Hiking at Rauris
skitouring with a touch of luxury
At the end of March last year I went with four of my clients to less known valley in Austria. Raurisertal or briefly Rauris is grasped by the Alp summits. At the end of the valley there are peaks which are almost three thousand meters high. So we had to go and check it personally. One valley next to Raurisertal there is a resort called Gasteinertal with maybe more that famous wellness spa and thermal springs. Well I counted on this already during a planning phase of our trip. Because what could be better than have a nice hot bath in the thermal spring after a long ski touring journey. So your muscles can regenerate and you are ready for the next exciting day.
We left our home country early on Friday and about lunch time we were in the middle of nowhere hiking towards our new adventure. A paid mountain road which leads far to the end of the Raurisertal valley took us near a strategically placed hut called Kolm-Saigum. From this place we had our first goal. This goal was a peak called Kolmkarspitze (2 529m). This was about 1000m elevation as a startup hike.
All of us were so excited for the hiking that we went through the first part of our hike like doing a cross-country skiing race. Sun was burning so after some time we ended up in the short sleeve. It was about on the Filzenalm field. From this point we had a first challenge in front of us. But with this weather and our fresh muscles this was not about to be a problem. Very old avalanches were signalizing that we are safe now. The thing was the weather. A change began to be worse than we expected and decision was clear. The top of the peak is right on the place where we are at the moment. But guys, the following freeride line down to the valley was simply amazing. Last giant slalom between the trees and we were in the car on our way to the classic Austrian apartment right on the farm.