BookReview | Ski Extreme Guide

With increasing personal skills and better and better equipment, skiing steep faces and steeper gullies and flanks, once the exclusive playground of a few exceptionally good skiers, has almost become a "popular sport" for the particularly ambitious. This is evidenced by the large number of extreme and most extreme routes that are now regularly documented in the social media. Traces of this development can also be found on the book market, where new specialised books have been published in recent years for a whole series of areas in the entire Alpine area, which are dedicated to describing both established and new extreme routes.

While many of the well-known and sought-after extreme destinations (e.g. Dolomites, Chamonix etc.) have long been covered by relevant literature and the famous routes are all very well documented, there is often a lack of easily accessible information for the eastern Alpine regions or this is spread across many individual publications. For example, there is a separate book for the Schneeberg, the easternmost and northernmost two-thousand metre peak in the Alps, in which all descents known in 2007, including extreme descents and their variations - more than 200 descents in total! - are documented (Ladenbauer, Wolfgang (2007): Skiführer Schneeberg. Schall-Verlag, Alland).

This book "Ski Extreme Guide. Steilwände und Normalanstiege auf 78 Gipfel der Steiermark, Niederösterreich und Salzburg" now closes this gap, at least to some extent.

The structure of this book corresponds to the typical structure of such guidebooks: a brief outline of the history of "steep face skiing" is followed by information on the difficulty rating, avalanche risk and equipment, etc. The book follows this familiar scheme: the technical difficulty is categorised from SI to S5 (divided into blue-easy, red-medium and black-very difficult). The difficulty rating follows the familiar scheme: the technical skiing difficulty is categorised from SI to S5 (divided into blue-easy, red-medium and black-very difficult), the risk rating from R1 to R4 and, if necessary, the alpinistic difficulty for the ascent is also indicated using the SAC scale (here in the book: F to D). For necessary climbing sections, the difficulties are then given according to UIAA. In addition, the maximum gradient (in degrees) is given for each route.

The description of the routes is very well structured. The character of the route is summarised in a short but very concise sentence. This is followed by information on how to get there, the starting point and the corresponding topographical map (ÖK50 of the BEV). The textual route description is brief but sufficient. Finally, a special feature is pointed out for each tour under "Remarks", which may include, for example, a restriction due to hunting protection, pronounced avalanche paths, special climbing difficulties, etc. Each tour is summarised very clearly in the form of pictograms, which show the level of difficulty, exposure, altitude difference, risk and approximate ascent time. Each tour is illustrated with a (cropped) section of the ÖK50 and several photos (including an overview photo with the route marked!). The GPX tracks of each tour can be downloaded at www.alpinverlag.at/skiextremguide. A brief English summary is also provided, which - in combination with the GPX tracks, the pictograms, photos and the map - is quite sufficient for experienced hikers.

The geographical focus of the tours is clearly in Styria. Lower Austria is represented with just four routes (two each on the Schneeberg and Ötscher) and Salzburg with a few routes in the Lungau part of the Schladminger Tauern. However, Styria also has more than enough to offer when it comes to steep descents! From the Eisrinne on the Dachstein, narrow steep gullies wedged between rock faces, to imposing, rock-interspersed steep flanks and extensive steep cirques, you will find a wide variety of landscapes here.

Based on the (few) routes that I personally know or have travelled and skied, I can judge that the difficulty levels have been chosen quite appropriately. The "blue" tours are actually easy or harmless for experienced freeriders/ski tourers, although some can be quite challenging for less experienced skiers (e.g. Wurzengraben on the Schneeberg). In my opinion, there are clear differences and a wide range of red tours in the book, ranging, for example, from the harmless steep slope of the Schallerrinne on the Hohe Veitsch (south side) to the red gully on the Bösenstein (steep, but flatter and wider "run-out") to more complex "normal routes" (such as the "Stiege" on the Eisenerzer Reichenstein or through the "Rodel" on the Gr. Wildkamm). This means that even on some red normal routes, you have to reckon with carrying passages (crampons may be necessary), iron ladders, wire rope passages and suchlike.

The black routes ("extreme routes") are then really difficult up to "hands off". The term "extreme" applies not only to the difficulty or steepness, but above all to the danger or risk. In any case, many of these tours are far beyond the comfort zone of the vast majority of ski tourers and can at best be described as fun type 3.

Overall, the book covers de facto all mountain groups in Styria, in addition to the more well-known destinations (i.e. at least regionally "famous"), there are also some very "exotic" mountain groups that are not necessarily known for their "wildness" (e.g. Styrian Randgebirge, Lavanttal Alps). In any case, the book is a "must" for all those who are interested in steep to extreme descents or who undertake such descents themselves.