Gulmen splitboard tour (Amden)

This was my 1st time splitboarding and we had an excellent guide, Matthias from Alpine Experience.  

The 1st part was all about finding our feet on the splitboards, and practising the skinning technique.  The trail from Arvenbüel was ideal for this due to its gentle slope.  In essence the first part is a walking trail, and whilst there was enough snow for skinning / touring, it was far from being powder!

We headed up through Altschen and towards Vordere Höhe, where we stopped for a quick break.  Until then  it was relatively easy climbing. Heading west and upwards towards the summit of Gulmen it became much steeper and was quite icy (I guess crampons would have made it slightly easier), with the tracks narrowing and some steep turns needed.  However it soon opened up again, and we were greeted with a nice wide ascent under blue sky towards the 'gipfel' (summit).  

After a nice lunch of sandwiches and whiskey on the summit, we took off the skins and put the splitboards together to become a snowboard for the fun part!  The first part of the descent over the west side was quite steep but with some excellent powder snow.  As the terrain became less steep, the snow was harder, however the 'freeriding' experience of this terrain is definitely there due to it being so wide and with many options to find your way down.  Yes it would have been good to have more powder, but it was still a nice fun descent all the way down to Amden, where I enjoyed a nice cold beer at the Schäfli bar.

This tour was an excellent choice for an introduction to splitboarding; and of course would make an ideal short ski / snowboard tour route, as well as being popular with snowshoe-walkers.  For those looking to build their confidence and skills in ski touring I would say this is an ideal route; although always take the appropriate safety precautions.

Oh, and thanks to all at Mavericks snowboarding for organising the tour and splitboards!

(ps. I forgot to start the GPS, but we started from the main road in Arvenbüel, just before the main parking.  The walking trail starts right across the street)