We got up early today as it was to be the last good day before some predicted
storms come in. We had in mind to climb up Sonntagskopfl above Hochfugen where
we had recce'd yesterday. Following the guidebook trail along the ski de fond
track before climbing up the ridge to the top and back the same way.
We parked up in the ski area car park and paid the money for a parking ticket (5
Euros here), then set off to the end of the ski de fond track (by the road
entrance to the parking area). It was not long before we were balancing on a few
strands of snow left on the track and even that gave out and we had to walk a
few hundred meters before back on full coverage of the track.
The sky was overcast, but very warm.
we stayed on this track as it gradually climbed through the pine woods.
There was very little signs of tracks coming down through the woods, although
the map showed a couple and the guide book showed another, so we kept going to a
sharp bend in the track around a deep gully. This was another track up, but this
was not very viable.
By now we had emerged from the woods into meadow grasslands on the slope, with
the track cutting a few zigzags then disappearing away from our mountain.
We followed it up the zigzags until I thought we could traverse across into the
bowl below Sonntagskopfl, and we shouldered the skis and set off across on foot.
Another deep gully caused us to climb up and fortunately we found an unmarked
(on the map) path and this one still had some snow.
Skis back on and we followed it first crossing the stream that had baulked our
way earlier.
And then a second with a small wooden bridge.
Now we were in the bowl below the mountain and set off to traverse back onto the
ridge - the snow was soft and wet as there had not been a hard frost last night
and I had to make a rising track across to the ridge. Once there we found some
old trails winding through the trees upwards, so we tagged along.
We came out of the trees into a series of rolling bowls continuing up the ridge.
Along the way we came across a track zigzagging up the slope - I guess this
would be some summer path coming up from Hochfugen without the long detour
around the bottom, but we did not go down to see where it came from.
The ridge became more pronounced as we climbed through the bowls. Around this
time we were passed by 2 parties going down ... one went back our way and the
other went down the unknown track mentioned before.
More bowls led up to the summit in a gentle curve,and then up the final slope to
the cross and weather station.
Time for photos and snacks in the sun (which had made a fleeting appearance)
before we set off back down.
We slithered down the top slope and then we were into the bowls
The snow was damp here but not very heavy, and we could made some easy turns
(especially after we had waxed the skis - they were sticking in the wet snow a
little).
The overcast sky was causing a little bit of flat light as we got back to the
unknown track and I overshot the drop into the big cwm we had crossed from the
bridge - with the wet snow I did not want to be messing around in the trees and
prefered the steep slopes in the cwm.
We traversed into the top of the cwm and skied down, leaving a good trace behind
on the slopes.
Although the slope was throwing some snowballs it was still viable provided we
took care to keep out of everyone's fall line. Any more warming and it would be
dangerous.
We dropped down the bowl and traversed to the bridge we had crossed on the way
up.
Back at the bridge we reversed our earlier crossings then followed this second
track down.
From higher up we could see that this track joined the ski de fond track a
little higher than where we had left it. We would not have had to walk if we had
known it existed (it was not on any map we had)
Now it was just a gentle ride back down as far as we could on the track, and a
final walk on the cleared bit back to the van.
Back to the apartment for refreshments and snacks.
