First day of the tour ... the snow was down to under 1000m in our valley at
Trins, but we had no real understanding of the state of the snow pack higher up.
In addition we needed to shake out the skiing cobwebs, so we had chosen a tour
beside a ski area. The hope was to ski up tracks close to the piste and then
cross over to come down the prepared surfaces.
Overnight the clouds had come in and we woke to clouds all around us in the
village, with a forecast for it to remain all day which reinforced the tour
decision.
We travelled down the valley (keeping off the motorway after having paid 10 euro
yesterday for a short distance). Beyond Steinach the road is very twisty before
it joins the road coming from the motorway and we turned up into Mutters. This
was a narrow road through the village with little obvious signage, however we
finally reached the lift station. The guide had mentioned that we could have
stopped at the Freizeit zentrum .. however we did not seen any signs for this
and resorted to paying the 10 euro at the lift station for parking (I guess this
is not too much for a day out on their prepared routes.
After getting ready we walked up to the entrance and around the side (the lower
area has shops and ski lockers, while the upper layer has the kiosk and entrance
to the lift. We joined a steady stream of people who ignored all this and
stopped at the end of a piste. This was a thin strip of white with very obvious
bare patches - no snow had been made this far down for a while. Above us the sky
was lost in clouds and we were close to the bottom of them.
Up the piste that curved around and under the gondola, then crossing a couple of
gravel roads (careful steps). The first was across the slope, with the second
over a little hump. The snow making obviously had not been switched on for a
while.
Over the road the piste was still patchy, but slightly less broken up
We played “tag” all up this section with a couple of older ladies - they sped up
on the flatter sections and we caught them on the steeper slopes. As we passed
Nockhof (the site of the middle station on the gondola lift and where the
downhill skiers stopped) We were passed by a second couple (lots of chat between
the two of them, so we waited for them to disappear into the mist before
continuing)
By now, well within the cloud with limited visibility, and getting worse the
higher we climbed. However the piste was complete - although the tracks to the
side were still bare. Climbing higher the mist wrapped around us so that we
could only see shadows of the couple ahead. We crossed the track once again, but
this time it was covered in snow and it was only the breaks in the trees that
identified where we were.
The Mutterer Alm appeared out of the gloom and we paused there for a light
refreshment, beside several piles of rucksacks that belonged to the children
having lessons (there was a strange phenomenon today, the groups all seemed to
have balloons attached to their helmets - maybe to recognise each other in the
mist.)
From here we kept on going into the deep mist, following the edge of the piste
(narrowly being missed by two sets of skiers holding a rubber hoop between them
that could have taken everyone out!). We crossed over, above some trees to the
left edge of the slopes (not realising this was a steep descent and we should
have stayed right!).
When the piste got too steep we zigzagged in the debris to the side (initially
quite narrow but got wider as we climbed up. About half way up we came out of
the top of the cloud layer and the visibility got much better (between the cloud
layers.)
Before too long we could see the top station just above us.
A few more zigzags and we were above this lower layer of cloud (there was still
one above us, hiding the sun). Below us was an inversion across the Inn
valley.
We curved around to meet the top station ending up beside an igloo shaped café/
bar. Beyond us was the little bump of the Pfriemeskopf, but this looked just a
little too far for today.
We climbed up to some benches behind the chair lift station for lunch. Up here
it was quite warm and we took our time before preparing the skis for the
descent.
Then it was straight down the route we had come up (now realising it was a
black run!).
We met the clouds again just below the woods and continued in it (now much
cooler) down passing the Alm and onto the run down to the middle station.
We popped out of the cloud once again around this point and could see the turn
off where the downhill groups all turned off. The snow was getting much softer
here and corn like, with browner patches where it was getting thin..
We continued down the closed piste where we had come up, skirting the now bare patches on ribbons of packed down snow. Eventually we came to the top road crossing and took the skis off to cross over and examine the even barer ground beyond. Here there were patches of snow with grass showing through, as well as large bare sections.
Luckily there was enough around to allow us to find a path through. At the second road crossing we repeated the palaver, however luckily the next section had more snow (although still a number of bare patches, to be navigated).
Back at the car we packed up and drove back the way we had come.
Unpacked and with everything laid out to dry we settle down to refreshments. However with the sun now making an appearance, it was not long before the itch to stretch came on and we went out again to investigate the local area on foot.
A stroll around the village
