AAC(UK) Seniors Tours 2022

by John Hardwick

"Sooth, indeed, are most of the old saws; 'so one grows craven as one grows old”, Hrafnkel’s Saga translated from the Icelandic by John Coles 1882.

Certainly, one’s desire for alpine starts, heavy rucksacks with glacier travel kit, noisy Matratzenlager is much diminished with age as are fitness and flexibility. With these constraints in mind senior ski tours to Austria and Iceland, postponed during the Covid pandemic 2020-2021, were undertaken in 2022.

Sahara Sand (March 13 -19)

The Austrian senior tour was held in Wildschönau, a remote glen above Wörgl; geologically part of the Kitzbuhl Alps that comprises metamorphic rocks, mainly schists. We were based in Auffach just a short walk from the lift terminus. The west of Auffach is bounded by the primary ski mountain accessed by télécabines to the top of the ridge that links to several chair lifts servicing well-groomed red pistes. The highest lift is Schatzberg (1903m) that gives access to a piste leading down into Alpbachtal that in turn is bounded by another ridge of mountains in the west, in part equipped with ski lifts, that separates it from the Zillertal. The Inneralpbach valley is split by a spur coming downfrom the highest local mountain, Galtenberg (2424m). Alpbach was a favourite holiday destination of Erwin Schrödinger who is buried in the churchyard there. The final resting place of his cat remains uncertain.

In mid-March there had been no snow for weeks so the western slopes were bare. Nevertheless, it wasn’t yet spring so off-piste the snow hadn’t converted to firn and conditions were not ideal. Day tours consequently comprised ascents to a summit followed by skiing down the forestry roads in thigh muscle burning snow ploughs or traversing the summit slopes to gain the well-groomed pistes. Mid-week, Europe had been inundated with sand from the Sahara when we did our largest vertical of 1000m to the summit Gern on the west side of Auffach.

The most challenging days were what Walter, our guide, called “panorama tours” making use of the resort lifts to allow traverses along the afore-mentioned mountain ridges separating Auffach from the Alpbachtal and the latter from the Zillertal. From our first summit, the Joelspitze, we opted to ski the untracked snow fields, descending through a dense forest from the vast circ into which we had traversed. For our second panorama tour to the Standkopf (2241m) we skied off the ridge below the summit. In each tour we ended up either side of the spur descending from Galtenberg allowing us to access the Inneralpbachtal. These were long days of about 8 hours each on account of the difficult snow conditions slowing our ability to descend speedily; light stem christies advised. We secured a passage back up to Schatzberg via one of the last télécabines followed by a descent down the long red piste to Auffach.

Strange Shores (April 16-23)

The exotic senior tour was based in the far east of Iceland in Eskifjörður. Together with the adjacent Reyðarfjörður it is the setting of the last in the series of Icelandic noir crime novels of Arnaldur Indriðason entitled Strange Shores. Our chalets were on a small promontory of the fjord, Mjóeyri, by the grave of Eiríkur Þorláksson who was beheaded here in 1786; strange shores indeed. Three-million-year-old alternating lava and tephra layers eroded during the ice ages into high plateaux cut by valleys gives the typical east fjords scenery. The topography has ridges and hollows down the mountain slopes. In spring, as the snow melts, the hollows present ribbons of snow extending down to lower altitudes. The week before our trip was winter but it changed suddenly to spring so rain set in at lower altitudes and the snow was disappearing fast, but what remained was generally spring snow with occasionally a thin powder coating at height. Moderateslopes were amenable to descent by classic wedel.

According to our host, depending on our purity of thoughts, the princess of the mist, þoka, would either clear or cloak the mountains in mist. However, with a reliable weather report we could circumvent this Icelandic bad karma by choosing valleys to the north when the local mountains were mist shrouded. On the mountains just north of Eskifjörður, we started quite high on the old road across to Neskaupstaður, the most easterly settlement in Iceland. The summits are only about 1000m so tours there required yo-yos to obtain a moderate amount of vertical. One day we climbed an unnamed summit and prior to reaching the pre-summit col the slope steepened and was firm firn snow requiring harscheisen and a few kick turns, the bane of seniors. In my case arthritis in the left knee means I have over compensated with the right leg so the strength of the left has diminished making right conversions difficult. However Jim, our guide, cut platforms in the snow making the conversions easier. As we arrived at the col we were greeted by a spectacular view across the fjords covered by a sea of mist.

On a day when the þoka was absent we ventured to the mountains south of Reyðarfjörður. Some carrying of skis was necessary as the start was at sea level and the snow ribbons ended well short of the shore and were too steep to skin up. We climbed towards Hrútadalsskarð (890m) but retreatedjust before the steep head wall when sleet and mist set in. We were able to ski down one of the steep snow ribbons to minimize the walk down to the road.

Summary

The resumption of the senior ski tours after the pandemic proved successful, comprising modest vertical but interesting tours in the alpine grandeur of Austria or the otherworldly landscape of Iceland with a minimum of kick turns. Many thanks to Jacky Rix-Brown for organizing the Austrian tour and to Walter Zörer of Mc2Alpin and Jim Blyth and Jagged Globe for guiding and administration of the Austrian and Icelandic trips respectively. See MENOCS in the Calendar or the Club website for 2023 senior tours.

Approaching unnamed summit
Photo by Jim Blyth

Approaching summit of Gern
Photo by John Hardwick

Chalet at Hólmatindur
Photo by John Hardwick

Joelspitze
Photo by John Hardwick

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