Above: It’s true…

Above left: On our last day we headed up for a quick tour to the Vordere Karlesspitze. The nice powdery snow was being replaced by nasty breakable crust snow but still it was a nice little tour. Above middle: Rolland ascending to Vordere Karlesspitze. Above right: Elmar nearing the summit of Vordere Karlesspitze.

Above left: View of the ridges near the summit of Vordere Karlesspitze. Above right: At the summit of the Vordere Karlesspitze

Above left: Elmar doing a “Spitzkehre” near the Salzkogel summit. Above middle: The weather lower down was not so good but we reached the Salzkogel summit with blue sky. Above right: Mmmm creamy white snow.

Above left: Alex, Elke, Elmar and co. plot a route down the valley. Above right: Oh.. oh… the boss has had a crash. Elmar succumbs to the powder snow leaving a little crater of destruction.

Christian and I went for another ski tour in the afternoon a few hundred metres up the mountain across from the hut to make the most of the weather and great snow.

Above left: On our second day we headed up to Gaißkogel. The tour started on the ski slopes but after an hour or so we headed off piste. Above middle: Heading off the ski piste up the valley through nice powdery snow. Spot the little dog at the back that came along to the summit with an old Austrian guy we met along the way. Above right: Christian clambers towards the Gaißkogel summit.

Above left: Cris at the summit of Gaißkogel (2820 m). Above middle: Elmar looking happy after we descended through a very steep couloir/”rinne” to a delicious powdery mountain side. Above right: Sigi looks happy after descending in delicious powder.

Above left: Christian laps up the powder snow on our delicious descent from Gaißkogel. Above right: Christian and I went for another tour in the afternoon up behind the hut for an hour or so.

We hung out at a cafe for a while before Rolland, Christian, and I went for another little tour a few hundred metres up the hill before skiing back down to our hut.

Above left: Sun, and clean white powdery snow on our first day ski touring. Above right: We started a bit late after driving from Freiburg in the morning so we first took the ski lift up into the hills and then set off from there.

Above left: Christian seems to be enjoying himself. Above middle: More happy trekking. Above right: It was quite windy at the summit so we didn’t hang around long.

Abpve left: Andy heads up through the forest towards Wertacherhörnle. Above right: The weather was fantastic. Blue skies and sun. Brendan does some trekking in short sleeves.

Above left: View looking up towards the summit. Above right: We cruised along the ridge to the real summit complete with gipfelkreuz.

Above left: Jochen, Waltraud, Sebastian, Rebecca, and I went for a quick smash around the Schauinsland loipe on our cross country skis. The loipe was hard and the weather was nice and sunny. Yay. Unfortunately Seb seemed to be dying from some sort of lurgi and went home early.  Above right: There were patches of mist along the way but predominantly blue skies.

The weather was sunny and clear and there was lots of snow. We took the bus and then a small gondola up to our start point and ascended from there approximately 1300 m. The tour was easy going and was only slightly steep at the last ascent to the summit. The trail headed through forest to begin with before heading up through

Above left: We set off after a bus ride and gondola ride from Lauterbrunnen. Above right: The weather was fantastic. Blue sky…

Above left: …and a great view. Posy photos had to be taken. Above right: There were some funky rocky spires along the way and during the descent.

Above left: We’re not far from the summit now. Above right: Cris on the summit. Unfortunately my camera’s battery died just after this shot which is unfortunate because a photo, from the other direction, with the Eiger, Mönch, and Jungfrau in the background would have been more impressive.

Above: Waltraud leads the way to the summit of Schwalmere with a view back towards the Eiger, Mönch, and Jungfrau.

Above: Descending from Schwalmere.

Above: And a little map of the tour.

We met Gina at the road end at Courthouse Flat and started walking in from there. It wasn’t quite as cruisy as I had expected (if I had looked properly at the map I would have realised this earlier). We slogged and sweated our way up the spur to Granity Pass Hut getting there in approx. 6 hours. The hut is very nice and tidy. It’s roomy and surprisingly considering the weather it was empty. I had lugged in a lot of food so we were well set for some lazing.

