10 year Anniversary of the Splitboard Festival at Lake Achensee

The train takes me quickly and easily to Jenbach, the regional bus directly to the festival site in Pertisau at the valley station of the Karwendel mountain railway on the Zwölferkopf. There are small tents from the partner companies on the site, where splitboards are eagerly being worked on. A central component of the splitboard festival at Lake Achensee is the testing of the latest splitboards, bindings and equipment, as well as airbag rucksacks and avalanche transceivers. Traditionally, participants get an overview of the latest boards on Friday afternoon and choose their equipment for the Saturday tour, which is professionally adjusted on site. The mountain railway next door makes it possible to test the binding settings directly and adjust them if necessary. Equipment hire is included in the festival ticket and is conveniently organised with a chip system so that you don't have to constantly dig out your ID card.

After accreditation and choosing my equipment, I walk to my accommodation. I am amazed to see the two classy but very cosy hotels, which are almost exclusively occupied by the festival participants. The Hotel Karlwirt, which has been welcoming guests since 1794, serves the included evening menu with excellent food and the hotel's own Achensee beer. The evening programme also takes place at the Karlwirt. The other accommodation is the Alpenhotel Tyrol - very modern and adults-only - and above all nationally renowned for its breakfast with its own honey, homemade jams and the best pancakes and waffles far and wide! The hotels' recreational facilities with whirlpool and saunas, which invite you to relax and warm up after your splitboard tours, deserve special mention. The accommodation in one of the two hotels is already one of the highlights of the festival.

By the evening at the latest, you should have registered at the mountain guide table for a tour the next day. Every Saturday and Sunday there are ten tours to choose from, ranging in difficulty from blue to black - from beginner to challenging, with up to over 1000 metres in altitude. Included are tours focussing on technique, i.e. ascent, conversion and descent techniques especially for splitboard tours and tours where avalanche know-how is taught.

I decide in favour of the Gamskopf in the Alpbachtal for Saturday - the decisive factor was the guidance by a local guide who knows the terrain like the back of his hand. Without a map, Markus leads us through light pine slopes towards the summit - a dream terrain for every splitboarder! The weather is perfect all day, but the east and north-facing slopes feel like an oversized fridge. Only at the summit is there sun and luckily not so much wind. We enjoy a cosy snack with a view over the Zillertal Alps - you could probably spot ten more Gamskögel, Gamsspitzen and Gamsköpfe in the endless mountain panorama. Another half an hour passes before everyone has removed their splitboards from their skins and stowed their poles in their rucksacks. But why rush when January has blessed us with such a dream day? On the descent, everyone can twirl their own line in the Swiss stone pine forest into the valley - awesome!

Back at the festival site, we realise that the manufacturers and partner companies haven't had a ray of sunshine all day at the festival base. The Karwendel mountains tower too steeply above Lake Achensee. So it's definitely worth going on tour in the sun during the day instead of "just" testing splitboards all day long. But a few of the 170 or so participants did that anyway. Others train at the avalanche transceiver workshops directly at the festival site.