Senior Ski tours still alive and kick(turn)ing

by Jacky Brown

What has happened to senior ski tours? There has been one advertised in the newsletter for each winter since 2014, yet none for 2019. Why?

We learned that the Alpenverein-Akademie would not run an Improvers Ski Touring Course for Seniors in 2019. But we oldies still wanted to have a week at a gentler pace and off glaciers, with a degree of comfort in the evening and with instruction still a key feature. By age 70 you know that you never stop learning, and acknowledge that you are getting more forgetful, so need more refreshers! How could we achieve our aims this year, preferably with Robert to guide us again?

It took time to identify a way to satisfy all our requests but eventually we arranged for a week organised through Mc2Alpin, a company with historic connections with ÖAV. They even agreed to employ the same guide who had Ied us in previous years. However, the time delay meant it was too late to advertise in the Autumn newsletter, and the Winter newsletter would be too late.

So emails were sent to those who had recently been involved, and resulted in a select group of 5 going to Planneralm in Niedere Tauern. (Many folk had already arranged to ski with other companies.)

The week was a roaring success! The first day, in white-out and wind, we reached only a small objective, but guide Robert ensured that we had another bout of skinning to build our strength, and we enjoyed the fresh powder that had been falling steadily all day. Snowfall continued all night and well into the next day. So that powder, though slowly transforming did give us good skiing conditions for the rest of the week, whilst the weather gradually became sunnier and we gradually increased the amount of altitude gained each day. We reached 4 summits in the remaining 4 days, with wonderful views to enjoy. On the final day we skinned up to a col, skied down a little into the valley beyond and skinned up to a beautiful summit from where we could see all the way to the Dachstein. Ascending toward the summit we kept well away from the stunning folds of a cornice, but could see another group skinning along the ridge behind it. We met them on the summit and this group of young Austrians in their twenties were amazed to see 5 Brits aged 68-73 reach the same objective.

So the Senior Ski-tours are still alive and kicking - and with only half a dozen kick-turns all week!

5 seniors on the summit of Schreini
Photo by Robert Thuler

Lunch stop
Photo by Jacky Brown

From the col to the summit of Schreini on the skyline at the centre
Photo by Jacky Brown

Return to the top of this page, or to the complete Index, or to this section's Index.