Ascent to the Wildspitze and descent through the Taschachtal

Temperatures around minus fifteen, clear, the weather forecast for the Austrian Ötztal area for Friday and weekend promised so much, only the avalanche forecast was still at level 4 on Tuesday. We watched the situation with tension and hoped that it would develop as we expected, ie to stabilize and reduce the risk to at least level 3. The situation after Christmas this year looked dramatic in the whole Alps, snowstorms, strong winds in the higher positions, snow alternating with rain in the lower positions caused avalanches to fall into the valley. They know their thing about it in Zermatt, Switzerland, and they even declared level 5 in the whole area of Valais.

On Thursday after work, we load things into cars, there are six of us. Freeride and glacier equipment. This means skis with seal belts, backpacks ruled by the Holy Trinity, ie a probe, beeper and shovel (of course you carry the beep on your body), cats, ice ax, rope, seats equipped with some slings, carabiners and prussias, which is the basis for walking across the glacier. Backpacks – preferably with airbags; when you add two liters of drink to them, they have a beautiful ten to twelve kilos, which is just right, you have few other things.

The Wildspitze is reached either from Vent (most often via the Breslauer Hutte) or from the other side of the Pitztal. We chose the second option, ie the road from the north, not only because it is more common in winter, but also because of the quality of the snow, the southern slopes are currently blown by the wind and the sun causes a crust on them. We get up at seven o'clock to catch the first cable car, against the alarm clock at four or even earlier when climbing in the summer months, it's literally a luxury. Just after half past eight we are already standing in a Glettcherexpress train, which will take us to a height of 2,840 m. From here we descend the ski slope to the lower station of the Mittelbergbahn cable car, which will help us to a height of 3,200 m. From here, about 600 meters, or rather 800 meters, await us to the top of the Wildspitze, because we will descend a little along the way. In any case, this is a fairly safe and relatively undemanding ascent, suitable even for beginner ski mountaineers, especially in clear weather, as we have. Fortunately, we are here alone, because it is January, when most people are discouraged by winter, moreover, Friday, no usual crowds take place, on the way up we pass the only other group – led by a guide. One member of our expedition turns and says goodbye after the first hundred meters of the climb, unfortunately, despite great determination, it will not go up with the flu … We watch him leave and bandage from two ropes to one, advancement in the rope team is basically not necessary, plain it is clear and there are few cracks on it.

We are at the point where the steeper ascent begins, on the right side you can see the Mitterkarjoch saddle, from where the road from Vent connects. The photo shows our ascent path bypassing the crack to the left.

A place where we leave skis and backpacks. There is a great view from here. We pass on cat jumps, the last hundred meters to the top we go quite lightly, only with an ice ax in hand.

The group led by the guide secures the whole event with a rope, but due to the unpretentiousness of the rock, it is not necessary. About fifty meters remain to the top.

There is nothing to add to the view from the top in clear weather. You just can't enjoy the fact that your gloves fall off … We left the rope under the ridge, so they were quite suitable for securing the prussies from the seats. The glove was saved, the way back without it would not be much in the fifteen-degree frost.

The same exit by cable car as yesterday, with a saddle climb and a hundred-meter slide. After that, however, we do not continue south on the Wildspitze as yesterday, but head west on the Taschachferner Glacier. There are no clues, we are the only ones, we choose the path in the middle of the plain. There are quite a few groups on the Wildspitze today and we are glad that we can go elsewhere. No belts are needed, just need to be tapped, the glacier has a slight slope. We descend the white plain. Soon the landscape becomes more inclined and we experience today's first powder ride, we draw curves, no one has ridden here since Tuesday's snowfall except us. The photo shows the direction over the glacier, which we set off, somewhere in the distance is the Taschachhaus, which is a little lower than the horizon, you can also see my temporarily repaired wand, which could not withstand the descent from the saddle.

We already have Taschachhaus in sight. We originally considered the possibility of staying in the local winter room (the cottage is closed in winter), but the choice of sleeping in the apartment below turned out to be downright happy due to the illness of one member of the group. After consulting with the map, we intend to miss the Taschachhaus, we continue along the stream, which we will have on the left side all the time. The avalanche forecast even dropped to level 2 even at this altitude, but we are still careful and drive up the slope gradually, sometimes there is pure powder, sometimes already starting crust, but the ride is still a great pleasure.

We decided to invest the rest of the afternoon time in repeating the theory (when we have all the equipment with us). Directly above the pub, the hillside was ideal for training rescue from the crack. We simulate a fall, bury an ice ax and make a pulley from prussias, we consider the total rescue time of 20 minutes due to several beers and two rounds of pears to be very successful. And because we enjoyed it, we buried some more practice and dug out a beep. On the way to the parking lot, before dark, we saw a bunch of climbers on a nice little icefall from the footbridge above the stream. … But we've kept it here for the next time. Experiences must be nicely experienced and not topped up right away.