Blog Posts in Category: Winter Walking

We were expecting a fairly full on day out on the Notkarspize, as despite the wall to wall sun in the forecast, a 60km/h wind was also forecast on the summits. As we set off from the car park it all seemed quite calm, and a quick look at the Zugspitze weather station suggested that the wind had not materialised. We decided to head up the ridge past the Ochsensitz and the Ziegelspitz up to the summit of the Nortkarspitze and then descend into the north west corrie and then back down to Ettal. It was great to have a wonderful view of previously completed walks nearby, which include: Sonnengrat Kristenkar – Bischof – Wankbahn Kramerspitz Brünstelskopf to Vorderer Felderkopf Ridge Hinteres Hörnle Ski Tour The ascent up through the woods was over fairly quickly, although it was fairly frustrating with lots of icy snow patches, interspersed with dry path. Which meant that we couldn’t wear crampons, but had to move slowly to avoid slipping over. As we emerged from the trees we were greeted with a stunning view, as it seemed that the haze which had been present over. Read the full article…

After a day with poor weather and colder temperatures we had another day with an excellent forecast, just quite a bit colder than the previous few days. This reduction in temperatures lead to some wonderful winter walking conditions, as all of the old snow had re-frozen which made the conditions underfoot considerably easier than the previous few days. Rob, Becky and I headed to an area which wasn’t familiar to any of us, some mountains above Bayrischzell. We started fairly high from the car park at the Rosengasse ski center, which meant that we were above the snow line for the vast majority of the day. We followed the ski tracks up which took us up a slightly different, but almost certainly nicer route to join the ridge. With the refrozen snow we made great progress up the steep ascent. The views from the ridge were wonderful, and it was just great to be out walking along a ridge in such good conditions. There were a number of skiers out, but at no point during the day did I wish I had my skis, as the snow was very icy,. Read the full article…

After a few weeks of excellent skiing, the weather seemed to turn very abruptly to spring with warm weather and clear skies. After months of not being able to join me in Munich due to Covid travel restrictions, Becky was finally able to come out for a few weeks. Thankfully the weather once she had finished her quarantine was still beautiful, so we headed out to do the classic circuit of Herzogstand and Heimgarten. The weather was beautiful all day, and we certainly felt too warm in trousers and a t-shirt! The ascent up to the Herzogstand was fairly quick and we were greeted with exceptional views, the difference between the view to the north towards Starnbergersee and Munich and south towards the alps was amazing, and it was great to look down over Kochelsee and Walchensee. The ridge between the two looked brilliant with the last of the snow still covering the ridge, we had to put spikes on to get down to the start of the ridge as the descent was not in the sun, but otherwise the snow was all soft. The ridge was enjoyable, with some. Read the full article…

The weather forecast for Saturday had been fairly mixed all week, but it had remained sure that there would be very strong winds. With this in mind we had elected to do an alternative variant of this route to minimise the time we spent on the ridge. However, due to me following the wrong route we ended up doing the entire ridge, which as it turned out was a fortunate mistake as there was no wind, clear air and wall to wall sunshine. The ascent to the start of the ridge was fairly painless, and we gained a surprising amount of height fairly quickly. As we emerged from the forrest onto the ridge just below Brünstelskopf it became clear there was plenty of snow along the entire ridge and that we would need to put our crampons on. The ridge was just spectacular, with inspiring views in every direction, clear air, lots of sun, and more importantly no wind. We must have been on the ridge for quite some time as it is a reasonable distance, but it really didn’t feel like it took very long as it was so. Read the full article…