With a lovely forecast Becky and I decided to make the best use of our winter ski passes and use them to head up the Rofanbahn on the last weekend of validity. Unfortunately on the drive there it became clear that the weather was not as good as it was forecast.
We decided to do a circuit from the Vorderes Sonnwendjoch, Sagzahn and Rofanspitze, and I planned to fly off from the Rofanspitze with my hike&fly gear. As we got to the top of the lift we emerged from the cloud to be treated to a wonderful view of the Karwendel and shortly after the Tuxer Alpen. We had hoped that we would stay out of the cloud as we were above it, but unfortunately this was not going to be the case and as we started the descent to the Schermsteinalm we descended back into the cloud.
As we approached the summit of the Vorderes Sonnwendjoch we briefly left the cloud, which allowed us to enjoy the views before it decided that it would make an unwelcome reappearance. From Sagzahn we again had not much of a view, so did not hang around on this summit and made a short down climb which was protected by a cable, about Klettersteig grade A/B.
Thankfully as we ascended to Rofanspitze the summit was clear and remained clear which allowed us to enjoy the views. I decided not to fly as the wind was a bit too strong in the wrong direction and the flight down may have taken me to an area which was unpleasant if it was in the Lee. I expect it would have been ok, but wasn’t sure enough to try.
The descent was longer than we would have liked, mainly due to the amount of snow still left over from winter which did a good job of making our feet very wet. By the time we were back at the Rofanbahn, I decided to not fly down as I didn’t like the look of some of the clouds and could see rain nearby, so instead we enjoyed a drink and some Kaiserschmarrn at the hut before taking the lift back down.
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