Wilder Kaiser: weekend skitouring - Apr 19

We did skitouring 2 weeks ago in Wilder Kaiser and enjoyed it very much. Thus we decided to come back with friends. We were 7 of us this time. Danka got suddenly a day before departure flu, she had to stay home. The weather forecast was sunny, some clouds later on Sunday. No new snow reported in the area and stable conditions entire week.

We arrived rigth after 9 am to the Griesner Alm parking lot. It was almost full. When we looked up to the forest and the first saddle, we saw crowds going up. Spring season full speed! We were afraid to queue often. It was not the case on the way to the hut, however at least once we got delayed due to skitourer slide. We arrived to the hut by lunchtime, it was closed and empty. We rested and waited for entire group to unite again. The sun was shining, no clouds around and people everywhere. Two skitourers from Tirol joined us at the hut later in the afternoon, we were 9 people total for the weekend.

After the short break, we decided to try Kleines Törl. Kleines Törl is steep shorter gully. The snow was melting because of the sun radiation, our skins started to collect snow. As we were ascending, it became obvious to all of us this is not ideal to complete to the top. There were two options - either go up on foot or just ski down. We decided to turn around at the narrower section. It was a good call, some of our friends have not skied much this season and this was a very good start to introduce them to steeper lines. The descent was good - gully was already in shade, all of us enjoyed it and looked forward for late lunch. After the food we were eager to go skiing around. Griesner kar got empty in the late afternoon, just us here. We decided to watch the sunset. We realized later to actually see the sunset we would need to climb to one of the saddles around. That was not a good idea therefore we stayed in Griesner Kar. It was already hard and icy. We camped close to Mittlekaiser and watched sun going down in the valleys.

Sunday was the day to finish at least one gully. We decided to go to Goinger Törl. As we were approaching the scharte, we noticed how many skitourers are there (question we asked ourselves - where is the lift if there are so many people). It was fine though as it is quite wide in the beginning, people stop by in many places around and scatter themselves around. The sun was shining to the scharte for some time already, snow became slushy. We decided to stop at the narrower section where we noticed first steps in the snow going up. Time to put our skis on our backpaks and just walk up to the saddle. The walk up was easy as steps were already made. Some skitourers were skinning up. It was harder as I looked at them but manageable. However I enjoyed walking up as it was much faster. Not all of us reached the top, some stayed down. We stared to the steep narrower gully and started having doubts about how to ski it safely - all gone after the first turn. It was better than we anticipated. All of us made it safely down without any fall. I was satisfied with the day and it was just the beginning. Some of us decided to ski down bit more (not traverse back to the hut). We got back to the hut by noon. We packed ourselves, cleaned the hut and ski down to the valley. Two of us decide to skin up a bit more to do more lines. The rest of us went down. We all met at Griesner Kar later in the afternoon.

Thanks to everyone who joined us for the weekend!

griesner kar skitour with friends - Apr 19

Tour info

Drive

1:20 hours

Start

Parking lot at Parkplatz Griesner Alm, 4 euros toll road. The toll road was finally opened.

Ascent

around 2 hours to Fritz-Pflaum hütte. Couloirs within 1-2 hours from the hütte

Activity view

1. day

Griesner Alm - Fritz-Pflaum hütte

Kleines Torl

Griesner Kar sunset

2. day

Goinger scharte

Fritz-Pflaum hütte - Griesner Alm