Thankfully 2022 was a more normal year than the previous two years, and our first full year with our new lifestyle living an hour from the Alps. A high point of the year was the number of visitors we were able to host, for skiing, walking, paragliding and climbing.
We certainly made the most of living near the alps, with most weekends spend in the mountains one way or another.
Winter
Our winter was fairly dominated with piste skiing, where Becky progressed from tentatively skiing easy blue runs to confidently skiing red runs with the odd short black run as well! This was great to see and I am looking forward to her continued progression this year. Despite the focus on piste skiing we also squeezed some paragliding in and I managed to get 4 days of ski touring as well.
General
Through the winter we managed to squeeze in some paragliding, and on one of our final days of skiing of the year, I am managed to combine a morning skiing with my first proper cross country flight on my paraglider which was a very memorable experience, as I flew a up to a mountain which I had previously walked up.
We also had a weekend away in Südtirol, where we enjoyed ice climbing on ice falls which were 200m from our accommodation and trying Langlauf for the first time, needless to say Langlauf was much harder than it looked and I didn’t enjoy a high speed fall!
Alpine Skiing
Our winter was dominated by alpine skiing, we mostly did day trips from Munich to Ski Welt, Kitzbühel and the Zillertal. However we also had a few long weekends staying in the Zillertal when we had visitors. It was really great to live so close to great resorts which people plan their only ski trip of the year to, as we could do the 1h30-2h drive whenever the weather was really good at the weekend, which thankfully was a lot of the time last winter due to a 6 week spell of outstanding weather in February and March.
It was wonderful to see Becky’s progression from pretty much a total beginner skier to a confidently being able to ski red runs by the end of the season. The highlight of our skiing was certainly our day in the Dolomites where we skied the Sellaronda.
Ski Touring
Despite not getting much ski touring in, some of the days out were very memorable due to beautiful crisp clear winter air with fantastic views of the big mountains. From a snow point of view the highlight was the Ritzier Grießkogel, as this was before the drought which brought 6 weeks of lovely weather, so both the views and the skiing were excellent.
Unfortunately as the season progressed the lack of snow impacted the quality of the skiing, however I enjoyed a day out with Rob and Adam on Juifen, even if the skiing could have been better.
However the highlight of my ski touring last year was a 3 day hut to hut in the Ötztaler Alpen, on which we climbed the Fineilspitze and the Langtauferer Spitze, before skiing down the remote Hintereisferner. The weather was absolutely perfect and it was great to be on the top of big mountains in the middle of winter, with the crisp clear air giving us fantastic views.
Spring Walking
By mid April we were certainly over winter and starting to look forward to spring walking and the longer days, frustratingly despite the small amount of snowfall over the winter, poor spring weather resulted in the snow taking a while to clear from the mountains. That being said, we managed to get some good walking in to rebuild our leg fitness before the main summer season started.
Summer
The highlight of our summer was the Watzmann traverse on our staycation in Munich in August and our weekend climbing and walking with Rob and Win in Tannheimer Tal.
Klettersteig
We only managed a few Klettersteigs this summer, but the all packed a good punch, the highlights were the Große Ochsenwand Klettersteig in the Stubai which was a wonderfully long route in the Stubai mountains and the traverse of the Watzmann after staying in the Watzmannhaus for the night.
Climbing
We managed a number of days out rock climbing in the summer, mostly focussing on long easy routes in the mountains, rather than shorter sport climbing. These were generally enjoyable, but the grading was often a bit variable and sometimes there was less protection than I might have liked! The climbing highlight was the Aggenstein Linke Südwand-Platte with Rob and Win, despite the route finding issues along the way!
- Kampenwand Climbing & Paragliding
- Elfer Nordturm Climbing
- Direkter Ostgrat Blankenstein
- Stripsenjoch Climbing
- Aggenstein Linke Südwand-Platte
Walking
Amongst the paragliding, Klettersteig and climbing days out, we didn’t do that much walking during the summer months, and the walking we did do was generally because we couldn’t do another activity due to the forecast thunderstorms!
Paragliding
For me a large part of the year was the summer paragliding season, where I progressed from my first cross country flight in Mayrhofen at the end of winter, to an intermediate cross country pilot, having competed a number of flights of over 50km xc distance, obtained my cross country flight rating and spend a signifiant amount of time in the air.
Towards the end of the season I had progressed enough that not every second was strongly focussing on what I was doing, and started being able to capture a few moments in still photos and videos. For me the highlight flights of the year are clear, my first closed FAI triangle in the Stubai alps, which was also my first flight over 50km (64km), and my first time flying above high mountains and glaciers. The views were just out of this world.
The other highlight flights were not about distance, but about breathtaking scenery with my two trips to the Dolomites, which on my first I flew over the Vajolet Towers, a classic rock climbing area, in which we have previously climbed, and on the second over the highest peak on the area, Marmolada. My YouTube channel can be found here.
- Paragliding over the Stubai Glaciers
- Sulzspitze Hike&Fly
- Autumnal Kössen XC
- Col Bel Hike&Fly (Val di Fassa, Dolomites)
- Col Rodella XC Paragliding
- Bassano Paragliding
- Paragliding over Marmolada (Dolomites)
Autumn
All too soon the summer was drawing to a close, however we also found a new hobby for this period has Becky’s new bike came much quicker than anticipated so we started to enjoy road cycling around Munich in addition to our usual activities.
Holiday to Arco
We ended up delaying our autumn holiday and decided to head to Arco for a week with a very full van, it was packed with equipment for multi pitch rock climbing, single pitch climbing, klettersteig, paragliding and walking! We had a wonderful time, enjoying the warm temperatures, Italian food and lots of climbing. My best two days of the holiday were the cycle around Lake Garda and the day climbing in Val di Ledro.
- La Bellezza Della Venere (Arco)
- Cinque Stagioni & Spigolo Sud (Arco)
- Via Settimo Cielo, Val di Ledro (Arco)
- Lake Garda Road Cycling
Walking
All too soon we were heading towards the end of Autumn, but we managed to get two outstanding days in, the first when Emma and Will were visiting. We repeated a walk we had previously completed with Win as it was the best “bang for your buck” walk that we could think of, not too far from Munich, not too long due to the Seilbahn and with absolutely outstanding views into the Karwendel and the high mountains of Austria.
On the final day before Becky headed back to the UK for November, we headed for the Blauberg, a ridge which I had been wanting to complete for a long time with stunning views down towards Achensee.
Winter
After what felt like weekends of bad weather, there was finally a clearing just after a cold spell and the first snow of the year. We headed to Thaneller which is a fairly isolated mountain which therefore has a stunning 360 degree panorama on a perfectly clear day. The views on the ascent were just outstanding, and made me forget about my heavy paragliding bag on my back. I found starting in deep snow on a very steep slope pretty difficult and it certainly wasn’t the best start to my flight, however the glide down was enjoyable and certainly made up for the walk up!
It was the first Christmas with the Munich Christmas markets since we moved here, and we certainly frequented them often. As the weather on the day of the Krampuslauf was not forecast to be great, we decided to stay in Munich and go to the event, which was certainly an experience and was very enjoyable despite the cold! Along with the Christmas markets, we also enjoyed our first days out skiing of the season before we headed back to the UK for Christmas and new year.
