The excursion

Plan

The plan was to go to Kurzras, to take a cable car up to Grawald. From there we would walk down Hochjochferner glacier and have a look at the weather station. Then, we would go to Schutzhütte Schöne Aussicht and eat some pasta. Finally, we would have a look at the Hintereisferner glacier and hike down.

On Saturday Michael Kuhn and Bas de Boer gave presentations about the excursion planned on Sunday. Michael presented a history of research on Hintereisferner, while Bas introduced the weather station on Hochjochferner.

Reality

On Sunday it rained and it was very foggy. The planned excursion was not possible to do. Instead, we went to see the Lazaun rock glacier in the same area. This rock glacier does not have an ice glacier above it anymore and is nourished by avalanches and rock fall from the walls surrounding the cirque. The view of the giant tongue was magnificent. Afterwards, we had some pasta of course, and we hiked down again.

Sheep surges

Back in Kurzras, most of us stayed at the traditional sheep party: a celebration of the return of the sheep from the mountains. Enjoying the local beer and bratwurst, we looked at the sheep coming down in what seemed to be surges. The way back to Karthaus was by foot, bus or by hitchhiking.