On Saturday we walked up from the hut to the limestone rock formations that surround Mt Owen and picked our way up between them to the summit. We did some most excellent tarn jumping on our way back to the hut which resulted in much pond-scum wetness and general fun.

On Sunday, we went for a wander up Billies’ Knob near the hut. Quite nice… And on Monday still in hot delicious weather we walked out. Simon and I drove back to Christchurch stopping for a while to puzzle over the truck after the powered braking-system broke. We discovered later in the evening that not only has the truck’s warrant run out it was also not registered. Oooh that could have been expensive.

Yay, a nice trip.

Above left: I’m sure Gina said it was a lazy man’s tramp… It was quite a sweat-fest slog up the ridge towards Grainty Pass Hut and a relief once we got under the beach forest about half way up. Above right: We’re about to hit a very steep downhill named staircase. It all looks flat and happy here though.

Above left: Gina had her best grin on…   Above right: Strolling along under cliffy bits not so far away from the hut.

Above: Gina had an interesting bag of crackers for lunch.

Above left: The Granity Pass Hut in all its glory. Above right: Gina and Simon look towards Mt Owen as we stop for a break on the way up.

Above left: Gina demonstrates her compass skills. What’s this? Simon looking normal in a photo… I must have caught him off guard… Above right: Ahhh back to the way things should be. Simon pulling faces at the camera. Yes, it seems he has fallen into one of those nasty karst limestone holes of which there are thousands surrounding Mt Owen.

Above left: One of them spiky things. Above right: Simon takes a break on our ascent to Mt Owen.

Above left: Mr Mon with a grin on his face.  Above right: A little hopper has a rest in Gina’s hands.

Above left: Simon and Gina do some posing on their limestone bridge. Above middle: Don’t fall down! Above right: Time for some good old fashioned springing. Come to me Cris…

Above: An example of how to jump over tarns followed by an example of how to not jump over tarns.

Above left: After a good day’s stroll and some exciting jumping over (into) tarns we returned to the hut. Perfect weather, not a soul around… Above right: We had a nice view back down towards the hut on our climb up to Billies Knob.

Above left: Cris tries to obscure Mt Owen with his backside but is only partially successful. Above right: Yum, dinner time. It’s the usual slop, but delicious.

Above: Time to head back out to the car.

Above left: We had a few hours before we were expected to pick up the parentals from Queenstown so we sped into the start of the Routeburn track and went walking /jogging for a few hours. Above right: We did some posing too.

Above left: We found lots of nice waterfalls along the way. Above middle: We had a bite to eat at the river here. Above right: Leonie found a log to pose on.

Above: Yum, crackers, how delicious. Why don’t Germans know how to do crackers?

The tramp starts at the Hawdon shelter, you cross the Hawdon river and head up Sudden Valley on the true right of the river. The tramp in is fairly rough in some places with many river crossings. As you near the Sudden Valley Biv the valley opens up and the track takes you along the river flats until you reach the biv.

We lazed around the biv once we had arrived, washing in the river by the biv and then cooking dinner in front of a little fire that Kerry lit. She also provided whiskey which we supped as we prepared tea.

Katie and I got up early to try and get some pics of the sunrise with Kerry opting to snooze. We scrambled up a bank some way up the river and spent a while pretending to be photographers. As it was still rather early when we got back to the biv we napped a little.

After breakfast we walked out and camped near the Hawdon.

Above left: Kerry and Katie get their feet wet in one of the many river crossing on the walk into Sudden Valley Biv. Above right: Scrambling over rocks on the walk into Sudden Valley Biv.

Above left: Cris helps Katie around a tricky bit of river on the walk in. Above right: A nice waterfall on the walk in.

Above left: Kerry crossing a river. Above right: Kerry resting up at the Sudden Valley Biv.

Above left: The D.o.C. sign at Sudden Valley Biv. Above right: Katie looks into the Sudden Valley Biv after we arrive.

Above left: Making dinner outside the biv. Above right: Dinner was our typical tramping fare, i.e. pasta and vegies.

Above left: Katie walking up to our photo spot in the morning. We took photos of the sunrise from a bank up the river and off up the hill a little. Above middle: Sunrise in Sudden Valley. Above right: While Katie and Kerry napped I went for a walk up the valley to look at a potential exit over into Discovery Stream for another more energetic trip. Looks like it could be a nice variation.

