We spent four days at the Jamtalhütte in Austria from 25 – 28 Feb 2016.
Day 1:
The weather wasn’t predicted to be particularly good so on the first day we drove to Galtür in Austria arriving at the alpine start time of erm… well… 12 pm. We skinned up the 15 km or so to the hut rising about 650 vertical metres. We had patches of blue/grey amongst the clouds but the weather forecast was mostly correct… i.e. not particularly good.
The hut is a very popular destination and has 122 beds, 60 spaces in the mattress area and 12 in the winter room. It sits at 2165 m above sea level in the Silvretta Alps and is owned by a section of the German Alpine Club.
Above: The weather wasn’t fantastic but occasionally the sun tried to poke through the clouds.
Day 2:
The weather was much better than expected. In fact it was really good. Blue sky and fantastic snow. We headed off early towards the Jamtalferner, a glacier not far from the hut. We roped up once reaching the glacier as I couldn’t find anything from Google about crevasses. Only one other group roped up and only after the saw us so I guess there isn’t too much danger of crevasses (the hut warden confirmed this later). Still who knows, it’s a glacier so maybe with the warming world the chances of something opening up in the future is not so low.
We slogged up 1000 vertical metres until we reached the summit of the Hintere Jamspitze. It’s a peak sitting right on the border to Switzerland. In one direction we could look back down towards the glacier and in the other we could look over at the Swiss mountains. The snow conditions were perfect but we still chose to make a ski depot below the summit and walk up the last steep little section. Mostly because we can’t ski…
We considered bagging an easy peak at a similar height across the border in Switzerland but the cold head wind turned us back and we skied back down the glacier instead. My hands had got too cold and they ached as we descended. Leonie had had the same problem earlier in the day.
Once back at the hut we pandered to the commercialisation of the outdoors that is rampant in Austria and bought drinks so that we could sit outside on the terrace. After finishing them in the sun we decided we should make the most of the day and set off on another tour ascending perhaps 300 m directly up from the hut towards Augstenköpfe. We found a point that we both felt happy pretending was the summit and then romped back down in the delicious powder.
Above left: We had to ascend around 1000 m from the hut so there was plenty of slogging to be done. Above middle: Us at the summit. Above right: After a break for some lunch sitting on our skis in the powdery snow we began to descend. The cold wind had put an end to our excursion over into Switzerland to Piz Urezzas.
Above: After our morning trip up to the Hintere Jamspitze we went for an afternoon ski tour towards Augstenköpfe before the laziness took over and we retreated, romping back down the powdery slopes.
Above: Our route courtesy of apemap and Kompass Karten.
Hintere Jamspitze: 3156 m, approx 1000 m climb, approx 6 hours.
Day 3:
The good weather had departed but there were promises of some sunshine around lunch time. We left the hut around 8 am again and trekked up the valley in the direction of the Breite Krone. We took a right with the intention of going up to Grenzeckkopf. The wind was quite unpleasant however and we decided to go for a random tour up into the hills instead and try and drop down a slope back to the hut.
This didn’t go entirely as planned and after some up and downs we found ourselves trying to cross a steep slope still with our skins attached to our skis but angling slightly downwards. After it appeared as if a large layer of snow was about to peal off when a crack formed we decided to turn around and avoid any potential avalanches. Better safe than… under a pile of snow.
Above: We went out for another tour on Saturday but the weather was a bit rubbish. You can’t tell that it is in this photo but it was. The blue is being deceptive. Anyway, we found our way onto a steep slope with a loose layer of snow which started trying to peal off as I crossed it. We got scared and abandoned.
Day 4:
The weather was rubbish and we descended from the hut in strong wind and low visibility and drove home.
Above: And some more photos.
Above: And some video.
