A big advantage of Munich is that it is close to the Alps. In fact, from my village, I can see the snow-capped Alpine peaks on my way to the S-Bahn. But because of work and also because I did not have a climbing partner it took some time to get back into mountaineering. But Arno, a fellow Brexit refugee who was my climbing partner in Scotland has now moved to Munich, too. So this Sunday Arno and I decided to do the sub 2 h drive into Austria to ski tour & scramble to the South of the Inn valley. Here is Arno joining the ski tour trek.
We aimed for nearly 1800 altimetres to do the "hinterer Brunnenkogel". Here we are higher up and above Arno is the North face of the "vorderer Brunnenkogel"...
... and here it is in more detail. Tasty!
Here another photo with Arno below for a size comparison. It does not look too difficult but certainly long especially when considering the walk in.
We aimed for the "hinterer Brunnenkogel" which is to the left of Arno. We skinned up to the Bealach only to discover that there was a long trek of steep, quite stable but often bottomless, semi-bonded snow that did not take our weights.
So we were swimming up altimeter after altimeter, a skill well trained in Glen Clova and elsewhere. Here is Arno in a spot where it wasn't deep.
Finally, we reached a ridge and scrambled for nearly an hour to reach the top. After that a slog down to the skis, skins off and with tired legs the slide to the bottom with sections that offered a tremendous opportunity for skill development or extermination (like the forest at the bottom). Good to be in mountaineering mode again!
HW
