Day 16 Antholz Mitteral

Had originally planned to stay in Ahornach but we are now a day behind schedule and the hotel we had booked could no longer find us a room. So yesterday we came down to Sand in Taufers where there were plenty of hotels to choose from.

Gelltalam Meadow

Day 15 Sand in Taufere

Christine's Guest Blog

Apart from a small sting in the tail, my best ever day's high altitude walking.

We left the wonderful Edelrautehutte at 7.45, giving ourselves just a few moments to relish it's location perched on a col - huge east/west views with a glacier hanging over us to the north.

Edelrautehutte

Day 14 Edelrauthutte

Looked out of the window at 6.45 and the weather looked as bad as ever - had we made the wrong decision yesterday? Within minutes however we saw our first glimpse of blue sky and within an hour or so the mist had gone and we had perfect weather for walking - cool and clear.

Descending from Pfitscherjoch Hutte

Day 13 Pfitscherjoch

Stuck at Pfitscherjoch. Had been anticipating bad weather for several days, it arrived today. Heavy rain through the night, thunder lightening, all gone in the morning but very low cloud, cold north wind and visibility down to a few metres.

Big decision in the morning, should we go or should we stay. Not easy, we had a tough walk ahead - my notes said "don't do this walk if you're not sure of the weather" but there was a general exodus from the hutte and staying was not exactly going to be fun. It also meant rearranging our schedule.

We stayed and the weather didn't start to improve until early evening. Had a good rest and luckily this is a very good hutte. I think we did the right thing, better weather tomorrow will provide a full vindication.

Interesting the number of the walkers on a trip that goes from Munich to Venice. Pfitscherjoch is a stop-over on the route and we met a group on the trip last night and there are another two groups on the same trip staying here tonight - surprisingly this is about the half way point.



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Day 12 Pfitscherjoch

Just as yesterday was worse than we expected, today was better. It's all about expectation management. We are busy turning tomorrow into a nightmare.

We decided yesterday that getting a bus to Ginzling was a better start than an endless walk up the long valley. That meant staying in Mayrhofen in a fairly luxurious ski hotel at a bargain rate. The only trouble was their internet wasn't working and I was hoping to get onto the Via Alpina web site and go through the itinerary again. It gets a bit complicated over the next few days.

The decision to get a bus was a good one. I'm sure the route from Finkenburg to Ginzling would have avoided the road wherever possible but it's still a long valley bottom walk and there is plenty of that to enjoy after Ginzling.

Easy trail up from Ginzling

Day 11 Finkenberg

Bad day on the walk - sometimes it doesn't work and today was one of them.

Two problems: somehow we had not realised that it was a big walk, we had both somehow concluded that it was a stroll down the hill and, secondly; the weather was bad.

Looking back to Rastkogelhütte

Day 10 Rastkogelhutte

Many thanks for Christine's guest blog describing yesterdays' walk, always nice to have another perspective. In the interests of completeness there are just a few things I'd like to add.


Firstly Christine failed to mention that at the point we emerged from the trees and started along a "precarious" ridge we also started, after 8 days of walking east (for me) to head south. Quite a significant moment; after almost constantly tracking and crossing the border between Germany and Austria we are now crossing Austria and in a few days start to track the border between Austria and Italy.

Christine also failed to mention that the underlying geology has changed transforming the scenery. After days of dry but dramatic limestone landscape, with jagged peaks and cliffs, we are now into a wetter greener terrain with plants and vegetation suited to an acid soil. Looking south its clear that we will soon be back into a limestone landscape. Perhaps we are crossing an older alpine core which has lost its limestone cover through erosion.

The weather has also become more unsettled with afternoon and evening storms, apparently a feature of the Alps in August. These storms are savage and I would hate to get caught in one in an exposed place.

Apart from that I thought that Christine's blog was quite good.

Leaving Kellerjochehutte with its prayer flags

Day 9 Kellerjochhutte

Guest blog from Christine.

Another day another huge climb, but good news is my knee seems better.