Above left: Shot of the river on the way out. Above right: Kerry helping Katie across a section of river on the walk out.

Above: The girls do battle near Hawdon shelter after walking out.

Above: Kerry being a chicken on the way in.

Above: Perfect weather for cross country skiing, and not too bad for road cycling… How odd…

Above left: I got older too and received a cake for my efforts. Yay, thank you cake-maker. Above right: We set off for a quick zap around the Schauinsland track. It was just under zero and the snow conditions were perfect. Nice and quick.

Above: Cross country skiing Stübenwasenspur.

Above: Jakob sets the pace.

Above: A little corridor through the trees.

Above: Jakob helps Waltraud at the Feldberg summit.

Above: Snowy corridor.

Above:  Mountain biking in the snow around Schoenberg.

A beautiful day in Freiburg. The nasty misty grey had gone. Snow had fallen in the hills and Jakob, Nadine, and I headed up to the Schauinsland cross country skiing trail and tried out our langlaufen legs. The snow wasn’t too bad for the first day of the season and Jakob and I puffed our way around on skates while Nadine cruised around behind us on classics.

Above: Jakob and Nadine about to set off to ski the Schauinsland cross country skiing trail.

Above and below: Strolling around at Col de la Schlucht.

Because Blogdesk seems to hate me… Windows Live Writer… Complete with shadow effect…

Above: Snow in Freiburg. In contrast to the 23 degrees we had last weekend, this weekend we got snow…

Above: View somewhere along the way…

A random list of some stuff we did:

- Simon and I went for a mountain bike ride up Schoenberg.

- We went wandering in the Ravennaschlucht near Freiburg.

- We headed off to see the Rhein waterfall in Schaffhausen (Switzerland), then headed over to Lake Constance. The following day we headed over to Liechtenstein and found some frogs. Then spent a night near the Klausenpass. Drove over the Klausenpass and headed back to Freiburg.

- We caught up with Oli and Jakob in town for an evening, missed the last tram home, so ran instead.

And now in pictures:

Above: Some greenery in the forest of blackness in the Ravennaschlucht. We went for an afternoon stroll up the gorge and did a little bit of snapping.

Above: And some yellow for variety.

Above: Simon and Anita my sometimes normal visitors.

Above: Simon was as usual thoroughly impressed with my cooking.

Above: Being good beer drinking Germans in Konstanz with Johannes. I would have posted a picture of the Rheinfall in Schaffhausen, Switzerland but to be honest the punch bowl falls in Arthurs Pass leaves it for dead, so let’s have a picture of that instead. No tourists, no silly Swiss flags, you don’t have to pay to get close to it. Hmm, perhaps it’s almost time to return to NZ.

Above left: Some twigs in Liechtenstein, or is there something more. Above right: A delicious feast. The Swiss do the best bread in Europe IMHO.

Above: The weather in Switzerland was rather grotty for a bit but the rain cleared and we cruised up to Klausenpass.

Above left: You just can’t take some people anywhere. The Swiss would have been horrified. Above right: Simon and Anita being a happy couple.

Above: Simon and Anita prove that we don’t need a silly tram to get back home in style.

We stayed Saturday night with Ole, RIG’s long distance specialist, who lives in Alpirsbach. We were a little late to the start on Sunday and left at 7:20 am. This was fine as just like the Saentis Classic it was a cunning trick and it wasn’t actually a race. However, this time I was informed. The three of us rode together for the entire ride. The course is quite scenic with lots of roads with forest on either side. I felt good until the Kandel climb where I blew out and had to stuff myself full at the food station at the top. I wasn’t in the best of shape for the next 15 km or so but then came right again. We stocked up on food one last time at the 200 km mark and then smashed the last 40 km to the finish line.

Above left: Heading out in the morning. We were a little late to the start line and left just the three of us. Above right: Having a rest at Kandel at the 130 km mark. I was rather low on energy and made sounds of riding alone or abandoning. The others weren’t having a word of it and we carried on. I did some wheel sucking for a while until I came right again. We all had low points along the ride.

Above left: Yet another break at the 200 km mark. Above right: At the finish line after 9 hours of riding.

