Mixed forecast for the day, and we woke to clouds in the valley below and above.
With the recent snow there was a hope that it would have made less walk-ins on
some of the routes, so we decided to have a look at one of the local favourites
- Largoz ... the point on the end of the next ridge east of the one
with Glungezer on it.
We drove down the valley to Villers and followed some back roads up to the
Krepperhutte, and parked in the car park just after it.
The route went up a forest road that zigzagged slightly up to Largozalm, after
which it climbed through meadows up to the ridge and summit.
From the car park we went past the barrier and continued up the road (there is a
footpath through the trees in a more direct line, but as we find out later this
was not worth it at this stage. we continued up the road passing the alternative
road reserved for Rodelbahn traffic. The sky was still overcast, with occasional
snow flurries, which may even have come from the trees.
After a turn that went back down the valley we took the next turn with the idea
to meet the forest track a little higher and with a bit more snow on it.
This track contours and climbed back above our initial direction and we soon met
the footpath.
We turned off onto the footpath and climbed through the forest - it was barely
covered and very slippy on the tree routes.
With hindsight we should have stuck to the roads with the constant gradient and
coverage of snow.
The footpath cross the road again above us and we took the opportunity to avoid
the footpath continuation and settle for the road. This soon turned back on
itself and climbed up back again in the original direction.
Once more it turned back on itself and continued on the road until we could see
the buildings of Largozalm above us.
Below the alm was an open slope with several traces to pick from and we climbed
up to the buildings.
Beyond the buildings we climbed up the righthand side of a bowl, on the ridge
edge bordered by a number of trees (probably safer in case of avalanches). By
now we were getting some strong wind gusts and more layers were required.
At the top of the bowl we angled back towards the top (shrouded in the cloud)
climbing through several bowls.
We reached a slight gully on the west side of the summit that traversed to the
north ridge. Above we could see a large rock outcrop on the summit.
The tracks we were following (the only other person to have been up here
today) stopped at a point in the gulley where he had turned around and gone
down. Maybe we should have followed his choice as the higher we got the more
impact from the wind both on us and the snow, which was now getting very hard
packed, however the cross on the summit was a siren call to all.
The final climb up to the summit block along the north ridge, was extremely
icy and very hard packed, however it was a relief to get some shelter behind a
rock.
We removed the skis for the final few meters up to the cross. Bryon doing a
sterling effort to cut steps for the rest of us made a simple task to get up
to the huge structure on the summit.
Summit photos taken we retreated the ski lager and readied for the descent - a
bit of debate over the best way to get down the top icy section and we were
soon scooting into the gully and a respite from the wind.
From here we followed the trail of the early guy and dropped more directly
down towards the alm.
A series of knights moves, through some fantastic powder meadows separated by
lines of trees going up the slope.
Back at the alm and some real respite from the wind, we stopped for a
snack, before continuing down to the forest road.
The return was completely down the forest road, however this was not as simple
as it was first thought.. in a couple of places higher up, the snow got very
thin and should have served as a warning. However just after the top hairpin I
skied over some lightly hidden gravel and ended up lying on the ground.
We walked down to the next more suitable snowy bit and continued, although
more slowly and with a greater look out for hidden traps. Several sections
caused scratched to the ski bases but did not stop me (although Steph had a
near repetition when she got caught up). finally close to the bottom we gave
up and walked back to the van. The skis suffered for this descent and will
need some TLC once we are home.
