Description

A short, south-east facing tour, this is a great use of a morning.

It's possible to do the tour at any time during the winter but conditions are usually safest and best in March and April.

Furthermore, Kühtai is a notoriously cold ski area and touring there in the depths of winter is not always particularly enjoyable! Start at the top of the HoheMutBahn chairlift in the ski resort of Kühtai and ski for 30 metres down the Alpenrose red piste and then branch off this and hike uphill to a col overlooking the stunning Speicher Finstertal lake.

Ski down steeply to the Dam at the northern end of the lake and then cross the dam to reach the eastern shore.

Once there, skin up the wide valley immediately to the east. There are some steep sections of the skin and towards the top, where the valley narrows, it's too steep to skin and you'll have to bootpack briefly up an easy gully to reach the col immediately south of the Pockkogel peak.

Leave your skis at the col and then hike/scramble northwards up a ridge to the summit of the Pockkogel.

Late in the season the hike up will be on a path but in deep winter it will be a snowy bootpack. The view from the summit is stunning, and the number of fantastic ski lines you'll spot from the top is extraordinary.

As ever in Tirol's mountains, ticking this ski tour doesn't make your "to-do" list any shorter, it adds to it! Return to the col and ski down a steep-ish, 100 metre long gully to the east which soon gives way to wonderful, mellow terrain.

Ski east down pitch after pitch of fun, rippable ski terrain to reach the valley floor just south of a narrowing.

Ski down through the narrowing and then cruise out all the way to the village of Haggen.

Catch the bus back to Kühtai or down to Innsbruck.