Schwarzwald Ultra Radmarathon 240 km / 3800 m

Anyway, Simon and Anita headed off bound for France leaving me in Lauterbrunnen with just a race to do. I seemed to do better on the flat section this year… perhaps… a little hard to tell. It was apparently 34 degrees in Mueren, 2 degrees warmer than last year, and about 14 degrees warmer than comfortable. Just before Mueren a Swiss guy I met at the Glacier 3000 race this year passed me. I had beaten him in the Glacier 3000 so tried to stick with him in the Inferno. But alas no… It wasn’t happening. After about 17 km I was well and truly a snail. Perhaps my mistake was only drinking isotonic drink at the water stations and not eating enough bananas like last year… Perhaps also not… Who knows…

Anyway, I arrived at the Schilthorn summit (2970 m) in 3:22.32,2 trying not to cramp. I hang around at the summit for a few hours as the surroundings really are spectacular up there. There’s a great view out towards the Eiger, Jungfrau, and Moench. Grand…

All in all a good race despite the result. I found it harder than the Glacier 3000 despite the climbing being approximately the same and it being shorter. It’s definitely the heat.

The race is well worth entering. It was 40 Euros and we received a finisher t-shirt and water bottle at the finish – nearish 40 Euros in value.

Above left: The sweat bath gets under way. Above right: Climbing the stairs to the finish (a re-enactment thereof…) There was much more grimacing during the real thing.

Above left: At the Schilthorn summit with the Eiger, Moench, and Jungfrau in the background. Above right: The Eiger, Moench, and Jungfrau.

Above left: The lsat 5 km. Above right: No high heels allowed on the path to Schilthorn!

Inferno Half Marathon 2012 3:22.32,2 (207/365 Men) 21 km Temperature: Inferno Hot.

Above: On the plus side they did have eagles and bears in a cave carved from ice. Of course it was teaming with tourists.

Above: Clearly Simon hasn’t changed a bit.

Above: Much snappage at the Jungfraujoch. Simon does his best Asian impression.

Above left: So very Swiss. Above right: Simon keeping the tourist industry running with a quick flying fox at approx. 3600 m.

Above left: View down to glacier. Above right: The view down to the Lauterbrunnen valley. Quite picturesque really.

The race was the Arlberg Giro. It starts in Sankt Anton and ascends Arlberg pass before dropping down and then later climbing over Bielerhöhe pass. It’s 148 km with 2400 metres of climbing. From the start line it goes straight into a climb over Arlberg pass which sorts everyone out nicely. I wasn’t sure how I’d go over the race so didn’t go too crazy on the climb. At the top of the pass I didn’t have a group. There were three or four in front of me though and I couldn’t see the next group behind. I descended as fast as I could given that the road was wet. After the last windy corner I rode hard and caught up to the the few in front of me. I ended up riding with two others for the next 10 km until a bunch caught us up and we rode the rest of the descent with them. It was now nice and wet just like in the Tannheim Radmarathon this year. Water was coming from above and below due to it spraying up off the wheels. We slowly ascended over the next kms until the second major climb began. I went against my principles and used my triple chain ring. I should really just get a new bike with a compact crank set.

The triple seemed to save my legs and the climb went ok. I stopped briefly at the drink station at the top as there was nobody directly in front of me. A hairy descent involving cows, their excrement, lots of water, and corners ensued. The guys behind me caught up and we rode together in a group of maybe four. I scared myself on a corner where it felt like my front wheel was no longer gripping the road so well at 70 km/h. The descent was generally quite fun though. Really fast. After a while Karsten who had been just behind me at the top of the climb caught up with a group and we all rode together trying not to slide out on the nasty metal culvert covers on the road or ride into the walls in the tunnels.

We eventually reached the end of the ascent and started climbing back into the valley leading to Sankt Anton. Karsten dropped off the back and I stayed with a bunch for a while before dropping off too. I rode for some time by myself before Karsten and a couple of others caught up. I couldn’t stay with them and let them go but as we reached a short descent managed to get back on. We had a painful finish with Karsten pulling and me trying to sit on as much as possible. During the last section we put the pace on a little and crossed the finish line together in 5 hours 3 mins (207/710 – men overall). Quite a good race. Pity about the weather. Would be a nice circuit in the sun.

