Tales about Mountains and Numbers: Slacklining

"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

"Nothing prepares you for the spectacular beauty of the Parque Nacional Torres del Paine" said my guidebook. Since I have already been to a lot of national parks and mountains all around the world which have the attribute "most beautiful" assigned to them, I thought nothing could easily overwhelm me... but honestly, the Torres del Paine Park was way more impressive than I expected and than anything I have ever seen.

After a 16 hour bus ride from Ushaia I arrived at Puerto Natales late at night, only to take off again at 7am to a five day trekking tour through the National Park Torres del Paine. My trek, the circuito, involved 170km of hiking through mountains and swamps, crossing windy passes and cold mountain creeks, lots of elevation, and dramatic sceneries around every corner... in short, it was a lot of fun!

Day 1:

After taking several buses I arrived at the entry to the park, which was bustling with people taking family pictures, riding horses, and strolling around. The French guys called it "se randonner", which says everything, doesn't it? Since that was totally not what I was looking for, so I took off into the mountains following a valley

which led me directly to the famous Torres del Paine.

I thought I have climbed some and have certainly seen a lot of impressive towers, such as the Tre Cime in Italy, for example, but the Torres were just huuuuge and the closer you get the higher they are. Mighty winds were howling around these vertical towers. How harsh the climbing conditions may be up there - freezingly cold and stormy as hell. Luckily, I sat down at the shiny green glacier laguna underneath the towers, enjoyed the view and the warm sun, and exchanged mountain wisdoms with some other Austrian guys.

After that I pitched my tent underneath a boulder filed near the torres and took off to explore a beautiful side valley, the Valle del Silencio. With me was Tim, an Australian pharmacist from Alice Springs, the middle of nowhere.

Together we spent the afternoon jumping through the rivers, climbing little boulders and trees, and enjoying stunningly beautiful mountains, glaciers, and waterfalls.

For those of you who are not aware of it, I want to point out that you currently have 17 hours of daylight down in Southern Chile. So the evening was long and went by with slacklining and singing in the camp, and some climbing in the boulder field below the Torres, which were brightly illuminated even long after the darkness has already arrived in the valley.

Day 2:

Good morning Patagonia! The pampa was greeting me up in the mountains with a pink sunrise, but this was not the most spectacular view...

Incredibly high above me somebody lit some orange torches, what an amazing view! Since the Torres are the highest mountains on the East side of the Paine massive, they provided me the most beautiful sunrise I have ever (!) seen! Seriously, I considered staying another night there, only to witness this spectacular sunrise again from laguna underneath the Torres.

I hiked back down the valley passing some magnificient glaciers

and the corresponding milky blue glacier lagunas from where I could see the neighboruing mountain ranges... just a stunning view around every corner.

High above me the majestic condors were circling... Actually they were not flying but more gliding with the Patagonian winds.

Based on a tip from from Wolfgang, who has just been here a coupled of weeks ago, I set off to climb up to the base of the impressive Cuernos del Paine, huge granite mountains with peaks made off sedimentary rock formed by the wind.

The Cuernos not just looked incredibly impressive, but they were also enormous faces. I tried to get to the base of one climb and the wall just got taller... I never arrived there. One day, I have to come back and check the climbing routes on these cathedrals of granite! Since there was no real official path leading up to where I was, I was completely alone and enjoyed the view on teh Cuernos, the backside of the Torres, the milky blue and emerald green glacier lagunas, the yellow and brownish pampa and the mighty glaciers and icefields dominating the horizon... but see yourself:

What an awesome scenery, isn't it? I could have spent endless time up there, but I had to move on and descended down to the lakes from where the Cuernos looked even more impressive.

I hiked for another 10km along the shore of the laguna and Punta Bariloche and Paine Grande appeared around the corner together with their mirror images in the lake.

Finally, after a long day I reached my camp directly underneath the impressive glacier of the Paine Grande. This day I hiked with a 50 year old Russian guy who was strong as hell and always told me about his last North pole expedition. Well, hed had to be strong since he carried a good old quality Russian steel tent and also all his other Russian gear could not be called high performance and light weight equipment :)

After we arrived at the campsite, I stayed awake a little longer to see the sunset. I wasn't disappointed, the glacier peaks high above the lake,

the Cuernos, and

the Paine Grande fought for the most beautiful sunset.

And so another day filled with highlights and dramatic sceneries came to an end. I was looking forward to the next one!

Day 3:

I got some more sleep than usual and missed the sunrise the next day. Nevertheless, I planned a big program that day. I had a quick breakfast (apple and chocolate), left my tent in the basecamp, and hiked up the Valley Frances, where "climber's paradise" waited for me.

Voilá, don't you like it? The Dolomite's Rosengarten is nothing compared to that, which makes me go upside down... WOWOW!!!

Luckily, the clouds were higher than all the surrounding towers, so had an awesome view on all these towers... let me show you the pleasure and joy my climber's heart felt in a short clip.

On the hike up, I also met Dave a Yosemite local who spent three weeks up here climbing twelve of the surrounding towers. I had a fun bouldering and slacklining session with him... "See you in Yosemite next year!"

