Backcountry ski tour in Flumserberg

Backcountry skiing in Flumserberg - is that possible? Well, the ski resort is now closed for the season, so in that sense it's all off piste. This was my first backcountry ski tour in ages. I rented the equipment at Bächli Bergsport (Pfäffikon SZ), since I don't have such skis or boots myself.

I started off at Tannenbodenalp, mostly following the piste. Unfortunately, the piste has been damaged a lot as the heavy machines used to groom the piste were moved down from the mountain at the end of the season. Nevertheless, I reached Maschgenkamm after about 1 h 30 min. Certainly it is faster when the gondola is operating and it takes only 20 min.

From Maschgenkamm I went up to the small nearby peak called Ziger, and after that I skied down to Alp Fursch. From there I more or less followed the marked winter trail towards the hut Spitzmeilenhütte. At elevation 2100 m, I left that winter trail and went straight towards Wissmeilen. As I reached P. 2328 just below Wissmeilen, the snow was very hard, and I think it would have been rather tricky to get up to the pass between Wissmeilen and Spitzmeilen. After a short break, I started my descent back to Alp Fursch. Below elevation 2200 m, snow conditions were great. There was a thin layer of 1-2 cm of soft snow on top of the hard snow.

After reaching Alp Fursch, I had to again ascend. I followed the alp roads and ski pistes until I reached Maschgenlücke. From there it was quick to ski back down to Tannenbodenalp, even though the piste was not in great shape.

All in all a nice and easy backcountry ski tour which was good for getting used to this activity again, and test some equipment.