Helmut Gassler

The Lungau is a landscape (and at the same time a political district) in the south-east of Salzburg and offers several advantages and attraction points for us downhill-orientated ski tourers thanks to its geographical location.

Today the focus is on the sometimes forgotten Styria. In this article, Helmut Gassler shows us that there is more than just industrial manufacturing there and that it is worth going on a tour.

From the perspective of skiers in Germany or Switzerland, Styria is hidden somewhere in the east of the Alps. Away from mass tourism, small Styrian valley villages offer a paradise for ski in/ski out tours with cosy accommodation. From easy beginner tours to steep gullies, there are exciting options for everyone. A big recommendation!

The book presented here dates back to 2001 (!), written by three veterans of ski guide literature, the Innsbruck couple Rudolf and Siegrun Weiss and the Viennese mountain author and publishing director Kurt Schall. The fact that such an old book with a title that seems to have fallen out of time is being reviewed here either speaks in favour of the book or against the reviewer.

Steep face freeskiing is not only possible in Chamonix! The "Eastern Alps" also have a lot to offer in this category, although they often receive less attention than the better-known destinations further west. The book "Ski Extrem Guide. Steilwände und Normalanstiege auf 78 Gipfel in der Steiermark, Niederösterreich und Salzburg" by Michael and Hannes Pichler and Peter Kolland (2013) offers a comprehensive overview of the classical routes as well as more exotic destinations in the region. A clear recommendation!

From the perspective of Switzerland, Germany and the western federal states of Austria, for most people the Alps and their "interesting" part in terms of skiing end with the "almost three-thousand metre" Dachstein. The areas further east are generally referred to as the eastern edge of the Alps even by experts (such as the PowderGuide community) and are wrongly considered to be insignificant in terms of skiing.

The triumph of apps and thus smartphone-based orientation and navigation for outdoor activities has been unstoppable in recent years. The Swiss app White Risk goes one step further and combines this with extensive avalanche-related information and background material (e.g. training opportunities, etc.). Our tester reports on his experiences with it, from tour planning at home to the summit!

The Tauern highway marks the eastern end of the Alps. At least that's what many freeriders from Germany, Switzerland or even Scandinavia think. Only the very daring venture a few kilometers further east from there to satisfy their addiction on the slopes of salt mines. But beyond that, the wide, wild east really begins. Some even believe that the mountain ranges of this largely unknown region already belong to the Balkans. But what does it really look like beyond this ominous "border"? As a native of this area (which long ago formed the heartland of a country called Kakania, a fact that the region still can't quite hide today), I would like to contribute a little to the clarification of this ski-geographical no man's land and pay tribute to its characteristics from a freeriding perspective in the form of a small photo reportage.

From the summit of the Göller, the parade ski mountain of the eastern edge of the Alps, the Schneeberg (at 2076 m the highest mountain in Lower Austria), shows its gentle side. This mountain offers such diverse terrain that it even has its own up-to-date ski guide with a total of 200 descents and variants on 240 pages. This mountain was first climbed on skis in 1895, again by the well-known Toni Schruf.