Großglockner Ski Tour

Las weekend friends and I visited Austria for another two day ski tour. This time the destination was a lot more ambitions than last time. We headed for Großglockner. I was nervous weeks and days before we started. Because while I am confident in my physical abilities, I only did 3 Ski Tour days before this trip.

The first day started at Alpengasthof Lucknerhaus from where we went up 1000m to Stüdlhütte where we had a fantastic dinner.

Next morning we left early because the weather forcast was looking bad for the afternoon. After ~700m (my estimation) up with Ski we put on Steigeisen (crampon) and continued along a Klettersteig route to Adlersruhe where I changed into warmer clothing. Good choice! The next 30 minutes(?) at -15° with strong winds were intense. What I most vividly remember is a ridge somewhere close to the top – probably between Kleinglockner and Großglockner. The moment before walking across it I could feel fear rising in me. Ariving at the top was great. I was struggling endurance wise and having finally climbed up the last steps felt sublime.

After the ascend comes the descend. The good thing here was that our two guides could belay us which made it a lot less exhausting and time consuming to get down again.

While I already struggled with skiing in powder snow last time, this time I struggled even more. On top of the exhaustion from climbing earlier, I did not manage to relax and get into a skiing flow which cost a lot of energy and meant I had to rest often. And while it did not take more then 30 minutes to go down the 2000m, it felt much longer. Thanks Clara, Leonhard & Janos for not loosing patience with me!

I am very grateful that everything went well on this tour. Before the next bigger tour I want to practice my skiing basics again and gain more confidence. Besides the descend the trip was a 10/10 experience. Highly recommended if you are fit and a good skiier!