Weissbayern

Bavarian Alps

By Emmanuel van den Brûle

February 24^th, 2018

Throwback to a few weeks ago when I posted a few pictures from last summer in Bavaria and said I would come back soon. Guess what ? I did. I went ski touring in Bavaria and Austria for a few days.

Looking back to the few pictures I snapped there, it was clearly the best ski experience of my life. Good snow, great fun, great places and probably too much Weissbier (Edit : never too much Weissbier). Here's a little recap of where we went and what we did. I don't know if someone will care to read this, but I know I will before my next ski trip.

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We started the week a bit hungover but fully energized to attack the slopes of Garmisch-Partenkirschen. The first two hours flew by very quickly before watching the race happening on the infamous Kandahar slope. The rest of the day was pretty much us trying to replicate professional turns and slaloming between beginners, and we ended this promising start with a Willy mit Birne in front of the sunset.

The next day was less promising weather-wise, but I was super pumped to finally try ski touring in Spitzstein. For those who don't know, ski touring (pronounced chi-tour in beautiful German) is basically a thing of the past, going up the mountain without the lifts. You put some skins under your skis and hike to the top, sweating like never before. When at the top, you strip down at freezing temperatures to replace your wet clothes with dry ones, then ski down for approximately a tenth of the time you spent going up. Exciting huh?

Actually yes ! You've got to love hiking, but this is now my favourite way to go skiing. You spend hours enjoying the view in the immense calmness of the mountains then go down making your own path in fresh snow. Very exhausting, hence the very low number of pictures I took, but so rewarding. I couldn't wait to do it again...

Which is great, because the next day we hit the road from Munich to Austria and started quite a long ski tour in Ischgl. The weather was amazing, we did not see a single cloud for two days and we went up between the previous avalanches (kinda scary, but we were in a safe path).

I don't think I have ever felt that tired when we were at the top, but being at the top of the mountain for the sunset was amazing. We celebrated that with some drinks and a day off on the following day (day off meaning classic skiing, using the lifts).

Fifth day already, and we had circled the whole Ischgl area, so we left for Seefeld, still in Austria. Short ski tour there, but under a massive sun it didn't feel that easy (hence the tired faces on the picture below).

Most of these pictures (also applies to the other days) were shot on my iPhone. This is because I was too lazy to take my camera from my backpack everytime I saw good spots, but I am really stunned by the results that a phone can make. No excuses not to take pictures I guess.

Sixth day had to be a real day off, because my legs were saying no to everything and my eyes hadn't been fully open for the last two days. We spent that day in Munich, watching TV and eating, which was exactly what we needed. But obviously, a full day without skiing wasn't in the plans, so we went night skitouring in Schliersee.

I had already skied in the night, but on slopes and they were lit like a football stadium. It wasn't the case this time. Going up was not so exhausting considering we had a soup waiting for us in a refuge at the top. Going down was a bit more tricky.

My only hope of seeing anything in this fresh snow was a headlamp with half-dead batteries, so I had to rely on the others. Add to this the fact that I wasn't wearing my glasses (which is not a problem in the day but is a struggle at night) due to fog, I skied practically blindfolded... And it was super fun ! Here's a picture that doesn't show much but I really like it.

A few hours later, we were back in Austria. The snow was falling heavily for a few hours and I was super excited to discover the area of Kitzbühel where some of my heroes have won the scariest race on the Streif. Despite the whole resort being filled with fresh powder, this slope was only blue iced and I did not feel confident despite my 20 years of skiing experience. I can't imagine the skills required to be a professional skier, but I realized how brave they were to attack +45° downhills head first.

PS: the skier on the picture below is me (Hi there !). Thanks to Julien who took it while I was focused on not falling.

Last day already, but what a day ! We hiked a vertical kilometer in super fresh powder then had a blast making our own path between the trees of Schwarzkogel. We were surprisingly fresh too, despite exhausted legs and an apparent lack of sleep. Easily the best skiing of my life.

I would like to thank Julien who invited me along for this great week and made me discover all these amazing places. I can't wait to go back there again and try to beat you to the top.