Starting late June or early July

Jörg, Freitag, 28. Februar 2014, 15:51 (vor 3921 Tagen) @ Espen1

Hej Espen,
jag ska försöka att förklara problemet:

end of June beginning of July is often at the northern slopes much snow left over from winter, which forms snowfields. This is usually not the case for the slopes faced to the South, because of the sunshine at these positions. These old snowfields at the northern ascends are potentially problematic due to the fact, that the snow is melting during the days and freezes on the surface during the nights. By these repeating freeze/thaw cycles these snowfields becomes quite hard with an potential icy surface. Usually one has to pass these snowfields in the morning, when they are still icy.
The main problematic situation along the whole trip is in my eyes the Schlauchkar on the 6th day. There is the potential of snowfields especially at the upper part of the Schlauchkar, which reaches far down with high steepness. If one slip off at such positions, it´s difficult if not almost impossible to prevent a fall with high speed on the boulders below.
There are two possibilities one can do. Using crampons are advisable, at this early time in my opinion enevitable. As K2 mentioned, many M-V hiker using “Grödel”,i.e. small crampons with 4 spikes. If a lot of snow is still there one could think of taking bigger “real” ones with 10-12 spikes. To judge this and because rests of old snow is not a sudden problem and will be known weeks before one could call right before starting the trip at the Karwendelhaus and asking about the snow conditions.
The second possibility is to completely circumvend the Schlauchkar by using the alternative route from the Karwendelhaus to the Hallangerhaus via Scharnitz. This route is not as spectacular as the original way and quite long, but by taking this route one can bypass dangerous situations.
I think the Schlauchkar is the bottleneck in respect to snow. K2 mentioned as well Pluderingsattel, Geschützspitzsattel and Friesenbergscharte. All these are mostly impossible to go if there is still snow on their southern slopes, because it´s very steep at the south sides at all of them. But at the south sides the snow should have gone as mentioned above. But if there are only snowfields at the northern slopes, I think one can pass these ascends at least with crampons, but I am not completely sure about that. That depends largely on the skills one has on snow. But you as a Norwegian…

Taken together your early start can raise some problems with old snowfields, which can be icy and therefore be dangerous. But this winter in central Europe was so far not a winter you are used to in Norway. It was comparatively warm and there was little snow in the Northern Alps. This of course can change and there might come more snow during spring. So one cannot judge by now, whether an early start will be problem in 2014.
It´s not completely fixed, but my plan for this year is to start at the last weekend in June in Munich, så kanske vi ses.

Lycka till!

Jörg