Blessed Moments

It's been a while since Tobi, Bastian and myself have been able to spend a few days together in the mountains. We are all busy with our jobs, families, or studying. Many times, we only had a few hours available to spend in the vicinity of our homes. This time though, our backpacks were loaded with food and equipment for three days! We wanted to enjoy the solitude, minimalistic life in a winter hut, and the vast glaciers of the Stubai Alps and get some challenging runs under our belts. That was the plan. But the weather reports failed us. We weren't lucky. The weather changed the second night of our trip.

Nonetheless – or maybe exactly for that reason – we tested our luck, hoping for an extraordinary adventure with some very special, memorable moments. The thin icy crust cracked underneath our skis as we traversed over the last glacier basin. We could already spot the Hildesheimer Hütte with its winter room, which would serve as our camp for the night. The building stood intimidatingly close to the vertical wall above us. Skis attached to our backpack, we climbed the last stretch to the hut across a thin rocky ridge. We could feel the painful weight of our packs now, but we managed to motivate each other on those last meters. When we finally reached the cabin, we started a fire, hung our skins and clothes to dry, and melted some snow.

Sitting in front of the hut, we enjoyed the last rays of the sun, looking at the impressive mountains of the Stubai Alps. After sunset, we ate hot soup and plenty of snacks before checking the map and discussing our options for the upcoming day by candlelight and red wine. We located some tempting couloirs and striking summits, and the avalanche report as well as the starry sky outside looked very promising. Not so the weather forecast. The following day was supposed to be quite unstable. We ignored the news and decided to set out very early in order to reach our first summit, Wilder Pfaff (3,456 meters), by sunrise. It was still early when we crawled into our sleeping bags. We felt exhausted, yet happy.

It was the kind of mountain hut evening we loved. The alarm went off at 3 am, long before daylight. I looked through the window with eyes still half closed, and I did not like what I saw. The stars had disappeared. Instead, the sky was completely cloudy. Our disappointment did not last too long. We wanted to believe the forecast and hoped for at least some hours of sun. After a quick breakfast, we first had to descend a few meters on skis. The snow was as crusty as the previous day. After putting the skins on, we started to climb the mountain in the shine of our headlamps. Step by step, meter for meter, always in line with our gradually quickening pulse. All three of us absorbed the silence and remoteness of this place.

Alone in the middle of a vast glacier field, no lights, and no other people around us. When the sun came up, icy gusts struck our faces. It became colder and colder, and the snow under our skis hardened. We pulled up our hoods and collars and closed our jackets. The clouds seemed to loosen up a little, and as we came around the last corner towards the summit, we could not believe our eyes: The valley floor was covered by a sea of clouds, and high above us, the sky was also entirely cloudy. In between though, the rising sun painted the visible land and sky with a beautiful golden yellow. Blessed by such a special alpine moment, we felt more than rewarded for getting up so early. Time seemed to stand still.

The apparently endless glacier fields in front of us dropped right into the clouds. The view was amazing, probably the best you can get anywhere in the mountains. It wasn't long before the ice-cold wind prompted us to get ready for the descent. We first had to use our crampons and axes to get to a steep couloir. This early in the morning, even the south-eastern face of the Wilder Pfaff was still completely frozen. Our edges scratched noisily over the ice. The run ended in the middle of the huge Übeltalferner glacier. The Becherhaus was our next destination. Deceiving the eye, the hut appeared very close, but it turned into a very long hike. The last few vertical meters led us through a via ferrata.

Unfortunately, the weather forecast turned out to be very precise and the clouds began to move back in. We decided to take a break at the so-called "Cloud Castle", – the Becherhaus, which really lived up to its nickname that day. The clouds rose further up, and soon we couldn't see further than ten meters from where we stood. We went into the hut's winter room to warm up and cook some "Schupfnudeln" (potato dumplings) with herbs. The weather did not bother to get any better, and the forecast sounded even worse. There was no point in staying here in the hut. We had to abandon the rest of our plan and searched for a skiable option to the valley on our map. Not an easy undertaking.

We finally found a route that looked doable, set out and tried to find our way through the condensing fog. Luckily the clouds kept lifting for short moments, making it easier for us to locate the chosen ridge. We put on our climbing gear and ascended the fairly easy route up the mountain. After a short rappelling section, we reached the entry to a steep gully with some unexpected but very welcome powder. After all, this 45-degree channel turned out to be our highlight of the day. At the bottom, Tobias managed to safely navigate the group across a large glacier field. Several kilometers further down the mountain, we arrived back in civilization. Knowing what we had missed and having gotten a first taste of the incredible options in this area, we knew that this wouldn't be our last visit to the Stubai Alps.