Basic Skihochtouren Course, Jamtalhütte, Silvretta

by Drew and Leanne Mills

We arrived in Galtür and met the two smiling faces of Javier and Albert in the Alpinarium car park. They seemed impressed that we'd driven from Morzine in the French Alps to attend; we were amazed that these Spanish boys were doing the technical skihochtouren course in English! Thomas Glanzer (Tom), our guide, drew up and Graham the final member of our party arrived soon after by local bus. Tom advised that heavy equipment could be transported up to the refuge for us. This was a welcome relief, so we repacked our rucksacks before setting off at 4pm.

The sun was just dipping behind the mountain tops as we started skinning. Unsurprisingly, the temperature plummeted as we ascended to the Jamtalhütte: a straightforward hike of 9.25km on a well-established track marked with flags. It was 7pm when we arrived; the sun had set and the clouds were rolling in with a new cold front.

Dinner was being served as we arrived. Within seconds we had bowls of steaming noodle broth. Wienerschnitzel, potatoes and salad soon followed and a delicious dessert. It had been a very long day for all of us as we retired to the dorm.

Following a late breakfast and a long chat about the ÖAV Stop or Go strategies for avalanche risks in the mountains, we waited for the hut Wirt to bring up our bags from Galtür. After a transceiver check we skinned up a benign valley with excellent fresh snow where Tom had us doing transceiver checks, burial, discovery and practice of our equipment for avalanche recovery drills. We dug two snow pits and discussed shovelling strategy when digging out an avalanched victim. Tom then reviewed the snow layers up to 1.5 metres deep. It was fascinating.

After the exercises were finished, we contoured around the side of the valley and skinned to the top of the Rammkopf, ensuring that we were spaced safely. A glorious 35 minutes of skiing in delicious, untracked powder was a perfect finish to the day!

Next day we skinned up the valley, due south, in cold and grey conditions with occasional columns of sunshine slicing through the rolling stratocumulus cloud. After three hours of climbing, at the head of the valley, we roped up and made our way to the summit of Gemsspitze. In total our ascent was 1000m. As we performed crevasse rescue drills, the wind was coming in icy blasts and so we descended and found a place out of the wind and drenched in sunshine to learn some anchoring techniques, using ice axes and skis. Wednesday was forecast to be bright and sunny, so we dressed lightly and started skinning up towards the Steinmannli (2353m). It turned out to be bitterly cold; the slight breeze and castellated deep shade was something of a trial until we were well above the valley floor.

We stopped at the 3070m col between the two Chalausköpfe and basked in glorious sunshine eating lunch before an afternoon of glacier crevasse rescue exercises on a nearby gnarly Schneewächte. It included climbing out of a crevasse using just boots and hands, rescuing others by pulling them out and then using a roller-system to demonstrate the load difference when using pulleys. Once confident at crevasse rescue, we turned to a steep icy slope and practiced ice axe self-arrests.

On the fifth day we skinned 12km up a glacier to Hintere Jamspitze (3156m). The wind was an icy southerly, warmer than yesterday but still very fresh, especially in the shade. Tom roped us up for glacier travel after 2.5 hours. It took more concentration to ensure the rope between us was the right tension. We got to the peak and donned crampons. Tom taught us the Eckenstein techniques. We hiked up and took lots of photos at the summit. Tom also showed us how to use crampons on rocks. We roped up and skied down the glacier: managing the rope whilst following Tom's track was difficult. We got back to the Jamtalhütte at 2.30pm and headed straight to the ice climbing wall. With crampons and ice picks, we spent a few hours there until the sun set.

The next day we skinned up to the Obere Ochsenscharte (2960m) in around 3 hours and the conditions were perfect with sunshine and light winds. We dug a ski-pit belay for an anchor point and created 2 belay ropes with long slings. Leanne rappelled over the snowy lip of the cornice first and then walked back up. Once we'd all done this, we set up our ropes and, one by one, we dropped over the edge and practised self-rescue using prusiks and a pulley system. There were many ski touring parties who passed and stopped to watch. Tom was quietly proud!

We skinned another 15 mins back out on to the glacier's flat surface, and prepped our descent in blustery cold wind. Having spent the week discussing farming the available snow, we all hugged each other's turns beautifully. We ended with the usual steep walk up to the hut and a final round of hi-fives before buying some shower tokens and beers!

We are grateful to the AAC(UK) who supported our attendance on this course with a very generous grant.

Learning to pull each other out of a crevasse

Digging out avalanche victims and transceiver drills

Ice climbing outside Jamalhütte

Small group meant that learning was accelerated

Climbing out with ice axes

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