Veitsberg

A lot had changed in the mountains since the previous weekend on Schellschlicht, as a significant amount of snow had fallen during the week. The weather forecast in the morning looked stunning, with high cloud forecast for the afternoon before more precipitation in the evening. We also needed a short day as Becky had to drive the van back to the UK the next day, so we settled on an early ascent of the Veitsberg, which had a book time of 4h15mins if the ridge on from the Veitsberg was excluded.

The walk was really enjoyable from the get-go, as the autumnal colours were just stunning, and with a snow line down to only just above the car park gave us some really beautiful scenes with autumnal trees covered in plenty of snow. A rare combination thanks to a late autumn and a reasonable amount of early snowfall.

Despite the snowfall we made good time, and were soon at the start of the ridge up to the summit. Here was where the day progressed from great to outstanding, as the views were just spectacular due to the clear air, green valleys and snow-covered mountains. We made good time up the ridge, and were at the summit 2h15 after leaving the car despite the hard going in the snow.

As it was still early, and the summit wind was bitterly cold, we didn’t hang around at the summit for any food but quickly dropped down to the col. Here we were in two minds about following our plan and descending, or continuing along the ridge. Despite the lure of the ridge, we decided to stick to our plan of a short day, and being back to Munich early to finish packing the van.

With the snow covered slopes the initial descent was quick, as we were able to descent in a straight line avoiding the zig zags. As the snow hadn’t melted, and we were breaking trail, the snow didn’t slow us down much until we arrived at the Riedebenalm where we met a number of people ascending.

From here it wasn’t too far back down to the valley, and were back to the car 4hrs after we left it, for some well earned lunch.

For each of the 3 years I have been in Munich, the first snowy walk of the winter season has always been memorable (Risserkogel, Bärenkopf and Thanneller), and this was no exception, and this was the first year where I was able to share it with Becky.