After having explored the North facing slopes yesterday we decided to try our luck on the South faces hoping that the snow would be a little softer and free of the dreaded crust. We drove up the road to Juf and headed up the slope to the left of the road. The snow was hard and icy as it was early morning and the sun wasn’t yet softening it up. We used ski crampons to help us up. The snowy slopes had large patches of grass or was it the grassy slopes had large patches of snow. Whichever it was spring was making itself known.
Above: We headed up on the other side of the valley for our second day tour.
We ascended until far up in the hills we made a ski depot on a flat patch. Some of the party chose to stay and Helga, Rolland, Elmar and I continued. We traversed across a steep slope and then climbed steeply up. The snow was soft enough that it didn’t feel too scary, however, it would have not been great to fall. We continued climbing over a rocky section with a few easy rock climbing moves. that were made harder by wearing ski touring boots. Then we continued up the ridge to the summit of Mazzaspitz (3164 m).
Above: There was a section which required some easy rock climbing. Ski boots aren’t great for climbing in.
Above: The views from the summit of Mazzaspitz were amazing. In every direction were mountains covered in snow, a life time of ski touring.
It was another amazing spring day with unobstructed views in all directions. We retraced our route back carefully down-climbing the rocky section and then climbing back down the steep slope and over to where the others were waiting. We skied off the mountain and enjoyed nice conditions back to the road. The sun had softened the slopes that had required ski crampons earlier in the day.
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