Snowshoe in the sunshine of Bad Hofgastein

TW leads the way!
Barstein Alm

A sunny Saturday in January, TW decided to take me on a snowshoe tour. This was my initiation to snowshoeing having purchased a pair back in December.

We took the Schlossalmbahn lift up to the middle station at Kitzstein and then turned left down towards the Barstein Alm and a closed ski run towards the village of Bad Hofgastein. It was well before the 'beering hour' so we did not stop at the Barstein but waddled on past in our size 30 shoes. You just clip these monster snowshoes to a normal pair of walking boots and off you go. Going up or down a slope proved to be quite easy, our shoes have massive metal teeth underneath. The trickiest manoeuvre seems to be traversing across a steep slope, as you would when skiing. I abandoned that as I got used to the ‘big feet’.
Look I have size 30 feet!
Anyway, it was a cracking day, sunny but cold. Once we had left the ski lift behind it was so quiet. Only the crunch-crunch of our footfalls on the snow could be heard. We did see two groups of three skiers but they were lost and well off track. They had to climb over barbed wire fences as they scratched and scraped their way back to the village. We felt quite superior on our snowshoes, the last thing you need to look for is a prepared piste! We meandered down to the village through farmyards across fields of untrodden snow and along forest tracks until we reached the railway line and the home run piste. By this time we were confident and stable so we walked straight down what is quite a steep piste to the bus stop. Ready for lunch!

Overview of Bad Hofgastein
TW amongst the snowflakes
Looking South towards the Tauern Mountains
A glorious winter's day

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