I'm now living in working in Schruns (Montafon), but it's highly likely I'll still be skiing a lot in my Tirolean haunts around Innsbruck too.
After a few fun days at Stubai in the last couple of months, the first real snow for Austria came last week, so we went out to play.
Leaving Schruns at silly o'clock, we got to Stuben just as the sun started to hit the peaks, on the first clear day after the storm.
There're was a pretty reasonable amount of snow on the ground, so we skinned up to Schindlerspitz from Alpe Rauz. It's about 1200 vertical metres, which, following a summer filled with tequila with most of my exercise coming from moshpits, was harder work than I expected. Especially after a breakfast of only two chocolate chip cookies.
I break trail with Chris following:
Chris breaking trail with Tom bringing up the rear:
We timed it pretty much perfectly, getting to the top just as the sun moved around to ight up the couloirs. After a celebratory whisky, we each moved to our separate couloirs - no-one else up there (apart from two Swiss people who stuck to the piste) so we had our pick of the bunch, all totally untracked. After all the wind it wasn't really powder, but it was still soft and velvety in texture, and stable.
Glenfiddich's 15yr distillery edition:
My line looked a little gnarlier from above than I'd expected (on the left):
And turned out to be filled with rocks, with only about 15cms of base. Oops:
I skied it like a noob as my legs were pretty shot from breaking trail most of the way up, and having not skied my dynafits for a long time it took me a while to adjust to the ramp. Too many rocks and sharks about to flash it anyway though, at least at this point in the season. Careful turns in the couloir, then I was able to open it up a little on the exit:
Tom picked the best line of the day, but hit a rock at speed and put a massive core shot in his brand new skis. Worth the p-tex tax?
After the couloirs we skied the piste back down to the car - mellow fun with lots of rollers and windlips with fresh tracks in lovely velvet snow. Damn good ski day for October anyway!!
Nice work Matt, your chosen couloir is sketchy enough even when full of powder later in the season, some great whites in there! Great to see this being skied first tracks, nice one.......won't be long now!
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Dave of the Marmottes wrote:
ballsy going in there this early in the season
Lines on Schlinder before the Scandis whatever next.
@clarky999, are you working for the ski school in Schruns?
Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...
Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...
@clarky999, very nice.
After all it is free
After all it is free
Thanks everyone.
@Elizabeth B, no I'm working for a company called LUEX (Lineup Explorers) - basically a specialised online travel agency for surf and ski holidays, who are based in Schruns. The link I posted above is to the magazine part of their/our website. Have to say I'm pretty stoked to have finally scored a 'proper' job over here!!
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
A couple of cms of snow fell right down to village level in Schruns last night! Higher up on the hills is looking pretty damn good too!
Tirol also seem to be doing well - Axamer Lizum looks to have 15-20cms of fresh at the bottom:
Stubai is reporting 60-70cms fresh, and a friend of mine who guides there expects more throughout today.
Last edited by You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net. on Thu 6-11-14 11:00; edited 2 times in total
Ski the Net with snowHeads
Ski the Net with snowHeads
FFS. Can anyone explain exactly what is going wrong with facebook image adresses so I can adjust quickly each time I post one rather than searching through code on old image embeds?? It' getting really annoying and seems to be a SH's only problem as it works just fine TGR!!
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
Lech & Zurs got a decent dusting
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
@stanton, nice. I'm quite surprised how much snow made it this far north considering it's a sourthern Stau, but no complaints!
So if you're just off somewhere snowy come back and post a snow report of your own and we'll all love you very much
So if you're just off somewhere snowy come back and post a snow report of your own and we'll all love you very much
It is getting warmer again from the weekend onwards. Wednesday some rain may get some snow high up.
You know it makes sense.
You know it makes sense.
Play safe everyone who's heading for the glaciers this weekend - it seems the snow from late October is already causing some stability problems:
Zwei Variantenfahrer, Vater und Sohn, lösten heute 07.11.2014 gegen 14:00 Uhr ein Schneebrett im Nahbereich des Seiterkars, Tiefenbachferner in den Ötztaler Alpen aus. Es handelte sich um extrem steiles, O-exponiertes, kammnahes Gelände, wie uns unser Beobachter Peter Raich gerade mitteilte. Beide wurden im Randbereich erfasst und blieben unverletzt. Eine Verschüttung in der Mitte der Sturzbahn hätte aufgrund einer ausgeprägten Mulde sowie teils felsigem Gelände fatale Folgen gehabt.
Der Bruch erfolgte im Grenzbereich zwischen der Ende Oktober abgelagerten Altschneedecke und dem gerade gefallenen und verfrachteten Schnee. Der Anriss war bis zu 1m hoch.
Aufzupassen ist derzeit vorwiegend im Sektor W über N bis O, v.a. in hochalpinen Lagen entlang des Alpenhauptkammes.
Two skiers triggered a slide on a steep East facing slope in Ötztal today. Both ok, but it sounds like they were pretty lucky. I think Kammnahes means means they were near gullies/gorges; some sort of terrain trap at least. 1 metre crown...
