SMC Olperer (3476 m) north ridge winter ascent

The Scottish Mountaineering Club, short SMC, was founded in 1889, 20 years after the German Alpine Club DAV. By chance, I found out that another SMC member, Mark Litterick, lives in Holzkirchen, 18 km down the road from Unterhaching. So we decided to do some mountaineering together.

As temperatures were reaching 15 degrees in early January 2022, we decided to go high and try the Olperer, a granite pyramid high above the Zillertal. On the 4.1.2022 we went via Achensee and Mayrhofen to Hintertux (whilst avoiding the Zillertaler Schürzenjäger, don't ask) and paid 24 Euros for the lift to the Tuxfernerhaus at 2605 m. We were the only ski tourers on the well-groomed pistes and soon saw the Olperer granite pyramid with a Föhnsturm blowing over it.

Here is the North Ridge. You ascend first on the snowed up glacier on the right and then cross to the ridge. We were unsure whether the climb was feasible because of the strong Föhn but saw another team on it so all go. 

At the Wildlahnerscharte bealach we geared up. It was Scottish with a swirling, strong wind and spindrift and I was getting ready for some hot aches. 

We ascended the glacier and then stepped onto the ridge which has triangular Metallbügel (iron holds). The Metallbügel are great for belaying and clipping quickdraws. Here isMark leading the second pitch.

Soon after we noted that the skiing below stopped presumably because of the high winds.

The crux of the route is an overhang with a couple of „Metallbügel“ and a sling hanging down. This looks like a dodgy affair in winter. So like the team ahead of us we avoided it on the right with some granite mixed climbing (full points) back to the ridge.

After that it becomes easier and we just carried on with a running rope to reach the summit in two pitches. Here is Mark on the last pitch with the Föhnstorm blowing over the summit.

No summit photos. It was stormy, getting late and we had to quickly down climb with two abseils to reach the glen in daylight. Here is me doing the first one down the overhang. Even abseiling was dodgy.

And here is Mark doing the second abseil with the panorama of the Northern Alps behind.

We raced to the bealach as the light was fading. We de-geared, jumped onto the skis, and skied on empty pistes to the Tuxfernerhaus and from there with two gondolas to the bottom as it was getting too dark for skiing and as we did not know what pistes we had to take. We were the only ones in our gondolas as the skiing had stopped around lunchtime because of the high winds.

Overall a fantastic SMC outing. If you consider doing the Olperer in winter then it should ideally be mild in Munich (10 degrees in Munich means roughly -8 degrees at 3500 m) and there should be little wind. The ski ascent is on piste, so no avalanche danger but there could be avalanche danger on the glacier to the right of the Olperer. For gear we took a 50 m rope 4 short quickdraws, 2 long quickdraws, a set of nuts which we did not use and three friends. We climbed with two ice axes each just like a Scottish winter climb.

HW