Schwaz is nothing to write home about. It's just down the road from Innsbruck but at 600m it's somewhat too low for alpine walking. Stayed in the modern StayingInn Hotel, clean functional and stylish and no dried flowers or gnomes in sight. John managed to find his way out of town without the usual backtracking and soon we were walking through hay meadows up a zig zagging road. This went on for 2 hours then we struck off steeply through trees till we reached a bilberry covered rocky crest with spectacular views. We picked our way precariously along the rocky edge to Gratzenkopf (2069metres) marked by a cross. The weather was blowing up and big clouds were fast approaching so we hurried on along a dramatic rocky path that clung high to the mountainside. On the ridge itself the wind was ferocious.

Climbing up to Gratzenkopf

Day 8 Schwaz

The Falkenhutte was excellent, perfect location and friendly staff (not a universal feature). I'm used to slightly odd arrangements and slept well but Christine, who for the first time had to share a tiny space with six other people, didn't. There was a huge thunder storm and someone shut the window to stop the rattles, it got very hot.

Leaving Falkenhutte

Day 7 Falkenhutte

Day 7 for me, day 1 for Christine, and her first "strike" of the trip; she stopped and wouldn't go any further.

After all the wonderful walking of the last six days, I was worried things were about to fizzle out. Yesterday was dull and the limited research I'd done on today's walk suggested it might be the same; a long walk on a forest trail, a climb over a shallow pass followed by a long trudge down the other side and a final climb up to the Falkenhutte. My information was right but it didn't do justice to the scenery. The second part after the pass was just wonderful. The horizon was a long line of jagged limestone peaks, scree underneath and then open alpine pasture populated with little herds of cows.

Karwendeltal Valley

Day 6 Scharnitz

After yesterday, today had to be a bit of an anti-climax, and it was. To be honest after three nights in huttes all I wanted was to get down to civilisation, have a shower and wash my clothes. I was in Scharnitz by 1 so all wishes met.

Drietorsptzgatterl

Day 5 Meilerhutte

Hard case walkers arrive at the huttes late, rolling in about 7.30. They give the impression that they have been walking all day, have crossed the Alps, and in a not so subtle way suggest that johnny come earlies are not really cutting it. Late arrivers also mean that you just can't count your "I've got this room to myself" chickens until they finally hatch. The tiny little loft space, room 13, which I thought belonged to me had, by lights out at 10 o'clock, 5 other occupants. Despite being packed in like sardines, I did actually manage to get some sleep, at this rate I might even get used to it.

Climbing up to Feldernjochl Pass

Day 4 Coburger Hutte

Brilliant days walking, only problem was it was too short. Weather was perfect, scenery amazing but the next hutte was five hours away, got there just a bit too early. The way my schedule works, it's either a mega day today or tomorrow - it's 10 hours plus tomorrow.

Wolfratshauser Hutte

Day 3 Wolfratshauser Hutte

Fantastic breakfast at the Hotel Florence, almost made up for the fact that there was a thunder storm going outside and the rain was pouring down. Despite an early breakfast everything conspired against an early start: the weather; an unsuccessful search in the village's two shops for some ohrstopsel (earplugs); and then going west out the village instead of east; by the time I was walking on the route proper it was 10.30.

The rain didn't stop until midday and the first part of the walk, a climb up and along a forest trail to the ski resorts of Rinnen and Berwang, was not that exciting. Lots of trails around Berwang and I didn't want to believe that the correct route involved following the river out of town and loosing nearly all the height I'd gained since leaving Weissenbach.

Weittal Valley

Day 2 Weissenbach am Lech

I got to Weissenbach am Lech but somehow without going along the route of the red variant of the Via Alpina. What I hadn't realised when I set off this morning is that the Prinz-Luitpold-Haus is actually on two variants of the Via Alpina and I set off on the wrong one. In my defence both variants are marked red on the map it was only when the gap between the route I was following and the trail on my GPS (no maps on my GPS) got so large that I started to get suspicious.

