For all those who, on lovely spring days, can never quite decide whether to set off early for a brisk ski tour on firn snow – or whether to have a lie-in and enjoy a leisurely session of sport climbing in the sunshine.
Here’s a practical suggestion: simply combine both sports, and hey presto, you’ve sidestepped the decision! Sounds brilliant, and it is – it just takes a bit of extra effort. But if you’re looking for unforgettable experiences, you’ve got to put in the effort.
For a successful ski-and-climb expedition, you need two things above all else: the snow should be such that you can set off on your skis comfortably straight from the car park. And the rock should face south if possible, so you can climb in a T-shirt and get a nice tan whilst you’re at it. Perfect timing is essential for Ski & Climb – an ideal spot in Tirol is the Muttekopf area in the Imst outdoor region, as it’s high up and absolutely blessed with fantastic rock faces.
And here’s another important ingredient for a successful day out: having someone with you who knows their way round the rock and snow. “There, the east face of the Guggerköpfle – look, that crack running diagonally from right to left. That’s where we made the first ascent in 1981 – quite a wild story; we secured ourselves with wooden wedges we’d carved ourselves,” says Alfred Flür.
We started our combined tour at the Middle station of the Imster Uphill Facilities, at the Untermarkter Alpine Pasture. The Ski Resort has already closed, and the Chair Lifts are out of service for maintenance – we’re strolling through this magnificent landscape all on our own. We pass the Muttekopfhütte – a perfect base camp for the summer months – on our left and head up to the right towards the Hinterer Plattein (2,723 m).
Where in summer there is an impenetrable belt of mountain pine, winter has still spread out its vast, white blanket. We make our way comfortably across it on our skis; the hard spring snow beneath our skins is slowly beginning to soften in the sun. Even the large scree cirque has not yet thawed on this April day; the gully steepens steadily, and halfway up we fit our crampons for better grip.
Then it’s time to swap straight from our sweaty ski touring socks into our tight climbing shoes. But as soon as you’ve completed the first few moves, you know it was worth lugging the heavy rucksack with the twin ropes all the way up here: beneath you, the vast whiteness of the snow cover; above you, seemingly endless rock.
After a few enjoyable pitches on the Melzerplatte, we abseil straight down to where we’d left our skis, switch our bindings to downhill mode and enjoy long, sweeping turns in the firn snow – all the way down to the car. It’s a good thing we didn’t have to choose between climbing and ski touring today.
In the immediate vicinity of the well-known, fully refurbished and excellently managed Muttekopfhütte, there are a range of options for visitors who enjoy rock climbing: eleven Rock Climbing Areas featuring very solid, porous conglomerate rock, as well as 42 multi-pitch routes on both smaller and taller walls and ridges.
Among the Rock Climbing Areas, the beginner-friendly, family friendly sectors ‘Felswurm’, ‘Teufelskralle’, ‘Schafkopf’ and ‘Silberwurz’ are particularly popular – the latter, with 27 routes, is likely to be the most visited. For those seeking greater challenges, the sectors ‘Fölsefescht’, ‘Rammstein’ and the hard-rock sector ‘Rote Wand’ are ideal; there are also some challenging routes on the roughly 130-metre-high ‘Guggerköpfle’ and the ‘Blaue Köpfe’.
Climbing guide “Climbing in the Muttekopf area near Imst” (2019): 256 pages, including alpine history, geology, an introduction to the Muttekopf nature reserve and, of course, numerous routes with highly detailed topos. Author: Alfred Flür.
Tips & Safety
Would you like to know more about safety when climbing? Click here for our safety tips.
