Hochkönig 2004

In April 2004, Moritz and I ascended the Hochkönig in the Berchtesgadener Alpen near Salzburg. Technically, this is not counted as a winter ascend but we had to deal with enough snow nevertheless. Because I had refused to learn skiing properly so far we chose snow shoes. To make a long story short: If I ever have to travel through snowy mountains again I will have learned skiing by then... snow shoes are slow, tiresome, less effective than skis and you don't even get to speed down the slopes.

Apart from that it was good fun. Nominally one does the tour in one or two days (via Ostpreussenhütte) but it took us four (or rather: four mornings), as snow conditions were only bearable while no sun had kissed the snow. Hence we got up at 3am, drank our tea, packed up the tent, climbed for the day and were done by 10am latest.

There are a number of panoramic images, which were created with the Panorama Factory 3.2.

(The North flank of the Hochkönig with its small glacier (Übergossene Alm) and its accompanying ridges to the East and West.)

	Pictures taken by Oli with his old and trusted Powershot A40. The ones that were used for the panoramic images are collected in a separate tiles subdirectory. Image sizes 1600x1200 (2 Mio pixels). (Left: Dawn behind the Tennengebirge)
	All the pictures that Moritz took, using his new digital toy by Olympus, including two quicktime movies of ducks in the mountains, i.e. Oli snow-shoeing down a slope (silent [3.4 MB] or with sound [3.3 MB]). Image sizes 2048x1536 (3.2 Mio pixels)... find the mountain goat and the snow chicken (?) in these detailed pictures. (Left: Oli in front of the Hochkönig)

Additional comments and route description might be added in the future...

O.B.  |  Non-work