In reply to Xharlie:
> A group of intrepid snow-shoers have invited me to go out with them in the general Algau area and I'm wondering if I can suggest a route that would be suitable for me to go with them but on my touring skis, instead.
> I hate hiking down-hill and can only imagine that hiking down-hill with snow shoes on is going to suck even more. (One of the reasons why I love ski-touring is precisely this: I actually love hiking and ski-touring is like hiking just with a fun down-hill.) That said, I've never actually tried snow-shoes -- just watched a lot of other groups slogging about in them, always wondering: "why don't they just take skis?"
....because (like me) they can't ski, or there's lots of non-skiable stuff and they don't want to carry skis and have to walk it in skiboots. Hiking downhill with snowshoes isn't too troublesome. You should give it a go as it is a great way to give another dimension to your hiking.
> I'd argue that touring skis and snow-shoes probably go at the same pace up-hill and, if the gradient of the route is mostly monotonic so that you're not having to pull skins off and put them back on every five minutes, there's no reason why the two modes of transport aren't compatible. Skis will be faster on the way down but sitting and waiting every few hundred metres, watching the view, is preferable to trudging. (I'm an anti-social bastard, anyway, so missing some of the banter is hardly a concern. I go to the hills for the peace, not the inane chatter.)
If you're in the Allgau a lot of it will be below treeline so you're just going to get bored watching trees. You'll also ski so much faster than them. Maybe get them to take the thin 'bum shield' sledges so they can go faster on the descents?
> Has anyone, here, tried this? If so, got any route suggestions? If not, got any opinions, speculation or advice?
How long do you intend to be out, and how wide is your 'Allgau area'? I've relatives in the Ammersee area so can tell you what I've done further east in winter, and in the Allgau in summer which might be doable on s-shoes / skis .
Snowshoeing I've done:-
Hoernle 'massif'. Deffo doable on skis as far as Stierkopf and popular with x-country skiers. You've got 4 summits that poke above the treeline nicely. The full traverse descent to Oberammergau via Drei Marken through the woods beyond the Stierkopf isn't skiable, and even a pain in snowshoes in places. Carrying skis through the woods would also be a huge ball ache so you'd be better off doing an 'out and back' to the Stierkopf from the hut. There's a lift up and hut with decent food at the Hoernle end. If there's enough snow you could ski down the pistes below the hut to your car and the s-shoers could rent toboggans to go down the toboggan run. The hut has a website with webcam.
Laber - I followed the 'skiroute' round the north side past the Soilasee. Doable with skis as far as the Soilasee, but the section from there up to Laber itself was very steep - I almost had to do 'kickturns' in my snowshoes going up (deep powder). I didn't see any ski tracks there. The hut and lift were shut when I went. The ski slope below the lift can suffer avalanches.
Wank - The ultimate mountain for those with a juvenile sense of humour, you can go on the Wankbahn and eat/stay in the Wankhaus. I went up Sankt Anton - Daxcapelle - mittelstation - west ridge, and down east then north down the old skipiste to the Esterbergalm then round to the west. The west ridge isn't doable on skis but the rest is.
Gunzesreid (near Sonthofen) - wanderparkplatz Saege - Birkachweg - Mittelberg hut (closed) - SW along ridge, then round the bowl to the Stubenalm (not labelled, food) and down the toboggan run to the carpark. Pretty much all doable on skis apart from maybe the bottom section up through the wood.
Of all those I liked Hoernle the best. More to follow.