Austrian Alps
Jim Frankenfield; snowman@csac.org; 1-877-604-0166
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| Stubai and Pitztal Alps,
2000 - In May of 2000 I was in Innsbruck to attend a conference
on avalanches sponsored by the International Glaciology Society. I
spent about an extra week in order to ski. The two bigger trips shown
here were an ascent of the Zuckerhutl from the Hildesheimer Hutte
in the Stubai Alps and an ascent of the Wildspitze in the Pitztal
Alps from the Braunschweiger Hütte. I also took the Nordkette Bahn to the top
from Innsbruck, skied down the backside into the Karwindel Alps, and
hiked out to the town of Scharnitz.. |
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The Zuckerhutl, the route, and a shot
from the descent. |
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The Hildesheimer Hutte. At left note the
winter room perched out on the edge to the left. The right is the
view across the Solden Valley. |
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A few panoramas. |
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Summit of the Wildspitze. Some skiers
traversed along the summit ridge for a steeper line down. Many of
us left our skis at the base of the summit section. |
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The descent. |
| Stubai Alps, 2002 -
In November, 2002 I went on a trip to Bavaria and Austria and once
again went to the Hildesheimer Hutte. Despite the nice weather reflected
in these photos from the first day I woke up at the hut to a howling
wind, eventually climbed to the ski area despite being knocked over
periodically, and found it closed. I skied down to the Dresdener Hutte
and was given a ride down in the cable car with some employees and
a local guide at the end of the day. The guide had a close encounter
with an avalanche on the tour up to the hut (where his clients stayed.)
A week or so later a snowboarder was killed in an avalanche just below
the Dresden Hutte when they started riding down due to long lines
for the Gondola. |
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Views of the Zuckerhutl and the hutte. |
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Views around the Stubai Glacier ski area. |
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Due to recent high foehn winds there was
a lot of avalanche activity. Here one came down adjacent to a trail,
probably due to intentional control work. |
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