What a great place this was, but I had to move on. So I walked out of the mountains and along the milky Lago Pehohe. From there I could see the Cuernos from some distance now. Wow, how impressive and how stunningly beautiful! In fact, I even hiked halfway around Lago Peohe (in the wrong direction) to appreciate this scenery even better (see picture at the end of this post). This was one of the looks everybody knows from various calenders and travelling and climbing books, but in reality it is even more breathtaking!

Around 7pm (after having appreciated the scenery long enough), I decided to hike another 3-4 hours crossing a small pass to the Gray glacier. On the way, I saw light blue icebergs drifting by in Lago Grey. From time to time I heard some thunderous sounds which I related to giant seracs (=chunks of glacier) breaking off into the lake and which later form the icebergs passing by. So far I couldn't see the glacier since I was still below the pass.

But then I had one of this "eternal and divine" moments you randomly have. Right when I was on top of the pass, the clouds faded away and opened the scenery for the last sunrays. And here it was, the gigantic Glaciar Gray breaking into the lake. At the horizon you could see more glaciers coming from the Campo Hielo Sur, the largest continental ice mass on Earth. I stayed sitting there on sunny meadows observing this scenery in the last sunlight. What a truly great moment that I will never forget!

Actually I wanted to see the sunset, but the cold and strong icewinds from the Campo Hielo Sur sooner or later fought me away. So I hiked another 1-2 hours in the darkness and pitched my tent right next to the glacier, only separated from it by a little rocky hill, which gave me shelter from the icewinds. And so another awesome day with countless memories and impressions passed by. And there's more to come!

Day 4:

After all these fantastic days, can it be any better? - Yes it can. I got up early again for sunrise, packed my stuff and hiked over some rocks to my breakfast place:

Nice to wake up like this and see the glacier right in front of you isn't it? Additionally, I was all alone up to some seracs breaking off thunderously which later landed as stranded goods - icebergs. Good morning!

I hiked along the glacier for about four hours or so. Don't even think I came close to its end... Here's a close-up shot from me over its seracs. Yes, I know I need to shave and I also need a shower... just two more days ;)

And here's one shot showing me a little higher above the glacier, just to show you what the word "endless" means - it's beautiful, isn't it? But wait, it get's way better!

I climbed higher and higher above the glacier through a dense and moisty forest. Slowly the clouds faded away and gave me stunning views of the Glaciar Grey, the Campo Hielo Sur, and some mountains in the icefield. WOW!!! And it will get even better!

By the time I reached the pass approximately 1000m above the glacier, the view opened up completely and in another "eternal and divine" moment I was allowed to see this dramatic scenery.

And that was literally breathtaking! I climbed a little higher and made a short movie for you guys to appreciate this beautiful moment:

Muchissimo, isn't it?

I sat up there on the pass for an hour or so just looking at the beautiful scenery with the dense green forest below me, the light blue sky above me, and the icefield in between! But I still had another 7 hours of hiking or so waiting for me this day and so I slowly started the descent passing by some other glaciers, where I got fresh water.

Oh yes, to all children reading this: Do not stand under seracs!

After walking down some gravel slopes and crossing an endless swamp I found myself again in the dense forest and looked back to some glaciers. Where else in the world can you witness such extreme differences within some hours of hiking?

The sun was setting and it was all so peacefully in the forest. I couldn't imagine that right behind this beautiful mountains is nothing but endless ice and storms all year round.

It was getting dark and I switched my headlamp on for another 30 minutes of hiking down to some green meadows below the mountains, where I wanted to pitch my tent. But what did I see 10 minutes before I reached my destination - another two mighty glaciers dropping into Lago Dickson and the Campo Hielo Sur behind.

Truly another great scenery, but I started to ask myself whether a new ice age has begun... meanwhile I was sweating and mosquitos were teasing me. So I pitched my tent next to the lake after a long day filled with unforgetable memories.

Day 5:

I had four wonderful and intense days of hiking through and around the Torres del Paine massive, and today I was completing my circle around the massive. During these last four days I passed through more or less all climate zones. Today I walked out into the yellow and brownish pampa always following the milky blue rivers fed by the mighty glaciers behind me.

The hike itself was beautiful and passing through dense woods, swamps with mosquitos, and along some nice lakes. I found a lonely and forgotten estancia, where I had a fun slackline session with some guys from Portland, Oregon. The strong wind was always blowing from behing and literally pushed me out into the pampa.

That day I met lots of guanacos (related to lamas) and always followed the rivers which brought me back to a gravel road from where I hitchhiked to Laguna Amarga and waited for a bus.

On the way out the sky cleared up completely and I had some nice views on the glaciers and towers that I circumcircled, including the Torres del Paine themselves. What a great time I had in these 5 days! I will never forget the Torres in the sunrise, the Cuernos above Lago Peohe, the towers of Valley Frances, the Glaciar Grey in the last sunlight, the view on the Campo Hielo Sur from high above, ...

Sooner or later the bus came and we drove back into civilisation. Behind me I could see the dusty road leaving the Torres del Paine back in the sunset.

The next day I was back in Puerto Natales and desperately needed a shower and a tenedor libre (all you can eat) restaurant :)

The Circuito de Torres del Paine has been a spectacularly beautiful trekking tour. As I already said in the beginning of this post, the five days in the Torres del Paine Parque easily overtrumped any other tour at any other place I have been to. My pictures are mightier than my words, so let the following five pictures speak for the wonderful time I had during these five days.