flat, looking towards the head of the valley looked a long way away.
this was also the parting point for another route we had on the list, breaking off here left and going almost straight up the side of the mountain before curing around the top (Mittagspitze).
In the shadow of the peaks to the East the track moved into the forest for the first time
The track took a zigzag as it gained height in the forest, however there was a more direct route (not recommended for the toboggans) straight forward. meeting up again after a few hundred metres.
This lead out onto the next level of pasture, and big open spread ... just to emphasize the dangers there had been a toboggan "accident" on the straight here with a person being skidoo'd down.
At the end of this pasture the track took a sharp right turn, and moved back into the woods.
Once again the roadway went into several zigzags with the walking path going more direct.
the path now climbed steeply for a kilometer or so and although it was a well passaged trail we were off the road way for most of the distance.
Back up with the road (and the sunshine) we appeared out into the upper valley, and although we could not yet see it the hut was just around the corner.
the view up the valley was dominated by the picturesque peak at the end - a little too far for today, but still worth a return visit.
The hut was much larger than I had first thought, and we arrived as the early morning parties we returning from their expeditions (I still think they were pushing the risk with all the fresh snow), and the first of the day trippers. The restaurant was doing brisk business and there was little space in any of the shelter.
We moved on up the valley a little way follow the trail of some of the adventurous hut stayers.
the snow was quite heavy and over 30 cms deep powder on a base, with very little wind blown. the total depth was more than a ski pole.
looking south
looking north
Creating a platform to stop for lunch, really made no difference and we stayed on the skis.
looking up to the tops we could see the spindrift blowing off .. a clear indication of strong winds up high whereas we were sheltered and warm in the valley.
Heavy deep powder needed to be negotiated to drop down to the valley bottom and return to the hut, followed by a flat stomp over to the main trail
The scene of major embarrassment ... after the stomping on the flat I had forgotten to do up the boots out of walk mode .. I dropped down this little slope and fell in a heap under the gaze of the watchers from the hut, then struggled to get back up in the soft snow!!
The return from the hut was simply the reverse of the ascent except for taking all the zigzags on the road ... it was essentially piste skiing down, with the added inducement of avoiding all the masses walking up - it was obviously the place to be on a sunny Saturday afternoon - and getting out of the way of people on sleds out of control.
back down in the village we negotiated our way back over the fields to the apartment, leaving trails in the rapidly disappearing snow.
Outside the apartment was a sun trap and excellent for drying out kit.
We ate in the apartment ... a pasta, tuna and vegetables melange with a creamy sauce.
then wandered up to the witches fire (a similar event to last Sunday, just a different village and much smaller crowd) there seemed to be lots of waving lit brooms and bunches of hay around - either to chase away or call the witches in.
