New Year's Day, 2006

On New Year's Day the Trommsdorff Family visits the summit of Niederthai's local mountain, der Brand, to celebrate. It has been a long tradition in the family -- 50 years to be exact! But this year is more special because the event includes a memorial visit to honor Michael's uncle, Volkmar, who passed away last June. Having grown up in the area, Volkmar was an avid backcountry skier -- he visited the summit of der Brand over 430 times! A large granite stone was placed on the summit in honor of Volkmar.

Greg Louie, my Euro-traveling companion, and I skied with Michael's family to the summit of der Brand. It's a quick climb to the top from Niederthai, about 1.5 hours at a steady pace. A small storm the previous night deposited about 4-inches of light powder on top of at least 12-inches of new snow from two-days ago. Yesterday when we skied in the Horlach Valley (Schartenkopf) high winds and significant accumulation of new snow made for very dangerous snow conditions. On the contrary, the well sheltered slopes of der Brand did not yield obvious signs of wind slabs or instabilities. With its summit elevation below 8000 ft., 80-percent of der Brand is tree covered. The spacing of the trees is just right for turns, bubbled or not.

We followed a well-traveled route to the summit which for the most part reminded me of the Northwest because of how it weaved through the forest. Visibility was typical of the Northwest too -- overcast and low valley clouds. After celebrating on the summit with a bottle of bubbles, we enjoyed a beautiful ski down (with face shots) in knee-to-waist deep unconsolidated Austrian powder! It was a nice treat and a good way to welcome the new year.

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