echoes of 2019

and here we are, another year flashed by, we already set off for our 4th year on the south side of the alps, and i should do like marmots do – oversleep the gloomy and cold winter days, i wouldn't miss a single bit of them.

so for now, here a quick recollection of the year – entirely in line with the current taste that climate change knocks on every door…

how it began is here, and as mentioned, march has been a beautiful spring month.

though, april and may have been unstable and uncomfortable – unexpectedly dull, rainy, and windy, with temps under 20 ° in the valley and still snowfall in altitude. brr. south tyrol was caught in the clouds.

early summer was right on time on the first day of june, bringing to (sun)light a rich and colourful nature – the late snow melt let abundant river waters sparkle and alpine meadows grow thick of wild flowers and grass.

at the turn of the j-months a north european tour took us away from the mountains for 6 sunny family days in brittany, and 3 (sadly cloudy, rainy at max 16 °c) days saying hello to friends in hamburg.

lots of km and a bad carbon footprint on the road and in the air. 

summer months have been a mix of sunshine and unstable weather made of lots of thunderstorms – with 38000 lightnings in july and an onset of winter in september!

so because that wouldn't have been a clever idea to start higher tours in such natural circumstances (even if being humble on the mountain doesn't seem to be much trendy these days), our alpine ambitions remained at a more unpretentious level – around parcines (partschins), through val di plan (pfelderer tal, such as plateau auf imest 2100+ m and faltschnaljöchl 2417 m), at monte scena (schennaberg), on monzoccolo (tschögglberg) to the stone cairns (stoanerne mandl), and monte catino (grosser mittager 2422 m).

autumn in october has mainly been lavished with sunny days, nicely warm and brightly colorful.

but then…then there was this november. a disaster of a month. a very ugly one, and purely waste of time.

over two whole weeks of terrible cloudly-rainy-snowy weather with unbelievably heavy precipitation, 3-4 times as much as in a whole november month, country-wide 250 l/m² in average, locally peaks up to 300 l/m², one mediterranean low was chasing the other – 7 pieces in 20 days. cool-down after #8.

first half of december turned to cold temps under, finally, a mostly blue sky, allowing winter hikes on snowy mountains shining in the sunlight.

and while finishing these lines, we're back from another cloudy and rainy round, the last big one for this year they say.

2019 hasn't been my year, either an exhausting one, from my point of view. cannot wait for a better 2020…

pics of the year this way.