Pischagrat and Mattjisch Tälli - ski tour

Early season opener ski tour in the Pischa area. Perfect weather with blue skies and light winds. Mixed snow conditions, but quite a lot of powder after all!

I started my ski tour at 9:00 in the morning at the parking lot for the Pischa aerial cable car. The temperature was -4°C when I started. I followed the (snow-covered) road to the mountain restaurant Mäderbeiz. From there I continued up to the Pischa aerial cable car mountain station (Bergstation). Next, I ascended to the summit of Pischagrat (2588 m), but that was not really worth it. Like all steeper south facing slopes in the area, the snow was rather hard, and partially with a crust on top. Getting to the top was almost easier than skiing down again...

After visiting Pischagrat, I skied down in southerly direction through Mitteltälli - down to where the ridge Mittelgrat ends (elevation 2370 m). From there I went uphill through Mattjisch Tälli. Surprisingly, there was not a single ski track anywhere in this valley when I arrived. I ascended through the beautiful Mattjisch Tälli until elevation 2700 m, where it starts getting steeper. Again, the problem was that the snow had a crust on top in these steeper south facing slopes. So I abandoned my plan to ascend to the Pischahorn summit.

After a late lunch, I skied down through Mattjisch Tälli, mostly in powdery snow! At elevation 2400 m I headed back where I came from. Then I actually ascended once more to the Pischa Bergstation before I skied back down to the parking lot. The last few hundred meters on the road from Mäderbeiz down to the parking lot were not easy. The snow on the road was very hard, and sometimes even icy.

Please see attached GPS track for more details on the route.

The avalanche risk was 2 - moderate (http://www.slf.ch).

Remark: The difficulty was F/L for most of the tour, except the ascent to Pischagrat (PD-/WS-).