Climbing and skiing in the Dachstein

by John Marjot

I first visited the mountains of Austria in 1970, as a young university undergraduate, as a member of a two-week Austrian Alpine Club guided mountaineering tour. Our Austrian guide was Peter Habeler who took us over the Venediger and Glockner mountain ranges. We climbed the Grossvenediger at 3666m, the Grossglockner at 3798m, and the Grosses Wiesbachhorn at 3564m amongst many other peaks. I still have vivid memories of the climbs, and the glacier crossings of those two weeks. Precious memories of the wonderful weather we enjoyed, the amazing company and hospitality we found in the alpine huts we stayed in, and the glorious mountaineering. The year after this trip I returned to Austria with a friend, again as members of the Austrian Alpine Club, and we climbed in the Stubai alps. Together we made further memorable ascents of the northeast face of Schrankogel at 3497m, and the northeast face of the Ruderhofspitze at 3474m, before hitch-hiking to Zermatt in Switzerland to climb the Matterhorn.

I next returned to Austria in 2012 as a rather older Geography teacher at an International School on the shore of the Wolfgangsee, in the Salzkammergut near Salzburg, and close to the Dachstein mountains. My brother and I had always used Dachstein woollen gloves in our alpine mountaineering and now, here I was, close to this famous mountain massif. I rejoined the Austrian Alpine Club, and began ski touring and mountaineering in Austria again.

In October 2015 I left the northern end of the Vorderer Gosausee at 937m and walked below the Gosaukamm peaks toward the Dachstein's highest peak, the Hoher Dachstein at 2995m. The approach path follows a spectacular glaciated valley toward the Hinterer Gosausee. The path then climbs steeply into the cwm below the Torstein and Mitterspitz, to the Adamekhütte at 2196m. The hut was very busy but, though I had not booked beforehand, a bed was found for me. There were many well-equipped young climbers staying at the hut. In the morning, an early start in beautifully clear weather led me across scree, and steep glacially smoothed limestone strata, toward the Groáer Gosaugletscher. There was verglas on the bare rocks, and at one point, whilst I was looking for the best way upward, another climber overtook me. Scrambling up a small rock corner he tried to find purchase on the iced rock. He slipped and fell toward me. I was stood precariously on a small rock ledge covered in snow, but managed to hold his fall. When he had recovered his composure, I left him and climbed drier rock. He followed me safely. The Groáer Gosaugletscher was covered in 10cm of new snow and I climbed the kilometre of glacier to the Oberer Windlucke at 2746m in fast time, stepping over the small crevasses that broke across the glacier surface. The ridge to the Hoher Dachstein summit, from the Oberer Windlucke, was also snow covered, but the weather remained exceptionally clear, and there were no problems. I met a few other Austrian climbers who were reaching the summit the same way, and they made amusing comments to me about my old leather boots, and "ancient" crampons. Were my boots really made of leather they asked, and how old were my crampons? They were reassured when I explained that the boots were, indeed, leather and that the crampons were Salewa, and had accompanied me on climbs in the Himalayas and Andes in the 1980s. The view Northward from the Hoher Dachstein summit across the Totes Gebirge was, as is always the case in mountaineering, worth every bit of the effort.

Summit of the Hoher Dachstein 2995m

Determined to make the best use of the opportunities that the Dachstein offered I decided to complete the Austrian National Ski Tour across the Niederer and Hoher Rumpler, below the Hoher Gjaidstein, on to the Schladminger Gletscher, and descend via the SimonyhU#252;tte at 2205m to Obertauern. I chose a weekend in February 2016 with a wonderful weather forecast for the Saturday.

A packed early ski tour cable car from Obertauern at 1664m took me up to the Krippenstein at 2108m, from where the other skiers seemed to disappear into the mountainsides. The Rumpler ski tour route from the Krippenegg was a stunning landscape of snow and rock and I had the route quite to myself for most of the way. Three hours of ski touring brought me to the Schladminger Gletscher, and the incongruity of the glacier skiing available there. Another two hours and I had skied over the Gjaidsteinsattel on to the Hallstatter Gletscher, and then below the northeast face of the Hoher Dachstein, where I could admire other ski tourers who had forsaken their skis, donned crampons and were ascending the peak.

Thirty minutes later and I was at the Simonyhütte. The views northward from the hut, from the Leonsberg mountain in the west across the Hollengebirge and the Totes Gebirge, to the Grosser Priel mountain in the east were some of the finest I have ever witnessed in all my mountaineering adventures. The next morning I battled a ferocious wind leaving the Simony Hütte, and descended on skis over the snow covered limestone and dwarf black pine of the Zermgrube, back to the Krippenegg, and then to enjoy the magnificent ski run through Bergdorf Krippenbrun all the way down to my point of departure the day before at Obertaurn.

Dachstein massif above Simonyhütte from Zermgrubep
Photos by John Marjot

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