Ski tour to Hinterer Brochkogel

Ski tour to Hinterer Brochkogel

Page Type Page Type: Trip Report
Date Date Climbed/Hiked: Mar 17, 2007
Activities Activities: Mountaineering, Skiing
Seasons Season: Spring

Ski tour to Hinterer Brochkogel

Panoramic view Wildspitze and Hinterer BrochkogelWildspitze and Hinterer Brochkogel

Since some weeks I have had email-contact with SP-member Nikman (Niklas) a well experienced mountaineer from Gerlingen near Stuttgart in Germany. We arranged to do some ski tours in April and May. We planned two ski-trips to Berner Oberland (Fiescherhörner) and Saas Fee (Rimpfischhorn and Alphubel) including sleeping in a tent on the glacier. Getting to know each other I thought about a small ski tour to Tyrol. The only problem we had was that we had only one day with nice weather and this was Saturday. So it had to be a one-day ascent on a nice mountain! A high mountain! Because, the whole week before was very hot and the snow melted away. The search for a good aim was short. PITZTAL GLACIER! WILDSPITZE or HINTERER BROCHKOGEL. Both summits are one of the highest in Austria and are reachable within 2,5 hours by using the cable-car to Pitztaler Glacier Ski Resort. PERFECT! I had done Wildspitze last year, so I suggested Niklas to do Hinterer Brochkogel via the North-Ridge. As a passionate Swiss-Mountaineer he never did a alpine ascent in the Eastern Alps before. So this trip would be the best thing to show him the beauty of the Eastern Alps. Climbing a very nice ridge on the fifth highest mountain of Austria with a fantastic view to Wildspitze and Weisskugel the second and third highest summits of Austria, after that a two hours ski descent through the Taschach-valley with its wild icefalls, this sounded fine. We had a deal!

Traffic jamTraffic Jam at Mittelbergjoch
Crowded Ski routeThe crowd
On the north ridgeOn the ridge
On the north ridgeView to Wildspitze

We had to work on Friday. So I drove to Stuttgart after work. We reloaded my stuff in his car and drove very quickly to Tyrol. (You know german Autobahn? You know what I mean!) We reached the cable car station more than a hour quicker than the navigation system had calculated. We planned to stay the night in the car on the parking of the cable car station. We drove to a dark part of the parking next to some motorhomes. We prepared our stuff, heated the car for the night and slipped in our sleeping bags. After a while it knocked at the window. Outside in the dark! I was afraid, who the hell was it? Was it somebody from the cable-car-company who wants to forbid us to sleep on the parking? No, it was more worse! A very angry swiss woman shouted (after I opened the door) what we want on her parking area and that our great hullabaloo would wake up the other people in the motorhomes. Noise? No! What the hell,...?! We were very confused while looking at a woman shouting about disturbance of the peace by night. After this funny incident we felt asleep.

We woke up and prepared our stuff. We wanted to get the first cable-car to the ski resort, but Niklas didn´t found his car key. After 20 minutes of intensiv search we found the key hanging on the skis ;-) The first cable car was gone. No problem, we had enough time. We used the second cable-car. After getting to the top, we skied down to the new Mittelberg-ski-lift. (Up to now I don´t know why this cable-car opens not before 9:15 a.m.) So we waited in front of the ski-lift with many, many other ski-mountaineers. Seeing this crowd I was happy to climb Hinterer Brochkogel and not Wildspitze, the more prominent peak. We got to Mittelbergjoch, the notch to the Taschach-valley. There was a big traffic-jam for the descent. Oh no!!! After getting to the deepest point we prepared ourself for the ascent. The weather was very nice and we were very fast due to the well prepared track. At Hinterer Brochkogel we turned to the North ridge. The whole crowd was heading towards Wildspitze.


360° Summit Panorama360° Summit view
Panorama SkitourWildspitze and Hinterer Brochkogel
Looking upLooking up
On Hinterer BrochkogelOn the summit
On the north ridgeNorth ridge.
On top of Hinterer BrochkogelSebastian´s Bergmaus and Niklas
South-East RidgeSouth East Ridge
On the Taschach glacierWild Taschach-glacier

