Technical difficulty: 7/10 (requires good reading of avalanche conditions)
Fitness: 8/10
Objective danger: 6/10
Landscape: 9/10
Busy: 2/10

A longer round in Tuxer Alps, starting from the village of Navis close to Brenner and traversing the summits of Naviser Kreuzjöchl and Geier to Wattener Lizum and then over a col back to Navis. Highly dependant on right avalanche conditions without easy options for retreat.

Starting point: Parking Schranzberg
Ending point: Parking Schranzberg
Ascend: 2200vm / 6h
Exposition: most of the harder skiing is N/NO, last long descent is SW/W.

Route:

From the Schranzberg parking lot, follow the forest path through a wooded area and then immediately turn right, ascending along the clearing towards the Naviser Hütte. Get out of the forest after a little while and continue over open alpine terrain along a ditch up to the Stöcklalm (1882 m). From there, head right over the stream, ascend briefly over open terrain, and at an elevation of about 1950 m, turn right out over a kind of ramp onto the Weiricheck. From there, continue upwards along the easily walkable west ridge onto a wide plateau northwest of the Naviser Kreuzjöchl. Then continue briefly flat to the southeast and eastwards on a narrow ridge to a forepeak and a few meters further to the Naviser Kreuzjöchl (2536m).

Most people will turn around and ski down the same way from here. Not today, though! Continue by skiing down the east ridge from the summit for few hundred meters. You can see this ridge continues in front of you all the way to the summit of Geier, our next objective. The ridge is very rocky though, so ski down the norther slopes into a bowl for few hundred vertical meters, until you reach its bottom. You can see in front of you a relatively gently ascending slope towards Geier. Ascend the slope until you connect back to the ridge. Here is the crux of the route, with a traverse of very steep and exposed slope for about 200m. Use your judgment here.

After that follow the terrain avoiding steep slopes first north-eastwards towards the face of Lizumer Reckner and than under the face east and south towards the summit of Geier (2857m). Descent with some of the best skiing on this loop towards Lizumer Hütte on the NE face from the summit and than northwards out of the valley towards the hut. There are steep slopes on your left hand side so consider your meeting/resting places appropriately.

You can ski all the way to the hut or put your skins on before and start ascending again westwards for the last uphill of the loop. You have a few options how to traverse back to Navis. If you follow this route, it will lead you across a col to very steep NW facing face with some nice skiing. You will eventually end up in a bowl called Kuchlböden at around 2800m. From here descent W/SW towards Klammalm. From here follow a very very long and very very gently sloped forest road back to the parking lot in Navis.

Pro tip: Kaspresknödl at Gasthof Kirchenwirt feels extra good after this one.

Photos by @the.running.nomad, @bennibru and @innsbruckalps