Another sunny cloudless day. We headed off up the south facing slopes, avoiding the grass poking through the snow in places. The snow was hard as the sun was only just starting to warm the slopes. We used our ski crampons to stick to the snow.
Above: More amazing weather. Day 3 took us up towards Piz Platta.
We crossed a steep slope and then ascended another. Roland measured 37 degrees as we ascended. A flat bit and then another very steep ascent which was made more comfortable with ski crampons. We reached a bit under the cliffs where we could remove our skis. From there it would be a steep climb with crampons and skis attached. Birgit said she would go down and I said I’d join.
Above: This is the point where I turned around. You can’t see it in the picture but the slope drops away very steeply to the right. The next section looked very steep also.
Above: Helga, Roland and Elmar continued and Birgit and I headed back down.
The others strapped their skis to their packs and continued climbing. We watched them go and then skied down the steep slope. I was happy not to have gone further. It looked very steep and a fall would have not ended well.
The snow had thawed out and we had nice spring conditions on our descent. We took a different route down making tight turns in the soft snow. At some point we came across a slope that was powder and we put our skins back on and ascended to a small peak at the top. Then it was a delicious powder descent into a snow filled river bed. We skied out to the true left and traversed around the side of the mountain stopping for a break in the sun by a small hut.
Above: Birgit and I headed down skiing untouched slopes with enough powder to grin about.
Above: We stopped at a little shack and sat in the sun for a bit.
One final descent down to the road and we returned in the sun to our accommodation along the cross country skiing track.