Above: Posing with the free bike top that comes in the race pack. Look it’s sunny… Oh it’s Saturday.

Arlberg Giro 2012

Unlike last year I haven’t had any races to prepare me so I was feeling rather slow. I was also feeling rather tired from cycle touring in the heat in Mallorca a few days ago. Is that enough excuses?

It was rather cold as I got up on Sunday. I started in the first block this year and squeezed my bike in nearish the front. The race starts straight into a climb and I puffed my way up through the hills. Once we got to the tunnel and crossed the border into Italy I didn’t work as much as last year and spent more time sitting on. After the shuffling of bunches settled down we had grouped with the second bunch and could see the first bunch up the road a bit away from us. All was going ok until the climb up to the first pass then my old age, fatness, and unfitness worked against me. From the entire bunch I was the only one to drop off the back. Sad…

The front of the third bunch was just behind me when I arrived at the pass. I tried my best to put some more distance between me and them on the descent. I reached 92 km/h last year at this spot but this year I got stuck behind slow cars and slower cyclists holding up cars. Also the road was a little damp as the weather had been doing undesirable things. At the beginning of the next climb the third bunch caught up and people started riding past me like I was stationary. Or more like I was riding backwards. Very sad.

I guess the majority of the third bunch had passed me by the top of the pass. Still there were a few people scattered in front of me on the descent and I rode hard to catch up to one slightly larger group. Why does everybody sit up on descents like this? Maybe not everybody but it wasn’t too hard to pass people. I hit 94 km/h on the descent and had a dodgy moment as my back wheel hopped on a corner at 87 km/h.

We formed a good group and rode hard catching up to a group in front when they unfortunately (for them) had to stop at a red light. From there it was a reasonably paced ride to the finish line in drizzle. I crossed in a time of 2:51:30 (strangely my speedo said 2:50:53, which is a little odd, I guess 2:51:30 is gun time and my speedo shows riding time, my Graperide tactics didn’t pay off here…) placing 64th in the senior male rankings. This just goes to show how many speedy people did the long course. In the overall short course rankings I was 96.

Oh dear, I lost so many places because I had no power in my legs. I guess I’m slightly older, 2 kg-ish heavier, and this was the first race of the season. Still it’s no fun doing worse than the previous year.

It was cold and raining as I finished and I cowered in my tent for a while. Thankfully the weather improved after a couple of hours and I went and tried my hand at the Flüelapass . I bailed near the top and rode back down before catching the train back to Freiburg.

Above: Camping in Zernez before the race and a view from the road up to Flüelapass.

Engadin Radmarathon 2012 (short course) Time: 2:51:30 Dst: 97.82 km Avg: 34.35 km/h Max: 94.17 km/h Avg Cad: 80 Place: 64 category, 96 men overall

Ride up Fluelapass after race: Time: 01:51:54 Dst: 33.17 km Avg: 17.78 km/h Max: 70.44 km/h Avg Cad: 57

The weather was as usual perfect and the water was an amazing turquoise colour. It reminds me of the Soca river in Slovenia.
Unfortunately, there was an abundance of older topless German women hiding in every little inlet ready to pounce. However despite this slight drawback the island was very
nice. It reminded me a little of the Abel Tasman. In parts the bush looks similar from a distance. The rocks are white and there are lots of little
inlets to hide in.

Above left: Brendan in his kayak on the Adriatic Sea. Above right: We camped the night on a small island Sv. Grgur.

After a couple of stops to go swimming in the delicious warm water we came across an old Slovenian dude in a sea kayak. We paddled with him for the
next hour or so until my weedy little not-used-for-many-years arms gave up and he kayaked off into the setting sun that was not yet setting due to it
being summer and all. We continued on at our pace and reached another island off to the North of Rab named Sv. Grgur where we met our Slovenian friend
again. We pitched our tent on the island and wandered around for a while. In keeping with our experience of Croatia so far the island was sparsely vegetated and very dry, many white rocks, pine trees in parts and other trees I couldn’t identify. Our Slovenian friend saved the day after our cooker failed to start proving that MSR Whisperlite International cookers do indeed require their fuel filter.

