2021 - 2022 Far West Skier's Guide - 49

bahn. From there, Alex led us on three or
four merry romps, where for the rest of the
day, we never had to cross a ski track.
Alex was not only revealing himself to
be a great guide, but he was also showing us
another endearing attribute-his eyes twinkled,
and a broad, toothy grin stretched across
his face whenever he stopped to wait for us
between long stretches of linked powder
turns. This was a man who not only knew
what he was doing, but loved what he was
doing as well.
Our leader had taken care that we
would be so tired that we would definitely get
a good night's sleep, and that we would not
see anything of the Sölden night life. On the
way back to our apartment, we stopped at the
market to buy some ground beef, pasta, and
sauce, but we all fell asleep before dinnertime,
and that meal never came to fruition.
Alexander had told us that his absolute
favorite skiing was on the various faces and
couloirs off the top of the Gaislachkogel. On
our second day in Sölden, he made us clearly
understand why. We awoke that morning to
a cloudless blue, and our guru wasted no time
in leading us down the front face, known as
" die Rinne, " situated right under the gondola.
This face is entirely off piste-1000 vertical
meters of mountain drenched in about 80 centimeters
of Mother Nature's finest winter coat.
The upper slopes are 35 degrees and then
some, mellowing out to gentler gradients.
Crossing other ski tracks was, once again, not
obligatory. That proved more and more to be
the case on almost every run behind the Wizard
of Ötz.
Our early morning wakeup run was followed
by a 40-degree chute down the backside
of Gaislachkogel to Gaislachsee. Once we
passed the snow-covered lake, we swung
around to the east flank of the mountain and
continued this 1600-vertical-meter descent to
a small hamlet called Bodenegg. The morning
sun was strong, and we found a veranda to
drink in the warmth of the sun and an icecold
beer.
Bodenegg is about as far off the beaten
path as one can come in Austria. It is situated
at the bottom of the secluded Ventertal which
dead ends near the isolated ski village of Vent.
Vent had been cut off from civilization for the
better part of a month during this stormy
period in the Alps, as the steep avalancheprone
slopes on both sides of the valley had
kept the road here closed for weeks on end.
We gazed up from our beer glasses to survey
the mountainside, which we had just descended.
Virgin powder stretched for a kilometer
or two on either side of our tracks, and
the possibilities for free skiing here were aweinspiring.
It was not even midday, and Phil, a
veteran of six full ski seasons in various destinations
in the Alps and Australia, was already
proclaiming this the " best ski day of his
life! "
Alex was a combination of prudence and
daring. Now, with full visibility at our disposal,
the three of us were like youngsters with free
reign in a toy store, pointing to various tempting
slopes in all directions, and asking Alex
about the possibility of skiing all these new
" toys " . In some cases, he advised that we must
wait another day for the snow to settle. In
other instances, he retorted with a phrase that
gradually, during our stay, became his trademark.
" Okay, let's have a look " , he would suggest,
as he glided into position to inspect the
route more closely.
High up in the Krumme Rinne, Phil Le Roux's heart is certainly beating a little
faster than usual.
The front face of the Gaislachkogl has
couloirs lined up neatly in a row, all easily accessible
for anyone who dares. They vary in
difficulty between extremely difficult and imFar
West Skier's Guide 2O21 - 2O22
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2021 - 2022 Far West Skier's Guide

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