Autumn is an unfavorable time for ski tourers. Although some glacier ski areas in Tyrol open their lifts as early as September, skiing off the groomed pistes is usually out of the question due to a lack of snow and the risk of crevasses falling. As a result, the start of this year's ski touring season was mainly characterized by the search. The search for enough snow under the boards.
In our experience, ski resorts that are not yet open usually offer decent conditions relatively early on. The grass surface on the closed pistes is easy on your equipment, and you can also ski familiar terrain from winter skiing, only instead of lifts and gondolas, you have to use your skins and leg muscles.
Slope ski tours in October
Our first ski tour therefore took us from the Stubai glacier ski area up the Fernauferner in mid-October to a part of the ski area that was still closed. Thanks to the lifts, we were able to start quite high up and soon left our tracks in the, admittedly quite flat, powder between unprepared pistes and lift poles. Fortunately, the following week brought us amazing amounts of fresh snow, especially on the main Alpine ridge. We therefore set off for the furthest reaches of the Ötztal, to Obergurgl to be precise. There is over 40 cm of fresh snow in the valley at around 19000 m, so we should be able to do something with it! We laboriously make our way through the closed ski area towards Festkogel. The amount of snow increases with altitude, but so does the influence of the wind. Ridges are almost completely blown away, in hollows you almost sink into the drift snow. We gratefully use the occasional ratchet tracks for the ascent and finally start the descent in dazzling weather. There is almost too much fresh snow for my narrow touring skis and the rather flat terrain. With few stops and just as few turns, but with plenty of snow around my nose, I glide down towards the valley. The splitboarders have few problems with the amount of snow, there is no sinking to be seen here.
For our next ski tour, we head towards the Arlberg, where we have always had very good conditions in the early season in recent years. This year, it doesn't look very inviting from St. Anton via Zürs and Zug to Lech, so we strap on our skis at the parking lot in Warth and take a short tour to the Saloberkopf. There is much less fresh snow here than just before in Obergurgl, but we can still ski comfortably through the still very soft snow to the parking lot.
Next, we decide to undertake a more alpine tour and set off again from the Stubai Glacier in the direction of Zuckerhütl. On the rope, we walk for a long time across the surprisingly snow-covered glacier, although the wind has been up to no good here in the last few days. The snow is usually completely hard or compressed into large wind formations. However, we find a gully with acceptable snow for the descent, even though I'm the fourth skier and don't have much left. We end October in terms of ski touring with a short counter ascent; unfortunately, the foehn and mild temperatures really put a strain on the snow over the next few days. Up to altitudes of well over 2000 m, even the north-facing slopes dry out again, making ski touring almost unthinkable.
The November search: the Kalkkögel
The search only begins again after new snowfall in mid-November. Surprisingly good conditions are quickly found in the shady gullies of the Kalkkögel. Snow from October still remains there, providing a certain base. The already snow-covered and groomed pistes in the Axamer Lizum ski area, which is still closed, also make the ascent easier. However, this is also no secret, which is why the crowds at the parking lot are reminiscent of the peak season. Fortunately, the average Tyrolean ski tourer is a herd animal and therefore heads up Ampferstein, Widdersberg and Hoadl in hundreds. The gullies next door are deliberately ignored and become our playground for the next few days. Interrupted only by a brief attempt to go on a ski tour in the Brenner mountains, we quickly return to the Kalkkögel after some long combat skiing through barely snow-covered mountain pines and a very rocky descent.
Season start in Axams
Just in time for the start of the Axamer Lizum season last weekend, there was another good portion of fresh snow, but even if the approach to the Kalkkögeln can now be shortened by the lifts and the conditions in the gullies are still excellent, autumn can probably be declared over. Ski tours should now be quite common and we can move on from the search for sufficient snow to the search for excellent snow.
