More fantastic weather. We left just before 8 am and headed up behind the hut towards a peak named Kreuzspitze. The snow had a hard crust as we ascended as Elmar cut the track in front of us. Soon we had other groups following us up from the hut.
It started steep and then flattened off before becoming steep again. Later, I started to worry that I wouldn’t be able to ski back down with the hard crust and the slope. Eventually the others made a ski depot and I waited by rocks a few metres below while they headed up to the summit and back down again.
It was an awesome view out across the mountains. Blue sky, no clouds, warm. I still wasn’t sure how I was going to ski back down though. It required a few sharp turns above a slope that ran out to what looked like a drop, then some traversing on the skis before another steep descent.
It turned out not to be a problem. The sun had softened the snow and I managed the couple of turns and it wasn’t long before we were skiing down happier slopes. The whole decent was much nicer than I expected and the snow was very nice to ski on.
Back at the hut we refueled before I went out for a mini tour to enjoy some more sunshine.
Above left: I scared myself with the steep slopes thinking I wouldn’t be able to descend and waited at the ski depot instead of walking to the summit of Kreuzspitze. The view was pretty awesome. Above right: The descent was much nicer than I had thought as the sun had softened the snow and it was quite ok to ski on.
Above left: We had a really nice descent. Above right: It was so nice that we stopped along the way and sat in the sun for a bit.
Above left: Even the breakable crust near the hut had softened and could be carved up. Above right: We had some drinks in the sun at the hut when we returned.
Above: Our route up to Kreuzspitze (courtesy of Apemap and Kompass Karten).
Above: And some video.
Kreuzspitze 3457 m (almost), 6 hours return, 840 m height gain.