Above left: View from the kayak near Rab. Above right: We found some nice rocks to climb around on Rab. We found a spot to get out of our kayaks and did some deep water soloing around the rocks.

Today (Sunday) we headed away from our satellite island in the morning back to Rab Island. There a nice little spot presented itself to us to do some deep water soloing. We parked our kayaks in a little cove and braved the spikey rocks for some premium soloing. We kayaked off for bit until we found a tiny beach for lunch that wasn’t inhabited by saggy boobies and man bum.

After lunch we had a long paddle around the end of the island and then back to Rab. And now we’ve crossed over on the ferry and we’re heading south. I am on insect swatting duties (a few buzzy things have found their way into the car) while Brendan navigates the windy roads.

Above left: View of the mainland. Above right: View from our lunch spot.

I met Katha in Kempten and cycled up to a little BBQ spot just out of town where we BBQed with her friends before moving to a little hut in the forest that they had rented. We had a bon fire in the evening and spent the time chatting and listening to fine chilled trance and house sounds.

On Saturday afternoon I cruised off to Untermaiselstein and caught up with Deidre there.

Sunday was spent cycling. I headed off and rode the same route that Frauke and I rode a couple of years ago, Nesselwang, Pfronten, Reute, Tannheimertal, Oberjoch etc. It was very nice weather for riding. A good ride.

In the evening it was back to catch up with Katha at the hut. We celebrated her Birthday at midnight and I crawled under a table to sleep in the not so wee hours of the morning. At 8 am it was off to catch a train back to Freiburg. I rode through Kempten and had a nice ride down to Wangen, which although is named Wangen in Allgaeu is in Baden Wuertemburg and therefore the Baden Wuertemburg all-you-can-eat train ticket is valid there. Whoope.

A train ride back to Freiburg followed by a nice mountain bike ride with Leonie up to Rosskopf and then around the back and down and out near Gundelfingen.

Above: At the hut in the Kempten Forest.

Above: Riding in Austria.

Above left: Eating. Above right: Some skyscrapers.

Above left: Leaving Singapore. Above right: A hotel that thinks it is a boat.

Above left: Melbourne has nice clouds sometimes. Above right: And the water looks kind of pretty at St Kilda beach, when the light is right.

Above left: And running down to St Kilda beach is not so bad. Above right: And the skyline’s alright during sunset.

Above: I caught up with Yvette and Joe briefly in Melbourne. Yvette lives there and Joe was being nomadic and was passing through.

Above left: Keen Twalkers wait to start. Above right: Greig, Georgia, and co are fairies.

Above left: There were some donuts that were keen to come along. Above right: A team of keen posties were also there.

Above left: Steve goes looking for the control on the side of the lake. Above right: Random wandering.

Above left: My fashinable wig. Above right: Jamie and Penny at the start.

Above: Descending via some scree.

Above and below: People… You either know them or you don’t.

We rode out the way we had come in over Mailing Pass on Sunday with spots of rain and lots of wind. We then drove back to Hanmer for some thermal pool goodness. Dinner in Hanmer before driving back home to Christchurch.

Above left: In front of Lake Tennyson. Above right: Katie and Simon setting off towards Mailing Pass.

Above left: The track is nice and friendly into Lake Guyon. The descent from Mailing Pass is quite steep but ridable. Above right: Lake Guyon is a 2.5 km detour from the main St James Cycleway route but well worth a look. Katie rides towards Lake Guyon. The hut is situated behind a patch of bush on the left side of the lake.

Above left: Lake Guyon hut. A cosy four bunk affair. Cosy as it’s got a fire… Above right: View from Lake Guyon hut.

Above left: Laziness overcame us and we snoozed the afternoon away. Above right: Heading out back over Mailing Pass on Sunday.

Above left: Katie and Simon are victorious after pushing their bikes back up the steep side of Mailing pass. Simon demonstrates his victory with his yoga power-drink pose. Above right: Coffee at the Powerhouse Cafe in Hanmer after finishing riding. IMHO nobody does cafe culture like New Zealanders. Of course the clientele leaves a little to be desired.

