Beschreibung

Hosengagger - shitting your pants in Stubai

2013-02-22 Stubai in Austria is closely associated with safe skiing on crowded glaciers, but the real adventure might just be a climb away. Freeride.co.uk contributor Stefan Siegel joined forces with local heroes Patrick Ribis and Bezi Freinademetz and climbed the Pfaffengrat in search of the steep and deep.

On the way up to Aperer Pfaffengrat. In the background you can se a part of the Stubaier Gletscher ski area.
Take a flight to Innsbruck, add a few road miles with your powder-buddy towards Neustift and into the beautiful Stubai Valley, garnish it with blue sky and powder, and you’ll end up with a nice and peaceful weekend in the backcountry. However, this is a story unlike others: in order to add flavour, we spiced up the weekend program with the local hero of all local heroes, a filmmaker whose name can be found in the credits of extreme ski productions, and to this we added a 60 metre vertical drop – that eventually lead us to (powder) paradise!
In typical Tyrolean dialect – the language that separates German plainsmen from the real men – the word‘Hosengagger’ can be translated as ‘scaredy-pants’, a chicken, a woman or man, who shits her or his pants at the sight of what’s to come. An ideal name for a freeride-tour that we were proud to inaugurate since Patrick Ribis, local free riding legend and owner of the Neustift based Freeride Center, wanted to add a somewhat more extreme option to his range of day tours around the Stubai Glacier. Essentially, a tour that would separate the men from the boys.

Patrick’s establishment is not your average ski rental shop that offers overpriced backcountry tours on the side. His converted dive bar acts as a meeting place for the local powder community. Open every day between 5 and 7pm, the lounge offers everything you need to plan next day’s tours, rent additional equipment, enjoy a beer or two and talk shop. And this is where we were introduced to our fourth partner in crime: Bernhard Freinademetz.

Back in the days when I was still hitting slalom poles on an alpine snowboard, which was narrower than the tip of one of my current fat skis, there was one legend everyone was talking about: Martin Freinademetz. A former world champion, this guy brought snowboarding into the mainstream in the Alps, making us dream of victories in spandex suits. Since then he has moved on - married a Romanian girl and started a business with his brother Bernhard. Together they now offer heli-skiing, offroad and Enduro tours in the Carpathian Mountains. Moreover, Bernhard a.k.a. Bezi, started his film production company called Jungle.
By chance, I had watched ‘Mount St. Elias’ only a few days earlier, an epic documentary about the longest ski descent in history. Hence I was completely stoked to realise Bernhard was one of the minds behind the project, as well as other blockbusters such as Mission Impossible III and Triple X.
So there you go - now that you know Patrick and Bernhard’s backgrounds, you can imagine the rest. Equipped with rotary hammer, crampons, ropes and ice picks we headed to the Schaufelnieder slope that would take us to the face we were planning to ascend.

Descending towards an untracked snow field from the Pfaffengrat.
Patrick told us he only had discovered this gem of a slope last season. Dreaming of this valley with open and untracked fields and two steep couloirs, we set off from the Fernaufener Glacier and worked our way towards the top. The 60+ degrees face was an absolute joy to climb, and in a little more than two hours we reached the Aperer Pfaffengrat at 3,049m. Although Patrick had secured the climb and descend with bolts, we could understand why someone would be versed to chicken out at the sight of the vertical drops on either side of the ridge.

After a brief lunch break provided by our delicious energy bars, we engaged with the abseiling part of our schedule. Bezi did not over exaggerate - indeed we were looking at a 50m vertical drop over rock and ice. But we did not care, the sight of the valley that would await us upon landing was mind-blowing.
Once back on firm ground, we set foot on a 55-degree slope that would open up in a plain and open field, only having been seen by chamois beforehand. The slope ended in one of the two couloirs, slowly taking us back to reality. After spending so much time in an overcrowded ski resort, we couldn’t believe our luck at being so far away from anything touristy. We enjoyed every second of the descent, and while I would bore you with describing every turn, I’ll rather let you enjoy the images.

Passing icefalls on the way down.

Thanks to Bezi and Patrick we were introduced to a fantastic tour, ideal for those seeking a thrill and possessing a keenness to climb. However, should you head up to the Stubai Glacier, please do us all a favour and don’t attempt this on your own. Due to the steepness of the slopes, there is a severe risk of avalanches. Both of the open fields end up in narrow and rocky terrain.

Also, I am proud to announce no rider of our group had to make use of the toilet at any point, however Patrick would like to let you know that for next season he intends to install a wooden outhouse on the ridge… you never know!

Text: Stefan Siegel
Photo: Bernhard Freinademetz