Note that this photo gallery is set up with a page for each photo. Clicking on any particular photo will bring up a page with more of a description rather than just a larger image. These pages are linked so that from any one of them you can go to the next one or the previous one.

In May 2005 I went to Europe for several reasons. First I attended annual meetings between the European Avalanche Warning Services and between representatives of the warning services and the IFMGA. This was in Davos, Switzerland immediately after my arrival in Zurich. At the end of the trip I had an opportunity to learn about the avalanche and mountain rescue services in Vorarlberg as a guest of Garbisch Barbish and to meet with my friend and colleague Werner Greipl in Munich. (Actually the only way to meet with Werner was to accompany him on a trip to retrieve a helicopter from near Frankfurt back to Munich so I had a long free flight across southern Germany.) Between these things I went for a ski tour in the Silvretta region of Austria, along the Swiss border. And that is what this photo gallery is about.

From the meetings in Davos I was able to get a ride to Landeck from a mountain rescue representative from the Czech Republic. Then I took a bus to Galteur, found a pension, and purchased last minute supplies. The next day I set off for the Jamtal Hutte. I stayed there two days, ascending the Gemspitze the first day (but not quite to the summit) and the Hinter Jam Spitze the second day. On the third day I crossed the Ochsencharte pass below Dreilanderspitze to reach the Wiesbadenerhutte. On the fourth day I did a loop tour - back across a different route, the Tirolerscharte, climbed back to the Ochsencharte again, and from there I climbed to the summit of Dreilanderspitze. A ski back down to the Weisbadenerhutte completed the tour. Then on the last day I hiked down the access carraige road to Bielerhohe on the main Silvretta Hochalpenstrasse and hitch-hiked down to Galtuer. I stayed at the same pension where the woman had been nice enough to let me leave a duffle bag.

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