Exercise Blue Tour was a two phase ski touring trip run for Officer Cadets at Oxford OTC between 24th March and 13th April 2013. The first phase aimed to provide an 8 day introduction to ski touring for students new to the activity but with some off-piste skiing skills and took place in the Silvretta Mountains of Austria. The second group were stronger and more experienced skiers and aimed to complete the challenging and coveted Hoch Tirol ski tour on the border of Austria and Italy. This tour covers over 142km from Kasern in the Arhntal valley to the summit of the highest peak in Austria the Gross Glockner.
The expedition was organised by JUO Chris Hancock. The instructors were Captain Tania Noakes,an Aspirant IFMGA Mountain Guide and Lt Col Klaus Zweiker from the Austrian Mountain Brigade also a fully qualified IFMGA Mountain Guide. The first group included nine relatively inexperienced skiers, and the second group consisted of four more robust students, all of whom enjoyed quite a steep learning curve during their time in Austria.
Ocdt Vicky Griffiths from the first phase writes: “We spent the first day on piste brushing up on basic skills and adjusting to the new equipment. Then we started the main tour, using the uplift at Ischgl to get a head start on a bad weather forecast coming in during the afternoon. We reached the top of the mountain quickly and bid farewell to the pistes. The skies darkened, clouds lowered and by the time we reached the top of the col leading to the Heidelberger hut the wind was whipping the snow around in a frenzy. This made for some fairly tricky skiing conditions, perhaps even the most testing one of the entire expedition! We all realised the importance of being organised with our kit and that we would have to dig deep to find the skills to cope with whatever conditions the mountains would throw at us. The safe arrival at the first hut, where we would stay for two nights was an immense relief to everyone. A day spent locally afforded us the opportunity to do some further skills training, particularly on transceiver skills and avalanche awareness and ensure we were better prepared for the challenging conditions later on.
The third day brought the start of the hut-to-hut tour itself. This would take us first over a high pass to the Jamtal hut. Then on to the more heavily glaciated section by the Weisbadener hut, the Silvretta hut and finally the Saarbruckner hut before descending to the Galtur ski area. Each day we climbed about 7-800m, learnt lots of new skills, and day by day saw our off piste skiing skills improve… despite or perhaps because of a lot of falling over! Several of us were also able to climb the highest peak in the area, the Piz Buin.
At the beginning of the week we had left the ski lifts and pristine pistes of Ishgl with trepidation, questioning whether we would spend the week dreaming of returning to them. However, skiing on Galtur’s icy and relatively crowded pistes held far less enjoyment than the freedom of untouched powder. Watching other skiers waiting in line only seemed to reinforce the week’s accomplishments for us. We hadn’t really known what to expect when we signed up to this exercise, other than that it would be challenging but well worth it at the end. It certainly fulfilled our expectations and went well beyond them. Together with being incredibly enjoyable, the exercise developed the fitness, adaptability and perseverance of everyone in the group. No-one finished that final day without a huge sense of achievement and the inspiration to go ski touring again. “
The second phase students also benefitted from a day’s preparatory piste skiing at the Hoch Tirol ski area under the excellent instruction of an Austrian Military ski instructor called Albert. Then Lt Col Zweiker re-joined the group for a day tour in the Zillertal Alps. The days forecast wasn’t particularly good but as we approached the summit ridge we emerged from the heavy clouds hanging in the valley to enjoy a beautiful inversion. Only the ridge was above the cloud and the distant higher summits in the Tuxer Alps to the west and our planned route to the south and east. A magical day spent forging the new team!
That evening we drove round to the Ahrntal valley ready for the start of the tour from Kasern the next day. The forecast was not particularly good, but not particularly bad either and certainly meant that with two Guides and a strong group we stood a good chance of completing our tour. The plan was to head over first to the Essener-Rostock hut, then over the Gross Geiger to the Johannishutte before traversing the Gross Venediger to the valley based Matreier Tauernhaus, before climbing the Gemstock to the Rudolfhuette, and finally finishing at the Lucknerhaus below the final climb… the Gross Glockner, Austria's highest summit.
The group consisted of 2Lt Matt Drybrough, Ocdt Sam Davies, Ocdt Hugo Glover and Ocdt Pete Henriques, together with Capt Noakes and Lt Col Zweiker. All the students were strong piste skiers with several of them having some background experience in day ski tours. During the course of the week the group bonded very well and with just the right weather windows at just the right time we were able to complete the journey, learn plenty of new skills along the way and have a thoroughly enjoyable time as well. When we reached the Lucknerhaus I can honestly say that I was immensely proud of what these four students had achieved and I would very happily ski tour with any of them again in the future. The weather towards the end finally got the better of us and meant that the group's climb of the Gross Glockner had to be forgone for a shorter ‘schlechteswetter’ or ‘bad weather’ tour. The inflexibility of University commitments meant that whilst the group started the long drive back to the UK, Lt Col Zweiker, his driver Chris and I were able to start early and fast and find the summit of Austria in fresh powder and under clear, blue skies… during the ski back down to Lucknerhaus (I’m almost ashamed to say with the best powder snow of the whole three weeks) I don’t think any of us could stop smiling!
An immensely successful, challenging and rewarding expedition, which was able to introduce, train and inspire thirteen Officer Cadets from Oxford UOTC. All the students who participated gained either their Ski Foundation 2 or 3 from the expedition. A huge thank you (as always!) must go to the Ulysses Trust and their continued financial support. Without this generous and consistent support Oxford UOTC would not be able to run Adventurous Training of this level and I am very confident that some of the students who participated will remember this expedition far into their futures.