Above: Photoshop required to get one good photo…

Above left: Michael and Cris near the Golden Gate Bridge. Above right: Cris, Michael, and Tammy in our plush(?) hotel.

Above: Hotel pictures.

Above left: Trams in San Francisco. Above right: The Golden Gate Bridge.

Above left: Yacht sailing in front of Alcatraz. Above right: The Harbour Bridge at night.

Above left: Storks in Munster, France. Above right: Arriving at Col du Platzerwasel. I got there a little late which meant I had to scurry quickly back to Freiburg as fast as my tired legs would take me.

Above: As the snow beside the road increased and it got later I wondered whether I wasn’t being a bit foolish. I navigated using my cell phone with a little map without contour lines.

Above left: Crossing the border back to Germany at Fessenheim. Above right: The long haul back across the plains.

Freiburg -> Vogesens (Col du Platzerwasel) Time: 07:35:21 Dst: 186.03 km Avg: 24.51 km/h Max: 68.42 km/h Avg Cad 70

Above: Me in the mist.

Above: Some more mist for good measure plus trees on jaunty angles. Jeremy take note.

Above: And of course a map of the route.

Time: 03:14:05 Dst: 37.95 km Avg: 11.73 km/h Max: 48.48 km/h

Above left: Brendan surveys the surroundings from our steep little German-scaring route up the hill. Above right: Some quality sliding on Sunday near the Austrian border after waltzing through the Breitachklamm.

On Sunday we went through the Breitachklamm and along the river above it to the Austrian border. After a very brief go at the border game we had some food in the little restaurant that we found and headed back to Germany. The others headed off back to Regensburg and I caught up with Kathi briefly in Oberstdorf before going to Gitti’s in Immenstadt. The plan was to do a ski tour with Gitti on Monday but unfortunately my presence seems to make her ill. Instead I hacked at some code on Monday morning before going for a run up onto Immenstädter Hörnle. The sun came out and I had a nice little jaunt through the snow.

Above: On top of Immenstädter Hörnle after going running from Immenstadt.

Above left: Having a break on the loipe. Above right: We had an awesome view out to the alps as the sun set. It’s not often like this.

Above: Sunset from the loipe.

Above: Unfortunately I still don’t know how to ski…

Above left: We decided to turn around after the Swiss locals in the picture warned us not to go further. Above right: Jutta about to make a turn in the powder.

Above left: Once we had descended some way the fog was not so thick and we could see a little more. Above right: Skiing down the valley.

Above: Skiing in fresh snow.

Above: A tricky little bit during the descent.

Above: And the map of the tour… You can see the summit we were trying to reach on the map.

Above: Sunlight through the trees.

Above: The skiing madness at Feldberg in the Black Forest.

Above: A nice day for cross country skiing.

Above left: Descending in mist. Above right. Touring in mist.

Above left: Oli lugging his snow board up the hill. Above right: Traveling in style. We were dropped at the mountain rescue hut by the pistenbully driver.

Above left: It was hamburgers for tea. Here Nico the head chef prepares the food.

Above: Dinner time in the mountain rescue hut.

Above: Skiing down from Herzogenhorn through trees with Oli.

We spent Sunday skiing at the Feldberg ski-field. I hired some regular downhill skis for the day.

Above left: Jakob on the Schauinslandspur at the Notschreiloipe. Above right: Misty trees.

Above: Jakob demonstrating a fantastic classics technique on his skating skis.

Above: Map + random annoying GPS hickup of our route. We did the middle distance route of the Schauinslandspur.

Above: The usual suspects, Jakob and Waltraud.

Above: The road was long and winding. It also wasn’t a road. And it was only about 12 km, I think… But I just wanted to say that the road was long and winding.

Above left: Basti touring up ahead in the mist. Above right: Waltraud and Basti on Feldberg.

Above: The first tour of the season.

Above: The last time I was on Feldberg it looked somewhat different. Here Julian and I have just finished running up Feldberg from Freiburg.

I made use of the 15 hours I had in Melbourne and went and visited Karen in St Kilda. We spent the day lazing at the beach in the 36 degree heat.

Above: Lazing at St Kilda beach. The weather was forecast at a toasty 36 degrees.

Above: In St Kilda, Melbourne.