We were very happy to be alone with only two other mountaineers on this mountain. Thanks God for the not prominent class-B-summits! We prepared our equipment for the climbing. We dicided to go with two ice axes but without a rope. The snow should be good enough despite the warm days before. The snow was handy due to the cold temperatures. We had sunshine but it was cold and windy. Our drinking bags (camel bags) were frozen in the backpack. We ascended the whole ridge were quickly. The ridge line was half blank ice and half handy snow. VERY NICE CLIMBING up to 50°. We reached the top within a hour. On top we had a fantastic view to the crowded Wildspitze ;-) and the other prominent mountains south of Hinterer Brochkogel like Piz Bernina, Weisskugel, Ortler, Gran Zebru, Cevedale and Similaun. We made some nice photos. After enjoying the view, we descended via the South-East-ridge, the normal route from Mitterkarjoch (The notch on the normal route to Wildspitze from Breslauer Huette). On the descent the sunshine was gone and it becomes foggy, very windy and cold. We reached our ski depot at the foot of the North-ridge after traversing the north-east-face of Hinterer Brochkogel. We skied down to the Mittelbergjoch where a group asked us if we want to ski down via the long and wild Taschach-valley. First I thought it would be no good idea to ski down an icefall after such a warm period and after this lousy crappy winter with very bad snow conditions. PRO & CONTRA, we decided to ski down. "WE ARE MOUNTAINEERS! WE DON`T USE CABLE-CARS FOR THE DESCENT !!! ... only for the ascent ;-)" The route through the Taschach-valley was a very wild ski route over blank ice and crevasses. It was a nice experience. After 2 hours we reached the cable-car-station.

We had a nice mountain-day. We ate a Viennese Schnitzel and drunk a beer in Sankt Leonard. We drove back to Stuttgart,... very quickly!

Now, we are looking forward to our trips in April and May.



Greetings to all SP-Members!

















Comments

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Viewing: 1-11 of 11
Dmitry Pruss

Dmitry Pruss - Mar 22, 2007 3:52 pm - Voted 10/10

Thanks for the TR and the picts

I wanted to learn a bit more about this area but the report is not attached to any mountain or range or map, and the coordinates are in the Western hemisphere too ;)

Also interested in the ski lift access pros and cons. Of course riding a lift is faster than skinning up :), but it looks like anyone using the lifts is forced into a very late start?

Sebastian Hamm

Sebastian Hamm - Mar 22, 2007 8:16 pm - Hasn't voted

Re: Thanks for the TR and the picts

Thanks for the advices.

The area is fine. It is one of the highest areas in Austria. Wildspitze is the second highest summit in Austria. To ascend from the valley (Mittelberg) is 2100m elevation gain and 7-8 hours. By using the cable car you reach it in 2,5 hours. So it is a very popular one day ascent.

Dmitry Pruss

Dmitry Pruss - Mar 22, 2007 10:47 pm - Voted 10/10

So you'd have to start from Mittelberg

and that's where your descent ended too? Wow, I wouldn't expect nice skiing below 2000m elevation there in mid-March and it looks like there were several kms of it on your descent?

Nikman

Nikman - Mar 24, 2007 2:01 pm - Voted 10/10

Re: So you'd have to start from Mittelberg

Hi Mockba,
I also prefer using my own feet to reach a summit. Using a cable car can be a good alternative, if you are on a short schedule for a oneday-tour.

The way back to Mittelberg has about 10 kms distance from the upper part of the glacier (Taschachferner).
Skiing down the Taschachferner includes a way through crevasses in icy conditions in the beginning. The ice junction of the glacier ends at about 2400 meters above sealevel.
From there the slopes had good conditions until Gufelhütte (1994m). Going down from top the first 1400 meters of elevation are a lot steeper than the following part.
From Gufelhütte to Mittelberg a track follows the valley in soft elevation, so it´s not really skiing anymore. We had to help ourselfes skating once in a while. It was rather wet snow on the passage that day, but we didn´t have to take off our skies all the way down to Mittelberg.

Hotfeet

Hotfeet - Mar 25, 2007 3:39 am - Voted 10/10

Thanks

I've never been fortunate enough to have seen that magnificant area. Thank you for the information and wonderful views.

Sebastian Hamm

Sebastian Hamm - Mar 25, 2007 8:20 am - Hasn't voted

Re: Thanks

Thanks for your nice comment.

pcirani@tiscali.it

pcirani@tiscali.it - Mar 27, 2007 6:04 pm - Voted 10/10

Good...

week end! Cheers, Paolo

Sebastian Hamm

Sebastian Hamm - Apr 3, 2007 1:23 am - Hasn't voted

Re: Good...

Thanks Paolo!
Cheers, Sebastian

mvs

mvs - Apr 2, 2007 5:48 pm - Voted 10/10

Hey Sebastian

It was great to see this awesome area yesterday. Thanks for the Taschach Glacier descent idea too, it was amazingly beautiful!

Sebastian Hamm

Sebastian Hamm - Apr 3, 2007 1:24 am - Hasn't voted

Re: Hey Sebastian

Thanks Michael.
What have you done?
Sebastian

mvs

mvs - Apr 3, 2007 1:53 am - Voted 10/10

Re: Hey Sebastian

Ah sorry! We climbed the wildspitze and I wrote a trip report here.

Viewing: 1-11 of 11


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