The Silvretta Tour, part 1

Probably not your typical ski touring photo

Home. As good as Euro huts are, we still love to be home, and especially home eating a huge, fresh salad. Tomorrow morning’s breakfast will not include dry bread and jam. Those that have been on Euro ski tours will fully understand dry bread and jam. Janine and I fell sick on the last day, spent a feverish night in the Jamtal Hut and promptly descended to the valley first thing in the morning. Time for a quick recovery at home, and tomorrow, Janine’s Birthday will be spent closer to home than in a mountain hut.

6 days on the Silvretta – no bad weather, this is a first. The GPS stayed in the pack the whole time, lovely.

It was all about corn skiing, although thanks to our powder sniffing friend Susie Sutphin, we did manage to find some pockets of north facing fluff up high. Our great Italian friend Andreas Irsara’s quote sums up being on a trip with Susie, “Susie, you make me crazy for skiing.” This while he set out behind her as she kicked steps up yet another steep couloir.

This is part 1 of the Tour Blog, a full account will follow including a trip report for Austria’s Silvretta Tour (my second time on it and likely my favorite in Europe) as well as an interview with Lou Dawson of the famous backcountry ski website Wild Snow. We discovered Lou in the first night’s hut typing (blogging) on the smallest laptop I have ever seen. With Lou was the best selling author Ted Kerasote and together we were all lucky enough to get to spend time drinking beers and laughing about all the decadance of Euro backcountry life.

For now we leave you with some fun pics and the reminder that the Silvretta Tour is paradise for the backcountry skier. Lou Dawson also posted info at Wild Snow. Check back in here for a complete report on the tour.