A gradual start, in the morning as we struggled to remember how this all
works, what to wear and what needs to be packed. Then all piled into the van
for the drive up the hill to Faschina. We parked next to a vintage VW bus with
a person doing similar things to us, and he left while we struggled to
remember which foot went into which boot, and getting skins attached to skis.
Setting off on foot to the end of the ski run back to this lower part of the ski
area, to mount onto the skis and pad off along the piste. The wind was whistling
around the village at the col, luckily from behind us.
The snow was soft(ish) and gripped the skins well as we climbed the undulations
as the piste went fairly directly up to chair lift bottom station at Franz
Joseph Hutte. The last time we were here we had turned off and climbed a large
zigzag up to the ridge East of the summit.
This time we kept going up the side of the pistes (or rather between the pistes
and the avalanche debris that had fallen from the ridge above).
Eventually turning around the bowl to get to the top station of the chair lift,
just below the ridge line above.
A short excursion up to the ridge line to look over and down to Damuls opposite
- a potential route for tomorrow. The wind was fierce on the ridge, but back
down at the top station was far calmer.
The snow had not had a good frost for a while so was already getting slushy by
now so we set off down the piste (or rather on the untracked area just
outside).
Back at the hutte we met the wind head on again, and so not hanging around
straight-lined it back to the bottom.
At the van it was still fierce so after disrobing we sat in the van for lunch
looking at the view. On the way back to the house we diverted to have a look see
at Damuls and check out some potential routes, then back for a tea and a rest.
The piste map is rather "artistic" compared to the GPS map, but does give an indication of the lifts adn pistes.