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Kamm is the ridge (top of), so they were near the top of the ridge. It is really steep and rocky along that face, @clarky999 and it quite often drops.
Poster: A snowHead
Poster: A snowHead
@Samerberg Sue, ah ok, thanks. I was thinking along the lines of Klamm (as in Kaiserklamm, one of the gorges on the Brandenbergerache).
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
@Markymark29, yeah, quite a few large slabs have released at Stubai too...
Talking of Stubai, the snow is royally and totally wind- on every single aspect. Was good to ski with Horizon again, but I haven't skied snow that bad in a LONG time.
I didn't ski this weekend, but there's beena bit of new snow. 25cms reported at Stubai, and a more than a dusting on the higher peaks around Innsbruck and Schruns.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Seems Stubai was pretty sketchy yesterday though! It's lucky Pete Oswald rips!! Video below (I don't think you can embed FB videos at all?).
Snow down to around 8-900m in Schruns this morning.
Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...
Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...
Powfinder said Damuls has been posting the highest village snowfall totals in Europe (but that's only because Gemstock doesn't have a village on it)
After all it is free
After all it is free
@Dave of the Marmottes, really? Should probably have gone exploring! Seems like there's actually more snow lower down around the Arlberg and Innsbruck than Montafon right now though.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
Stubai was very nice today! Looking like it's normal self rather than the miserable state it was in in September. Unsurprisingly everything lift accessed was already tracked after the 35cm snowfall earlier in the week, but it was a nice, soft, shreddable sort of tracked. Lots of fun. We also enjoyed some of the more technical minigolf style lines near the Rotadl chair - lots of things are too narrow to turn at the top so you just have to point it for 5-10 metres until you hit the open fields below. Also lots of fun! Pistes were generally icy, but the park looked nice. A lot of people had been touring and youc an still score fresh tracks on nice terrain with skins (if you're not with a snowboarder )
Seriously, I'm totally lost with this photo embedding from Facebook stuff. What's going on?? The work around that I used previously isn't working anymore (so most of the photos from my previous threads also aren't showing). Help, please??
Here's the photo (in small) from Instagram anyway.
Ski the Net with snowHeads
Ski the Net with snowHeads
Light snow in Shcruns (700m) currently. Still won't be able to open as planned this weekend though.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
WorldCup Snowboard Cross Cancelled due to lack of Snow.
And an encouraging video from Silvretta-Montafon, who will open tomorrow! I suspect it'll be a pretty limited opening, but I guess I'd better buy my season pass anyway!
Schruns opened on December 10th, so we went skiing for a few hours first thing. Limited terrain, and the pistes were unpleasant man-made snow, but just off to the sides (being very selective where!) we found 15-25cms of windblown powder that skied pretty nicely. Just enough to not be skiing the grass (most of the time).
A little video from the Montafon marketing guys (my colleague has a quick interview):
Skied at Gargellen on Friday morning, which again was pretty limited, and VERY windy. Pistes were in better shape, but there was only one small patch of windblown pow that was skiable - everything else was destroyed by the wind.
Now probably about 25-30% of the resort is open - I gather they opened a lot more over the weekend for the Bastille gig (I was in Innsbruck).
Heavy rain this morning in Schruns. Apparently the freezing level is around 1200m... Not sure about that - it feels pretty warm. Should be a good amount of dense, sticky, base-building snow up high though. Touring this weekend?
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
About 15cms new snow Tuesday night into Wednesday, and the same again last night. Only on the upper halves of the mountains though.
Looks like there's potential for another few cms today, so tomorrow or Saturday could be pretty nice.
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
I'm back in the UK for Christmas (snowing here btw!), but seems to be snowing pretty well in Schruns, down to village level:
Landed in Innsbruck (in a snow storm) at 10:30 last night and by the time I'd collected various things didn't get to Schruns until 2am (snow on the Autobahns limited speed to 80-100 most of the way). Damn glad I bothered to drive though!!
Today was like Hokkaido in St Gallenkirk: 40+cms of very light dry snow. The only time I've skied snow like that in the Alps before was Jan 2013. Sooooooo much fun.
Because it's so light there are still some sneaky tree stumps waiting to take you out though. I hit one and skied on for another 10 metres before realising it had knocked my ski off - was a bug to walk back up!! The pistes back to the bottom were officially closed, but plenty of people were skiing them and there was more than enough snow to do so. Snow cannons working hard on the lower sections too.
Still cold and snowing hard, so tomorrow morning should be great too!
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
@clarky999, well done, green with envy! See you end January hopefully for some powder, in the meantime looking forward to seeing a few photos!
I'm in Innsbruck atm for New Year, and there's 30+cm of snow down in the city. Didn't ski today as I've been pretty ill (had to have a nap mid-party last night haha) recently and needed to re-charge, but Nordkette looked damn tasty, and they opened the steep couloirs from the top for the first time this season.
After all it is free
After all it is free
@clarky999, Pillows
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
FAQ
Poster: A snowHead
annoying and seems to be a SH's only problem as it works just fine TGR!!
