I started skiing at a pretty young age - both my parents have been ski instructors in their earlier days. My father soon took us freeriding with him in the off-pist terrain at Arlberg, Austria. There, I discovered my love not only for deep snow skiing, but also for moguls and other more difficult terrain. I liked the permanent challenge for body and mind a lot more than the mere speed on the pistes. However, it took until my mid-twenties, when we were already living in Freiburg, that I exchanged the lifts for touring skis and started exploring the backcountry in the black forest. There are several nice and pretty steep descents near Freiburg such as the Kappler Wand at Schauinsland or the descent to Feldsee besides the Feldsee cascade.

 

However, the black forest in general is rather flat, continuous descents of more than 500 altimeters are rare... But fortunately the Alps are not so far. In around two hours from Freiburg, one can find the Berner Oberland and the Urner Alpen with plenty of 3000 and 4000 meter peaks. Only a little longer drive of around 4 hours away there is the Wallis and the Mont Blanc region, literally everything one could wish for.

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Below, you can check out some of the greater tours I did in the past years.

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