A forest adventure on snowshoes

It snowed heavily overnight and when I opened the curtains this morning, the views were magnificent. An extra 20 centimetres of snow meant we were in for an excellent day of snowshoeing.

Sean and Dave assessed the risk and advised us that we wouldn’t be able to go up to Allerleigrubenspitze (a 2131 metre peak) as planned because of the avalanche risk. However, we still had an adventure ahead of us, swooshing though deep snow in the forest.

As soon as we left the road, we had to put our snowshoes on… no microspikes today! We then headed steadily uphill, enjoying the feel of the crunchy powder below our feet.

At one point, we had to jump off the path when a mini snowplough came past, compressing the snow and making hiking a little easier. It was still hard work going uphill though… harder than it would be without snow and heavy snowshoes! The views of the mountains and the buildings in the valley were a stunning distraction though, especially when the sun broke through the low cloud.

After a while, the ploughed track ran out. We had a hot drink and a snack before breaking trail through fresh snow, our snowshoes and poles leaving deep marks in the pristine white snow. Dave sent me first to slow the long-legged men down, so everyone could keep up. John was soon fed up of my pace though and zoomed ahead, stopping intermittently to let everyone catch up.

Unexpectedly, after about two and a half hours, we lost the trail. It’s really difficult navigating in snow, when the landscape has lost its usual features. After a little investigating, it was concluded that the forestry service had dumped a lot of trees and branches across the path, and Dave and Sean, with the help of Colin, searched for a way round them.

We headed steeply downhill, doing our best to avoid the debris left behind after the trees were felled. One of the Pauls in the group ended up impaling his snowshoe on a branch and John helped to extricate him. Then I panicked on a particularly slippery section, and Dave had to help me past it. Further on, I slipped over and impaled the soft skin between my fingers on a branch, but was otherwise unhurt. Oh what fun! 🤣

Thankfully, despite a few bottom slides, we all got down to the lower path safely. However, the adventure wasn’t over! We were advised to pause while Colin, Dave and Sean checked the way ahead. All of a sudden there was a loud crack as some of the snow broke away. A slab of the fresh snow had slipped and a crack had formed above it… if you look carefully, you can see it in the photo above. This was only a small avalanche and probably wouldn’t have caused us any serious harm. However, Dave and Sean decided we should turn back because, further on, they found there was a risk of one or more of us being swept downhill into a gully if something similar happened.

We climbed back uphill, with no significant problems, and were soon back on terra firma, ready for some lunch to replenish our energy. Dave got his first aid kit out so I could clean my cut, and Minx the dog was told off for poking her nose in the first aid kit and my lunch box 🤭.

When we’d had enough to eat and drink (and our heart rates were back to normal 😆) we set off back down the tracks through the snow that we’d made earlier. It was much easier going back down hill, and great fun gliding through the snow.

We took a slightly different way back and finally followed the river along the valley to Almi’s. It took longer than it should have done because I kept stopping to take photos… everywhere looked so beautiful in the snow, and the sky was now really pretty, with blue poking through the clouds.

This was our last day snowshoeing and, despite (or maybe because of 😜) the off piste adventure, it was fabulous. It’s been a wonderful week, with excellent guides who have instilled confidence, kept us safe and, together with the other guests, been great company. I hope we can do it all again next winter.