Craig, Johannes R, Johannes D and I drove to Öztal in the morning and collected Brendan. We then headed up to Kühtai. Rachel had train issues but Johannes D went back down to collect her while the rest of us sent all our copious amounts of gear and food up to the Mittergrathütte using the lift. We had booked a few days in the smallest of the three Mittergrat huts. The huts are usually completely booked out but it seems a group cancelled and I stumbled across the web site at the right time. We toured up from the car park the 100 vertical metres or so to the huts. Our little one was very funky. It was well kept, with a fire, kitchen, shower(!), mattresses upstairs. The huts aren’t staffed like some alpine huts. We would cook ourselves, which I quite like. The whole idea seemed much nicer than being packed in at the Jamtalhütte with its grumpy staff.
I headed back down through the forest to the car park and met Rachel and Johannes D there. Then it was back up to the hut and not long afterwards we were ready for our first tour. We set off early afternoon for a quick tour up Schafzöllen not far from the hut. The snow was a bit mixed but improved as we climbed. From the top we had a great powder run down to about half way. At this point Johannes D and I left the others to return to the hut and we toured up to the Vordere Karlesspitze. We had another great descent. The first section down from the summit had spring conditions and then we had more delicious powder. We traversed back around the side of the mountain so as not to have to ascend again to the hut.
The huts are nicely located in a sparse forest with a view into Kühtai and a view up the valley. We made use of the remaining sun on our return.
Above: We had a nice powdery descent from Schafzöllen.
Above: The hut was very nice. It was small but had everything you might need including shower and dishwasher!
Above: A map of our two tours for the afternoon.
