MELs' Blog

Together with bikebuddies Andi and Arthur we drove to Krün, parked our car there and started for a bike & hike tour… 1300 altimeters, the last 400 altimeters we had to toss and carry the bikes… As I’m writing this entry nearly three weeks later, here are the pix 🙂 Andi is a talented photographer, so enjoy his pictures, they are awesome!!!!

THXXXX guys, it was a AWESOME day!!!!!

 

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Monday, 18th June…

…went climbing with Jess in Ötztal… Ötztal offers a variety of different climbing routes of all abilities… We decided to drive to Nösslach and go climbing there…

More infos: http://www.oetztalclimbing.com/content/index.php/klettergebiete/nosslach.html

It was a good day of climbing, the sun was killing us thoug 😉 No, but it was really hot after climbing the first routes in the shade… I like climbing a lot, it’s such a good change from biking, good for your mental strength… 🙂

Have a look on Jessie’s Homepage!!!! She is an extraordinary artist, painting soooooo beautiful mountain pictures!!!!! I’m a FAN!!!!

…got back to Innsbruck around 7.30 p.m. and I had one thing in my mind… Wanted to sleep outside on the mountain this night and wake up with a sunrise in the morning… Came different though ;-)…

So I packed my stuff (bike etc…), got ready and drove to Grinzens, further on into the direction of Salfeinsalm… Parked my car there, biked up to Salfeinsalm, from there I had to carry and toss my bike for nearly an hour…

10 p.m. – at the top of Salfeins at 2000 m… A little too late but still I could enjoy the last minutes of the sunset…

So the plan was to sleep up here… At this beautiful spot… But, the weather didn’t mean it that good with me… At least sheet lightning’s were reminding me that there could be a thunderstorm very soon… I ignored it and stayed up, as the lightnings where still far away… No rain, no thunder so far… It was dark, all by-myself up here, in the mountains, really all by my-self? I heard a noise but didn’t see anything… Ignored it… Lay down in my sleeping bag and tried to sleep… Tried to… It didn’t work though 😉 What a comfort to sleep in a bed with a comfy matress… Didn’t bring that with me… Extra weight…

Suddenly, it was around midnight, it started to slightly rain and a flash of lightning reminded me… You have to go ;-)… I was up again, in the dark and 20 meters in front of me a sheep, all by itself… That was the noise earlier on ;-)… But where was the herd???? Packed my stuff at midnight, my bike, headlamp and started my way down… Of course on the bike… But I had to find the trail before I could start my adventure down… Five minutes and some lightnings later I finally could start my ride down… Wow, that was really cool!!! And due to the lightnings I had good light 😉 Trailsurfing at midnight with sheet lightning…

Although I was all alone, I wasn’t scared at all… It was a cool challenge to bike down in the dark 😉 I’m sure when you do that more often, it helps your technique extremely!!! There are already a lot of people biking in the dark (with better headlamps that I had) but I think it’s not soooo cool as you scare mother nature, especially the animals!!!! The poor cows, I went by really slowly but they were scared!!! So please respect nature!!!!

Got back to my car and it started to rain… At Zirl there was a big thunderstorm, the road was wet… Here a picture of Alex, who made a picture that is quite impressive…

Home safely… Good night 🙂

Saturday, 16th June… Together with Andi and Vreni we drove to Trins/Gschnitztal to try out a new route and hopefully a cool trail down… And yes it was…

Goal for the day… Padasterjochhaus

We parked the car in Trins, started with a steep hillclimb as Andi’s bus wouldn’t have made it up the hill… Optional… Park the car at the parking place for the Padasterjochhaus… From there a nice, continuous, not to steep mountainbike route leads all the way up to the Padasterjochhaus… Vreni wasn’t lucky this day as her chain broke, so she had to stay behind and lay in the sun… Also not bad 😉

Andi and me biked up the 9 km’s and 1000 hm’s in about two hours, were rewarded by a wonderful view… The trail down – AWESOME! Technical, challenging but not toooo hard… Another fun day on the mountain!!!!

Tuesday, 19th June… Birthday tour with Mööary…

Again… Padasterjochhaus… There are so many options what to do and where to bike around Innsbruck… But we decided to do the tour once again… Gschnitztal here we are…

 

Finally, after the long rainy and changeable weather period, the sun was out again… Together with Dani I had a beautiful day shreddin’ in the Bikepark Tirol…

There are just two different tracks (blue and red line) but for half a day it’s worth riding there without getting bored… I’m not a Bikepark rider but it’s a cool change and good for improving your technical skills as you get more runs in…

Here some pix from the day…

 

Thxxxx Dani for this beautiful daaaaayyyy!!!!!

