Axams Lizum

Our last day in the Pillberg apartment, this time there was no wish to extend - the weather was due to turn even more variable and no real sign of freezing without going high. It started raining as we emptied the apartment and loaded up the van. So in a final fling the aim was to take in another of the Innsbruck local ski resorts that had organised tour routes - this time Axams Lizum - and then head back towards the channel. As a last act in the apartment we booked a room in the Ibis Budget hotel in Strasbourg for the evening.

We selected the "blue" or "ladies route" up to the top station of Hoadlhaus, subconsciously believing that the red route would be steep and hard packed.

The parking area at Axams Lizum was sparsely filled with vehicles, and we got the gear ready and walked over to the end of the blue piste. Above the peaks looked impassable, but we knew there were tours around that we could recce whilst on the tour. We payed the "inevitable" 6 Euro for the days parking and made sure we used the facilities.

Skis on and we started dup the piste, only to be blocked at the ski bridge where tourers are not allowed to cross and we had to walk around - note that later on we saw several parties ignore the exclusion and just continue.

We started off curving away from the ridge that the lifts followed.

The trail curved around the head of a little valley, and around to some trees.

From the apex of the turn we cut up into the trees, and away from the piste. It occurred to me that it would make sense for this resort to do something like Areches and make more of this by separating the uphill from downhill more.

Leaving the trees and climbing up the piste again. the pistes were empty, however what traffic there was was very young - maybe an early Easter break?

We reached a snack bar - Dohlennest - pumping out classic rock. However it had a good view over the Herzlteich reservoir where I had assumed the other tours left (however looking at the map later on I had missed that they left lower down - before the tree diversion). It also gave us our first good look at the top station.

Continuing up the piste heading for the slight col - Hoadlsattel. The route zigzagged up the slope rather than take it directly.

On the saddle looking over into the valley with the Kemater Alm routes.

Now we followed the route up to the summit buildings.

The final slope looked steeper than it actually felt like, and we arrived back into the bustle of the lift areas.

The summit had a huge cross as well as the plethora of buildings, as well as the crowds. At the top the sun started to come through the clouds. In was more apparent here that the majority of people on the slopes were school trips some accompanied others not.

Looking West towards Sellrain and Kuhtai

After lunch in the shadow of the buildings we got ready for the descent. This time we chose to descend the red route - to check if it really was steep. The initial slope was all we expected.

The steep slopes continued around to the Middle station of the Hoadlbahn, after which it eased, however this was also the point where the snow degraded to the heavy sugar debris.

The final stage down to the car park and the van got very soft and slushy. The route dropped down around the lift station and finished where we had started.

The final act was to dry as much of the slush off the equipment as we could in the sun that was now all pervasive. We changed out of the ski clothes and into traveller options, then re packed everything into the van ready for the return journey.

An extra visit to the facilities (to make the most of our parking fee) and we set off for our return.