Zwölferhorn

Stefan at work has been persuading me to climb the Zwölferhorn at night during winter for ages and yesterday it finally happened. We were joined by a couple of others, Sebastian and Andrea and set off at about 7pm near Tiefbrunnau (870m) with snow shoes, carrying our board on backpacks.


It was snowing lightly, but still quickly worked up a sweat as Stefan set a ferocious pace at the front. Mostly it was steep going, and the final 200 vertical metres were an absolute killer as we trudged straight up a liftline.



Bizzarely enough, we were not the only ones. We reached the summit (1522m) at 8.15 and there were already six or seven more ski tourers milling around toasting their achievements with schnapps. In Franzl's Hütte, the hut near the top, another 10 or so hardy souls were eating gulasch soup and drinking beer.



We began the descent around 10pm, and it was then I realised that my board was set up for a goofy rider. Unfortunately I use a regular stance, so my first go on a snowboard in eight years meant I rode backwards with my feet pointing in the wrong direction.

But that didn't really matter. The descent was a blast, some nice pockets of powder and very few stones poking through. An awesome experience and definitely one I want to repeat before the winter is out.