The Ötscher (1893m) dominates the northern part of the “Alpenostrand” towering almost 1500m above the valley floor near the picturesque town of Scheibbs (341m). With clear air the Ötscher is visible as far as from the Weinviertel, the rural region where I was born. Thus, this mountain has a long lasting attractiveness for me. It happens that the Ötscher is an attractive mountain for skiing with versatile runs offering various 1000m vertical descents of different difficulty levels.
Ötscher auf einer größeren Karte anzeigen
The chairlift „Grosser Ötscher“ of the Lackenhof ski resorts allows for an easy and short ascent of the Ötscher. It takes only about one hour of easy skinning to arrive at the summit. The easiest run is the Fürstenplan which goes through the relatively wide and open bowl in the north-west face of the Ötscher.
Grosser Oetscher, Fuerstenplan
If conditions allow the steep and alpine south face of the Ötscher offers the most interesting runs. This spring we had to wait for weeks until good (i.e. safe enough) corn conditions were prevalent. The trick is to arrive at the summit early enough before the sun turned the firm corn into avalanche-prone slush.
Grosser Oetscher, Summit
At May, 3rd we were successful in our attempt to search for the right conditions in the south face. After a cold and clear night the corn was good enough to ski the wide, open slopes of the south face via the Wurzleiten run. It was a perfect spring corn fest. After an initial tricky navigation through the first slope which was covered with crevasse-like snow holes the run allowed for easy-going skiing over marvelous terrain.
Grosser Oetscher, South Face, Wurzleiten
Wade skiing the Wurzleiten
The total vertical of about 900m compensated for the tiring traverse back to the Riffelsattel (1283m) and the ascent to the summit of the Kleiner Ötscher (1554m).
Helmut and Wade arriving at the Kleiner Ötscher Summit
Thanks to this year’s snow-rich winter we were able to enjoy some 700m vertical skiing down to Lackenhof through the North-East bowl of the Kleiner Ötscher.
