A surprisingly adventurous ski tour to Stock, the little brother of Gulmen

As Delta already wrote in his reports (here and there), Stock is the not so well known little brother of the Gulmen. It is definitely less crowded than Gulmen but offers very nice slopes which are rather steep and therefore require safe avalanche conditions.

For my approach on this day I decided to take the cable car from Amden up to Niederschlag and then I ski over to the bottom station of the Skilift Bärenfall where I then put the skins on my skis. I walked up to the Hinter Höhi and along the Winterwanderweg towards Hüttlisboden. (Notice: There is a game protection zone (Wildruhezone) in the area of Hinter Höhi and one should not leave the path here!)

At P. 1354 I made a “bad decision”, because I thought I could take the direct way up to Stock via Stöcklersiten. Well, I did take the direct route up to Stock, but it wasn’t easy or joyful at all. The steepness at the beginning on this direct route is more than 40° for ca. 100 meters in altitude and the 10-15 cm of powder on an icy and hard layer didn’t make the ascend easy. At some point I even decided to take  my skis off and tried to walk instead of skiing. Soon I gave that trial up too, because the icy hard layer below the powder didn’t carry me most of the time, but instead I sunk into deep snow almost up to my hips. It took me almost an hour to make the 250 meters in altitude up to Stock from P. 1354, but I finally made it… I enjoyed the summit all the more and had a very interesting and long chat with a knowledgeable local.

I skied down the south west flank and later west flank of Stock in very nice powder to get to the path to Stöckli and then down to Vorderdorf via Alptürli, Fallen and Holzli.


Remarks:

• A better way up to Stock from P. 1354 is to first continue to follow the path towards Hüttlisboden and at a clearing at around 1480m go up in a dell in the south west flank to Stock.
• I rated this tour an S- because the steepness was around 40°, other than the steepness there are no other difficulties, therefore the -. 
• The avalanche danger forecast for the day and this area was low (1, gering)

 Amden, Post – Niederschlag – Holz – Gäudig – Hinter Höhi – P. 1423 – Stöcklersiten – Stock – P. 1354 (Stöckli) – Alptürli – Fallen – Holzli –  Amden, Vorderdorf