Above left: A table full of sugary goodness. Above right: Hanging out with the kiwis.

Of course, seeing has I can’t read it wasn’t actually my last night and instead I spent another day in NZ, paying a mere $1000 for the privilege. Ughh.

Above left: The walk from the carpark down to the cave entrance takes about 5 minutes . Above right: Katie in Cave Stream.

Above left: Although a brighter light might be better it’s still enough to walk enter the cave with a little light like this one attached to my head. Above right: At the exit.

Above: There was a deep pool near the entrance to the cave.

Day 1 – Windy Point to Hope Halfway Hut

Rather than abandoning the trip altogether we decided to cycle in on the tramping track from Windy Point. The first 40 minutes or so along the track was fairly rideable but after that it deteriorated into full on tramping track. We persevered for some time before finally giving up. I was somewhat stubborn and opted to take my heavy steel stead the whole way. The others stashed their bikes in the trees.

Above left: Abbie prepares Ed’s bike. Above right: Ed looks on.

Above left: Katie and Abbie transport Katie’s bike to the other side of the fence. Shortly afterwards we realised that the gate was not locked. Above right: Abbie pushing her bike across the swing bridge.

Above left: Ed pushes his bike out of a stream. It wasn’t long after this that we decided cycling was probably less efficient than walking. Above right: Stashing the bikes. We repacked our gear into back packs and my panniers and stashed the other three bikes.

Above left: Shortly after arriving at Hope Halfway Hut. Above right: The hut wasn’t too bad. I had been expecting a run-down shack as our topomap had called the hut a shelter. Ed and Abbie read on a bunk by candle light.

Above: A slightly photoshopped view from the hut in the evening.

Day 2 – Hope Halfway Hut to Hope Kiwi Lodge

We set off towards Hope Kiwi Lodge. At times having a bike was an advantage and at times it definitely wasn’t. After crossing a river we made a deviation to St Jacobs hut before heading down in the direction of Lake Sumner to the Hope Kiwi Lodge. Once at the lodge we blobbed for a bit before the ladies went for a stroll and Ed and I decided to go and run to Lake Sumner. Ed rode the bike some of the way until we got to the edge of the bushline then we both ran at a good pace down to the lake. There was enough time for a swim before having to scurry back before it got dark. It took around 2 hours and was most excellent.

Above left: The cows had churned up sections along the way which lead to bike-in-mud sinkage. Above right: We went for a little tikki-tour to St Jacob’s hut before heading down to the Hope Kiwi Lodge.

Above left: Katie enters the Hope Kiwi Lodge. Above right: View South towards Lake Sumner from the Hope Kiwi Lodge.

Above left: Ed and I went running to Lake Sumner in the evening.

Above left: View across Lake Sumner. Above right: Ed back at the Hope Kiwi Lodge.

Above left: Evening in the Hope Kiwi Lodge. Above right: Sunset looking towards Lake Sumner.

Above: Some good old swamp bubbling.

Above: Ed and I arrive at Lake Sumner.

Day 3 – Hope Kiwi Lodge to Windy Point

We wandered (I rode) out to where the others had dumped their bike and then we all rode out the rest of the way to the road. Katie and I tried to convince Ed and Abbie to go missioning to the West Coast but they weren’t having a bar of it so we hooned off there ourselves, making our way later to Arthurs Pass, and staying the night at Kennedy Lodge.

Above left: Ed and Abbie pass a bike over a tricky bit of track. Above right: Ed demonstrates the riding technique used on the majority of the track.

Above left: Ed and Abbie on a particularly rideable bit near the end (and start) of the ride. Above right: After finishing the trip Katie and I drove to Arthurs Pass via the West Cost. We had fush and chups (fish and chips) on the beach South of Greymouth.

Above: Chris and Emily in the native bush in the valley below the summit road south of Gibraltor rock.

Above left: Lyttelton Harbour from the summit road. Above right: Cris with control at a trig station on the Summit Road.

Above left: View towards Gibraltor rock. Above right: Emily went for a nasty bush bash (Chris hadn’t mapped that little section… oops) and found herself trapped above a cliff.

Above: Chris and Em posing with a control by a nice little waterfall. It was so nice that we decided to quickly dip our skinnies.