A Short Intermezzo at Home

"Home is wherever I am" is a famous saying. Well, if we take that literally, then my home is pretty mobile. Maybe that's why I especially enjoyed these twelve days back at "home" in Bad Tölz and together with Katrin.

It feels strange coming home from a long tourist trip in foreign countries, only to find yourself among tourists again. This time though, they came to visit my beautiful Bavaria and I was the local ;)

So what have I been up to these twelve days at home? Well, first of all I went to Frankfurt in order to get my VISA for the USA. Don't ask, it was completely pointless to show up there personally. However, on the way back from Frankfurt I stopped in Stuttgart for three nights and met some old friends and visited some memory-laden places all over town. During an afternoon slacking session in Schlosspark Katrin and I even convinced Adrian to get a slackline himself.

After this too short stop in Stuggi we went where the fun was, that is, Spring in the Northern Alps with all its blissful and advantegeous sides, such as Spring ski tours in my home mountains!

Here you can see Katrin and my dad after the first descent at Schönalmjoch. Do you see the beautiful face in the back that we skied down?

Awesome, isn't it? Katrin thinks so, too. At least in the moment before entering steep three runs with crusted snow...

Here is a memorable and beautiful picture right before the drop-in. Does some local recognize the mountains in the back?

Shame on you guys, this was simply Risser Falk with its gorgeous bowl. The next day took us to a mountain a little further East high above the Achensee. Another gorgeous picture of Katrin approaching the final summt ridge. In the back of the next pic you see the notorious Guffertkar, so we are at...?

At the Unnütz, right ;) And Franz is luckily with us. I think I have never been ski-touring in the backcountry with him before. So we had lots of fun. Here he is on the final steps up the ridge towards the summit.

And oh my "gosh", was it beautiful up there! Btw, never trust anybody usin' the words "gosh" or "jeez", haha. No seriously, it felt like 20ºC high above the Achensee, the view was magnificient, and an awesome downhill was awaiting us.

Don't you belive me?

Believe me now, it was virgini slushy Spring snow :) Back in town, we relaxed and got some Mate tea to get awake again.

Mate tea below and on the line :D

I think Argentina made me dependent on Mate... we even had it for dinner besides vine ;)

After two or three days of skiing and climbing we felt ready for a day off. In fct, we planned to go to Kochel for climbing, however, due to a lack of motivatin we rather headed further West towards one of our (almost) world wonders - Neuschwanstein.

And gosh (haha) is it beautiful there. The entire landscape around the castle is just st up like a huge fairytale-like stage in order to present the castle.

You wonder why I speak like this, although I have been there dozens of times? Well, if you directly come home from places, such as Cuzco, Machu Picchu, Tiwanaku,... etc., then you start to realize how beautiful and amazing all the touristy sights in front of your door are.

So there's a reason why all this Japanese, American, foreign European and Swabian tourists come here and take hundreds of pictures of the castle from the inside

and the outside.

I guess it must just be an awesome setting, spot, and architecture that Kig Ludwig II. picked here... a huge fairytale-like stage! Where's Cindarella, by the way?

Enough sentimentalities and rhapsodizing talking now. Let us leave Neuschwanstein

and get back to where the real deal happens, the Dammkar and the Viererkar high above Mittenwald.

Doesn't the Viererkar look absolutely gorgeous and adoring? This 200m wide bowl bounded by hundred meter high vertical lime ston faces. From this pespective you don't even fully appreciate how steep it gets from the top. Here is a pic made down from the summit. I guess the drop-in had roughly an inclination of 47º-50º or so. It obviously gets wider and flatter the further you get down.

In order to fully appreciate this beautiful run, I show you another pic made latter that day from the adjacent Dammkar (on the other side of the upper pic). Isn't it just WOW? You gotta do it!

So what does it look like at the top before you drop in?

It looks like a hell lot of fun I would say :)

After skiing down the Viererkar we ascended the Dammkar to complete our >2.200m day.

Some last looks back the last perfect run and up it goes towards the next one.

Eventually, we sooner or later made it up there and finally enjoyed a new perspective to the backside of all these limestone towers.

Needless to say that the entire downhill run was _____ (you may fill in the missing word).

Since we didn't want to go skiing again the next day, we made it up to Ross'n'Buchstein (my spelling), our local climbing paradise. The downside was the approach through waist deep snow.

The rock up there was nice and warm though and offered, of course, absolutely fantastic climbing on the limestone faces

and the needle. The view while climbing was priceless, snow-covered peaks and blue sky as far as we could see.

Okay, I promise this will the last ski tour story, you have to read. Not because I get tired of writing, no simply because I was running out of time and had to fly to the US. Since I wanted to go skiing anyways, hang out with Katrin, Quirin, and Franz, we simply combined and hiked up the Guffert bowl that you have already seen from the oposite side on another pic further up.

As you can see, Quirin had his board with him, while Franz was coming with Skis, although he had no ski crampons... too bad on a icy morning slope.

By the way, Franz is just hiking up the last steep meters towards the summit's south face, where we took a break before descending down again.

And that's what the face looks like from further below - an impressive ski tour, isn't it?

Once again a matchlessly beautiful scenery... I know I am boring you ;)

So let's get straight to the descend. As you can see the first meters appear to be pretty steep and icy, but Kat is (still) smiling. They weren't that bad anyways, only spectacular.

So let's get the ball rollin', boys!

A fun ascent waited for us, that I better describe in motion picture, that in words. So what follows is a short clip of this and other downhills during that week.

Looks like fun, right? Only our skiing skills in the slushy and/or sun-crusted snow could be a little improved. Luckily, we had exactly the right teacher with us ;)

So in summary, I had a fun and super-cool time at home with Kat, my family, and with all my friends. I guess, it'll take some time until I see Bad Tölz or snow or both of it again.

Unfortunately, it'll also take an undetermined amount of time till I and Kat meet again. We do not know where and when. The balance act over the Atlantic is far and not too easy.

However, with all our common memories in mind, I am sure that it'll all be fine until we meet next time!

To be pefectly honest, after this amazing time at home, I do not want to leave, not even to such a fantastic place as my next "home" - Santa Barbara in California. I am sure I will miss lots of people, things, and epecially my home mountains that showed themselves from their most beutiful side while I was at home.

Anyways, I decided to take the challenge somewhere else and I will do it. Frankly, I have to admit that Santa Barbara isn't that much of a bad place either.

Let's keep it short, Servus Bayern!

Flo