This weekend I was able to experience something interesting. After a long week of sitting in class, writing exams and listening to EU law I needed something to reboot my brain. The obvious method was going into the Limericks (Irish pub) and drinking beer until the small hours. Nevertheless, this time was different.
The idea struck me on Thursday-Friday night and it wasn't too hard to convince Rupi to join me. So after the Friday lectures I came home backed my skiing gear, sleeping bag and tent and headed up to Axamer Lizum. Snow wasn't that good but it was all about testing the tent and having a good exercise. The sky was clear and the moon was shining bright: Temperature was decline steadily and was just under zero when we reached the parking slot about 20 minutes past eight. It was almost full moon and therefor ascending didn't require headlamps.
We reached the valley in about one and half hours. My backpack felt so heavy that I wasn't able to keep up with Rupi (excuses?) There was absolutely no snow left from the snow showers few weeks back. We were able to build the tent rather easily without too much shovelling. After few photos and well deserved cans of beer we crawled into the sleeping bags and closed our eyes.
I haven't done overnight tours before and was surprised how well I was able to keep myself warm over night. Sadly it wasn't the case for Rupi... After few hours his sleeping bag was so wet that he had hard time sleeping when fighting the cold.
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| The moon looks like a sun! |
Around 5 am we decided to get going, stressed up and packed our skiing gear. The moon had gone into hiding and it was way more darker than the evening and so BEAUTIFUL. I am not sure if the night was some special occasion but I saw more than ten shooting stars passing by the atmosphere.
Our master plan was to hike up the massive coulair we skied last year but due to the amount of rocks and sharks we decided to go for the safer option. We had few hours before the sunrise thus we didn't need to hurry anywhere. The route up was one of the most uncomfortable once I have done: There was rocks everywhere. We reached the top early and waited for the sunrise which was a slight disappointment. Even so, it felt rather good to be up there waiting for the first lights to ski down.
Skiing itself was the worst this season but we didn't care. We got what we came for: a good exercise and especially an experience. Around 8 am we reached the tent, collected our equipment and head home. As we skied down the lifts were just opening and it felt weird to be heading home when all the others were excited to head up to the mountain. In conclusion, we had so much fun and learned valuable lessons for the coming trips!
