Spitzingsee: Österreichische Schinder bike & skitour - Apr 19
I was looking for spring skitour close to Munich. I have seen some people already doing bike & ski in Karwendel, however I could not find anyone to join me on Saturday thus Schnider was the best option - my plan was to get to the end of the valley and explore it. There are two options to get there (not counting from Austria) - Tegernsee or Spitzingsee. As I often go to Spitzingsee, I chose Tegernsee path (I regretted it later, see below why).
I started cycling at 8 am from Suttensee. I could not reach Valepp by car as the road is closed (the first picture) due to avalanche risks. True to be told, there is now lot of snow slid, 3 fallen trees and even some rocks on the road. As I bike up and down, I reach few buildings where the road becomes just snow. I was pushing a bike for about a kilometer when I just gave up. Time to put my skis and start skinning. I later that day regretted a decision not not leaving my bike earlier. Snow was hard in the morning, but did not occur to me it will be slushy in the afternoon. Pushing a bike after skitour is not what I was enjoying much.
I had to carry skis few times as snow is disappearing from the road. Complete snow layer starts right before entering the forest. The first look at Schinderkar from the forest is scary - looks large, Second doubts of the day (the very first is me pushing bike for way too long). As I approach Schinderkar, it becomes “smaller” - changing the perspective. I could see few people skinning up. I overtake some and following two more skitourers. It was going smoothly as it was not icey plus 1 cm of fresh snow so skis were getting to snow easily. As I was doing a kick-turn, my left boot just got out of the ski binding. Not the best place as I was approaching the narrower part of Schinderkar. I decided it is easier and more safe to just walk up (will fix the binding later). The top part is quite steep. Should I carry my skis? At that moment I was looking at 3 skiers going down, they convinced me to ski that part from the top. There is still lot of snow, rocks are almost entirely covered at the top part but not for long, I could see some holes around so might melt this week when the warm temperatures come back.
As I was resting at the top of Schinderkar, one follower who was also going from Tegernsee caught me up. He was going up to Schinder summit (10 minutes walk up). He convinced me to reach the summit. We knew the views were going to be terrible but worth walking up anyway. I returned to my skis, looked down the gully and started skiing down. At this time, only 2 skitoures were going up. It started to be late and warm. Enjoyable skiing down until I reached the forest where it was very much water which slowed me down often. I should have skied it earlier. All was going well until I got back to my bike. Since that moment, my energy came down to zero. I had to push bike through the melted snow. My fault not leaving it earlier. As I found out on the summit, the road from Spitzingsee is clear - not surprising, murphy’s law :)
Very good bike & ski - plenty of snow, early in the morning in good conditions. But please bike from Spiztingsee for the next week or two.
Tour info
- Drive
- 1 hour
- Start
- Parking lot at Parkplatz Suttensee (the road to Valeapp is closed due to avalanches - real reason now - lot of snow still, 3 fallen trees), 3 euros for toll road
- Ascent
- around 1 hour
Activity view
Biking to Valepp
Skitour
Biking back to the parking lot