The motivation for an alpine tour in the Alps was still very high and so we (Liz and myself) decided  to climb the Hochfeiler peak, 3509 m over the North face and also ski down the North face… That was the plan…

Hochfeiler is the highest peak in the Zillertal Alps and stands on the borderline between Tyrol and South Tyrol. A 300 m North face with a constant 50 degree steepness, max 55 degree steepness, has to be climbed to reach the peak… At least on our planned route… It was on Liz’ and my “To-do list”, so we decided TO DO IT 😉

The changeable weather from the past weeks and also the forecast didn’t mean it to good for us but we wanted to try it. Tuesday, 5th of June had a ridge of high pressure and we hoped that it would stay like this at least until wednesday noon…

So we drove to Stein/Pfitscher valley, South Tyrol, further on the Pfitscherjoch mountain road until the parking place of the Hochfeiler hut and parked the car there. Then the uploading and repacking of all our stuff (skis, skitouring boots, food, harness, etc…) began…

Finally we had everything, so we could start with our bikes and with over 20 kg’s on our back… crazy girls ;-)…

We saved 200 hm difference in altitude of walking by bike, left our bikes in the bushes at turn 5 and started our hike to the Günther Messner Bivvy… A beautiful hike in a wonderful scenery made us nearly forget our heavy backpacks on the back… Liz left her shoes also with the bikes, so she hiked with the touring boots to save some weight… I had the boots on the back, for me it was more comfy to hike in the hiking shoes…

Liz…

Two hours later with some rests on the way, we finally arrived the bivvy at 2429 m…

The bivvy offers place for 10 people (you don’t have to bring blankets, there are some at the bivvy) but I don’t want to imagine how it’s like when it’s full 😉 There was one Polish guy up there, apart from that nobody there… Time for cooking… Melting some snow, ready-to-serve pasta and some bread… Sitting outside and enjoying the beautiful view…

It was a short, cold night… The polish guy was snoring above me, with three blankets I was freezing, it got a little better when I finally moved my a… and got two more blankets 😉 Still my bladder was reminding me that I should go to the outdoor toilet but I didn’t want to move my a… anymore 😉 So, as I said, it was a short night…

At 3 a.m. the alarm clock rang – it’s stand-up time… We stood up, made some breakfast, woke up the poor Polish guy (sorry for that but it’s IMPOSSIBLE to be quiet on 10 sqare meters…)

It took some time until we were ready to start… The sky wasn’t clear anymore, clouds had moved in, the air was quite humid but we started at around 4.15 a.m…

We had to hike a little until we could put on our touring skis and with just one break we could skin up to the first “Scharte” (no name, South of Grießscharte at 2818 m). Clouds didn’t move away but we decided to ski down to Rötkees, see how the weather changes until then…

Liz is actually a snowboard professional but also a very good skier!!!

We lost 100 meters, skinned up over Rötkees in complete fog to the next “Scharte”, along Pfitscher Grat and had to accept that the weather won’t change…

…and we knew being on a glacier with such changing conditions – it has no sense… The mountains are here longer and it’s better to play safe… A last photo on our “peak” at 2820 m, then we turned around, skied down, hiked up the colouir again, skied down to the bivvy and had a second breakfast there… It was around 9 a.m. ;-)…

The hike down was quite tough, at least for me… My back was killing me from the heavy backpack and my knee hurt because of the physical demands and the fact that my knee is quite “used” after some surgeries already… That’s why I love biking in summer… I don’t mind carrying the bike up on my back to a mountain, the fact that I can ride down is worth everything… One day later I can still feel my body  but in a positive way, no more pain, just a good feeling that we’ve done something special…

There was an italian couple sitting at the bench and couldn’t believe there eyes that two girls, with heavy packs, skis and a bike came down the mountain… So we asked them for some pictures 😉 Tante grazie 🙂

We’ll be back for sure…

THANKS a lot Liz for those great times 🙂 Looking already forward to the next adventures with you 🙂

Now it’s really time for summer… Enjoy what you’re doing 🙂

For more information about the tour… www.bergsteigen.at

Summer is here 🙂

…on tour with Basti…

The changeable weather from the past days took a break, so a perfect day to spend it in the mountains…

Together with Basti I drove to Ehrwald, parked the car at the Ehrwald Almbahnen and started off our tour from there… A short hike through the forrest until we got to the entry of the Seebenklettersteig – Via Ferrata… Some climbers were already in the route, so we could take our time… Climbing next to a waterfall – something special, definetely…

It didn’t take us very long to climb the Via Ferrata… On the way up we overtook a girl without a helmet – sorry, no sympathy for that! Especially when there is danger of falling rocks… That’s really stupid!

We hiked further to the dragon lake and were so impressed of the beautiful surroundings!!!!

…and there it was… our next goal… Vorderer Tajakopf 2450 m high… Climbable over the Tajakanten-Klettersteig…

It’s said that it’s one of the most beautiful Via Ferrata’s of Austria, and YES for sure, it is!!!

Long, demanding, challenging but a lot of fun with such a wonderful surrounding!!!!

The hike down… Well, if I could fly – I WOULD DO IT 😉 That’s the only thing that really sucks when climbing mountains… The way down… Especially with my knees that are the one’s of an old woman… hahahaa… But I’m trained and in good shape, so it’s alright… And we were lucky at some parts – snowfields to slide down 🙂 How fun!!!!

It was a looooooong walk down but definetely all worth it!!!!! I still feel my thighs ;-)… THANKS Basti for such a great day!!!!!