Stories from Bad Kleinkirchheim

Author: Verena Patscheier

It snowed the last two days. Now we have a romantic winter world glittering in front of us. The air is clear and although the thermostat tells us that it’s -12ºC, it feels warmer in the sun. We’re underway with Birgit from the Nock Mountains National Park Management. During a 3 hour snow shoe tour, she’s going to introduce us to the wintry secrets of the soft Nock Mountains and test our ‘chances for survival’ in ice and snow.

After warming up, we go ever so slightly up hill through the snowy woods. The path snakes through the trees and we tromp through wonderfully fluffy new snow towards Schafalm (1,842m). The panorama is unbelievable and the snow covered hills glisten in the sun. While we’re underway though, we can’t just be looking out towards the horizon. We’ve been divided into small groups and we’re supposed to be looking for fuel for a fire along our path. Each group has 3 tries with a match to make a small fire. So we’re looking under all the trees for dry pine cones and needles from the trees, grasses, leaves and dry wood. Our plan: we’re going to build a little snow cave with two air inlets which we can put our fuel in. We win the creativity prize at any rate, but we can’t get our fire to burn. It smokes and smolders, but nothing else. One group two weeks ago evidently actually did it on their first try. Their trick – they collected sap from the trees too.

This aha-moment wasn’t the only one we had on this morning. You always hear that people tend to run in circles when they get lost. Is there any truth to it? We tested it ourselves on a large flat area. Everybody tries to walk a straight line through the snow with their eyes closed. But everybody ends up somewhere completely far apart. Only the geology professor is able to actually walk a straight line (orientation is his job, isn’t it?). So what’s the story? Everybody has a stronger leg and we use that one more. That stronger leg always makes a longer step, and that puts us into a circle. Moral: If you can’t see (fog or heavy snow), it’s better to find cover where you are than to run in circles.

If you’re interested in outdoor survival experiences with snow shoes, the National Park Management offers two tours each week in the Nock Mountains.

Wednesday at 10 am (3 hours) on the Turracher Höhe (Kornockbahn) Information and registration 04275-8392

Thursday at 10 am (4 hours) in St. Lorenzen (Ebene Reichenau) Information and registration 04275-665