Skitouren

After a number of new ideas have been implemented in the world of ski touring bindings in recent years, it is hardly surprising that Dynafit has also revised the "standard" binding and added a few new features.

The manufacturer Dynafit has had so-called freetourers in its range for several years. These are wide touring skis which, thanks to modern materials such as carbon, are light enough to master long ascents and still deliver good downhill performance in powder thanks to their width. The Meteorite is just such a free tourer. We took a closer look at the ski and tested it in various conditions.

With the Storen series, Bergans is launching ski touring and mountain sports products on the market that are characterized by low weight and high functionality thanks to 3-layer, particularly thin Dermizax®NX. The aim is to focus on the essentials. I was able to test whether the advertised properties actually apply in outdoor use.

For this season, Dynafit has given the extremely successful TLT series a major overhaul and has added a few more innovations to the TLT7 compared to the TLT6. This not only further reduces the already very low weight, but also further improves the great ascent performance. We have tested how the shoe performs in more freeride-heavy use.

For the fifth time in a row, the Back On Track Freeride Contest 2017 will feature freeride action, hut fun, breathtaking scenery and friendly people in and around the Saarbrücker Hütte. This somewhat different freeride contest is built on the three cornerstones of "sustainability, nature compatibility and community spirit". The focus is therefore not on the sickest line, but on having fun together on the mountain - whether in the hut or on a ski tour on the surrounding slopes.

Wildspitze and Weißseespitze can now be climbed as short day tours from the nearby glacier ski areas. In 2017, these peaks can be reached by an ascent of significantly less than 1000 vertical meters, as you can read here in the PowderGuide freeride tours Weißseespitze and Wildspitze. 100 years ago, the highest peak in Tyrol and its western neighbor were still extensive "snowshoe hikes", which Franz Tursky reports on in the 6th part of the Anno dazumal series.

In the fifth part of Anno dazumal from 1916, Franz Tursky reports in two parts about past snowshoe trips in the Ötztal Alps. The article was printed in 1916 in Fraktur font and caused some problems for the Alpenwort project, as the Optical Characzer Recognition (OCR) caused some "fails" during digitization. So if you find errors in the text - you can be happy to be better than the software ;) In any case, we hope you enjoy the well-formulated stories about today's "high tour classics"!

With the Alvier combo, Mammut has an outfit in its range that cuts a fine figure for both freeriding and ski touring. The material used is the new Gore CK-nit, which, unlike Gore-Tex, is not only more breathable, but also softer and "quieter".

At 3,147 m, the Flüela Schwarzhorn is the highest peak in the landscape around Davos, a classic in winter and summer and popular with young and old alike. The mountain got its name because the black pyramid on the summit is the most striking feature when viewed from Davos.

Shortly before the winter Eldorado of Obertauern, this fantastic tour, which is very snow-sure until well into spring, starts and leads through the scenic cirque nestled between the Großwandspitze and Teufelshörner to the Glöcknerin, from where you get a gigantic panoramic view of the mountain world.

The third article in the Anno dazumal series takes us to the Hohe Tauern at the beginning of the 20th century. Hans Skofizh and Franz Tursky report on tours to the Schareck, Hohe Riffl and Granatspitze in the article "Snowshoeing in the Hohe Tauern" from 1913. These descents were probably some of the first ski descents in the Hohe Tauern.

The Hochalterrunde in Kühtai offers a steep northern descent with lift support and only 150 meters of ascent. A second car is an advantage - a perfect avalanche situation is obligatory.