Tobias Kurzeder

The Black Forest and the Vosges are among the most beautiful low mountain ranges, that is undisputed. Opinions are (rightly) divided as to whether the two sibling mountain ranges are also among the most beautiful areas for alpine and ski touring.

The ski tour on the Sustenhorn is a beautiful mix of freeride tour and ski mountaineering, spiced up with a little bit of alpine touring flair. Neither difficult in the ascent nor in the descent, the Sustenhorn tour impresses above all with its magnificent glacier landscape, the long descent and the fact that the tour can often still be undertaken in (very) late spring. And if you still haven't had enough of winter, you can stay at the highly recommended Tierbergli hut (2,795 m) for one or more days. Premature spring fever is unlikely at this altitude.

The winners have been decided

28 days in the Himalayas. Our mission: to conquer the summit of Kedar Dome at 6,831 meters with our splitboards. The ascent is arduous, the air is getting tight. But the mountains reward us with breathtaking panoramas and fantastic descents on the roof of the world.

Almost ten years ago, a comparatively light, extremely robust enduro-capable mountain bike shook up the market for all-mountain bikes. The carbon mountain bike "Ransom", designed for Scott by the then chief developer Peter Denk.

There you go! The two Upper Engadin freeridersJürg Eugster and Kenny Scheidegger show that it can be done; and how: a small, thoroughly hip and all-round refreshing and fully professional freeride guide for the Upper Engadin. An area which, as we all know, is rarely blessed with huge amounts of snow, but has plenty of excellent terrain with great descents to offer.

The second issue of the young ski magazine "Königslinie - Magazin für Skikultur" has been compiled and designed under the motto "Skiing is more than just skiing". A colorful and illustrious group of authors around the editor-in-chief, publisher and full-blooded skier Philipp Radtke not only takes up the typical topics of winter sports magazines such as travel, equipment, people, etc., but also, quite courageously for such a magazine, highlights topics from the fringe area of skiing.

They are available as platter lifts, finger-eating rope tows (New Zealand specialty, see below) or as a pretty perfect T-bar or anchor lift. I've actually always liked drag lifts. Unfortunately, they are becoming increasingly rare, at least in the Alps. Reason enough, therefore, to award this hardly improvable ascent aid (which is probably the very reason why they are being replaced) with the Gear of the Week category.

The most dynamic development in avalanche emergency equipment is undoubtedly the development and marketing of avalanche airbag technology; however, this does not mean that nothing is happening with avalanche transceivers. Here too, development is progressing, albeit more in detail...

There are many headlamps and bright headlamps too. Petzl led the way years ago and in the MTB scene, high-performance lamps that turn night into day are almost old hat. Mammut's high-performance headlamp is called X-Sun and the name says it all: three powerful so-called HiFlux LEDs provide plenty of light in the dark and wherever you want it, with the help of four different brightness levels. Mammut states that the maximum range in boost mode is 200 meters. I can't check whether this is true, but the thing is bright - very bright indeed.

In early winter 2014 (or late fall this year), I received a printed edition of the Austrian avalanche warning services' seasonal report for the fifth time. Anyone who thinks that it contains almost exclusively snow profiles and accident analyses is mistaken. In addition to the aforementioned analyses of all avalanche accidents with fatal consequences in Austria, the 230-page, large-format, richly illustrated work contains an impressively and profoundly prepared and illustrated chronology of the memorable winter of 2013/2014.

A beautiful long ski tour from the Oberalp Pass to the Pazolastock via the Maighelshütte to the Piz Cavradi - to Tschamut and back to Andermatt. The tour offers two entertaining, rewarding descents and, thanks to the Matterhorn-Gotthard Railway, less strenuous ascents. An ideal season-opening tour in one of the snowiest regions of the (northern) Alps.