Wanderings in Germany/Austria: Part II

Our trek in the Austrian Alps is an experience that is very hard to describe … it was one of the more amazing things I’ve done. The scenery was astounding, the hike was exhilarating and the mountain huts ruled. We essentially walked most of the day, then ended up at a hut, had delicious food and excellent beer, then crashed for the night. The weather wasn’t stellar, but we DID have a full day (our longest walking day) of great weather.

The first day involved a 4000 foot climb from Neustift to the Starkenburger Hut in the drizzling rain and fog. The visibility was poor, and we couldn’t see the hut above us for some time, making it difficult to guess when the climb would end. Then at some point the fog cleared for a minute, and we could see the hut on a ledge overhead. Pretty surreal. We arrived just in time for dinner and sat with two hikers (Elmar and Alex) who were funny as hell, great fun to chat with and who we ended up hanging out with for the next two days. Alex is from Belaruse (lives in Minsk), and Elmar is originally from Innsbruck, met Alex in Minsk and now lives in Budapest.

One excellent aspect of the first foggy day was that the scenery around was pretty much obscured, making the next morning (which was perfectly clear) absolutely spectacular. It was amazing to finally see the peaks towering around us and to see just HOW FAR the valley was below us! The second day involved a 15 km walk across some pretty sketchy terrain to the Franz Senn Hut, a walk that was filled with gigantic views and beautiful landscapes, but that also ravaged Sam’s knees. We left at 9:30 a.m. and reached the Franz Senn Hut at 7:30 p.m., once again just in time for dinner. Elmar and Alex ran ahead and asked the hut warden to save some food for us. These two had intended to walk to the valley from an alm (small hut along the walk that serves small meals and beverages) midway along the walk, but Sam and I cajoled them into continuing on to Franz Senn. Sound familiar Brooke/Jer, Jim/Pam?

Day three we decided to stay at the Franz Senn Hut for another night to allow Sam's knees to recover a bit, to chill and drink coffee(s) and to do some of the nearby day hikes. Day hike number one was with Alex and Elmar in the morning to Hell's Throat, a point where water flowing from a nearby glacier shoots through and down a rock cliff. Pretty damn cool. There was a technical climbing route (to be done with harness and carabiners) that went right through the Devil's Throat, and it took Elmar's excellent translation of a nearby sign in German which said that it was forbidden to go through the route without safety equipment to stay me from trying to climb through. Mid-day, Elmar and Alex took off for the valley, Sam took a nap and read her book and I did a day hike to a lake up the mountain a little bit called the Rinnensee. Pretty foggy walk and it started pouring as I walked back, so I arrived at the hut dripping wet. One beautiful aspect of the mountain huts is that they typically have a well-ventilated trockenraum, or drying room, to hang all of your stuff to dry over night.

The bedding in these huts deserves some mention. The huts are by no means primitive, but they aren't luxury hotels either. A bed was about 20 euro ($27). On day 1, Sam and I thought it would be nice to grab a private room, so we payed a little extra for a double room. Our double room consisted of a narrow aisle and two double beds. The other bed was eventually occupied by two older men, one of whom snored quite nicely. Soooo, in actuality, there was no such thing as a private room ... it was simply possible to reduce the number of people with which you needed to sleep. In the Franz Senn Hut, we decided to save our money and sleep in the dorm. The dorm consisted of "boxes" which are sleeping compartments in the top floor of the hut. Each box CAN sleep six people, and initially Sam and I were assigned to a box with four other people already occupying each side. When we came to bed, we moved to a box that only had two other people (Elmar and Alex), and it was an excellent night of sleep. The following night, we moved to a two person box, which is perpendicular to the other boxes and essentially is meant to make use of extra room in the dorm. This was the most private night of sleep and was heavenly.

Monday came with prospects of rain, and Sam and I had to ponder the short walk we had planned over a pass to the Neue Regensburger Hut. In the end, the onset of rain and Sam's screaming knees convinced us (though I moped petulantly for a bit) to head down to the valley and back to Innsbruck. The hike down from Franz Senn was a little steep, but pretty straight forward. At the valley, we found that the next bus to Neustift would come some 5 hours later and a taxi would be 25 euro, so we decided to walk the five miles or so to the town of Milders and then catch a bus from there to Innsbruck. The walk was wet and got a bit long, but the scenery was gorgeous.

Thus began the final phase of our wanderings, covered in Part III.