On the pass at Bockkarscharte (2149 metre)

Day 1 Prinz-Luitpold-Haus

Because everyone I spoke to raved about the Carnic Way I didn't really give the rest of walk as much attention, expecting it be similar to the walking I did in Bavaria last year - good but not spectacular. Well today was a nice surprise and tomorrow, the first half at least, looks absolutely amazing.

Heading up the Oytal Valley

Today was all about getting high (most of the locals were getting the funicular to the west of Oberstdorf which takes you up nearly 1000 metres) but despite all the climbing it was a great walk. The route takes you south out of Oberstdorf along a none metalled road and then, after a couple of kilometres, west along an increasingly beautiful valley. What surprised me after last year, was how quickly you escape the trees and get into the lovely open summer pastures. The easy going at the bottom of valley meant it was busy - lots of people on bikes, some with those supplementary batteries which are popular here - and everyone heading for the huttes along the bottom of the valley for mid-morning cake and coffee. If Christine had been here I would have stopped as well but walking alone there was nothing to slow me down but the occasional Snicker.

Day 0 - Oberstdorf

In Oberstdorf, Bavaria, and on the starting line for a four week 600 kilometre hike along the red branch of the Via Alpina. The route takes me east along the German Austrian border, south across Austria and then east again along the border between Italy and Austria. The last part of trip includes the Carnic Way which is supposed to be amazing.
It's not alcohol but I feel like I have a bit of a hangover. I was in the Olympic Stadium on Saturday night and I'm still in shock. Watching Mo Farah win the 5,000 metres was the emotional equivalent of being in a washing machine on full spin. That, the slightly surreal feeling in London over the last few days (everyone being so nice to each other), a lack of sleep (very early flight this morning), and sudden arrival in the middle of the Bavarian countryside (I don't speak a word of German), has left me just a bit dis-orientated.
Christine, my wife, is partly to blame. She insisted on starting the trip today, the day after the Olympics, but then decided after the Vercors trip, which was definitely a tough one, that she needed another week off walking before hitting the hills again. This has meant getting here on my own which, given my language skills, and general inability to ask anyone the way, is always a bit of an ask.
Anyway I got here and without any incident. Easyjet from Gatwick to Munich and a direct train to Oberstdorf - bought the train ticket online and at a discount so feeling very pleased with myself.
I'm quite close to last year's Bavarian walk. The train went through Sonthofen, about 20 kilometres to the north of Oberstdorf, a stopover last year. The Maximillianweg took me along the northern edge of the Alps, the last ridge before the plains of Germany, this year I'm right in the middle of the Allgauer Alps and I'm hoping for even more dramatic scenery. Best thing, so far at least, it's not raining.

Oberstdorf is a winter sports resort which, at this time of year, is packed with German hikers wearing huge leather boots. Most of them are about my age (various shades of grey) and a few of them are dragging grandchildren up hills. Staying in a hutte tomorrow so I'm hoping to leave the crowds behind. I've had my first German meal of the trip so need a walk.


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A Vercors Circular

I got a taste of the Vercors on my trip along the E4 in 2011 but felt that I might be missing the best parts.  The E4 took me along the western side of the plateau and although I experienced some of the huge characteristic limestone cliffs and gorges it was the ridge on the eastern side that looked really special.  The escarpment, particularly when viewed from the north from the Chartreuse, looked like a frozen wave magically captured at the point of breaking. Well I’ve now been back, walked my own “Vercors Circular” and can confirm that this is an amazing place.

Day 2 Crete des Rochers de la Balme

Geologically part of the sub-alpine Jura, the Vercors is separated from the Chartreuse, a sister range to the north, by the Isere Valley.  It’s generally described as a plateau but the reality feels more complicated.  Huge cliffs form the north, east and western boundaries but there are valleys on top of the “plateau” running north / south and gorges which slice into it from east to west. Across the valley to the east you have the Alps proper and to the west the Rhone valley and beyond that the Massif Central.