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

We were on the way by 7.40am, walking down a bit from the hutte then traversing across high scree to the lip at the top of the next valley. Then steep down to the tiny alpine hamlet of Eng where we both had large glasses of buttermilch - like runny yogurt, but salty tasting. I had one last year and I think one a year is about right.

Looking back up to Falkenhutte

After the easy and very nice walk down from the Falkenhutte it was pay back time, a long 900 metre climb up to the pass at Lamsenjoch. The views were great, particularly back to the valley we had descended earlier, but it was very hot and humid and hard work. Took us a good two hours of very steady walking and we were pleased to get inside the hutte at the top and get some shade and refreshment.

Looking down to Binsalm

From the to Western Lamsenjoch Pass to Lamsenjoch Hutte

In the afternoon it felt like we had been let off early for good behaviour. It seemed a bit cooler and the 1300 metre descent to Schwaz was a lot more gradual than we were expecting. Everything was very gentle and solo Ibex shared the route with us unperturbed by our presence. Quite soon the walk became a forest trail, the sort of trail I got so bored with last year, but now it was just a nice change.

Ignored by an Ibex

The final descent into Schwaz looked ominous; it's on a major north-south transport corridor with a motorway, train line and a river. Once we had got over the shock of the noise, after the quiet of the mountains, we just followed the GPS trail which took us to the door of the hotel.

Taking a break at the bottom

The only problem we have at the moment is Christine's knee, it's painful and we may need to look again at the schedule. We have a huge climb tomorrow but compared to the last couple of days the next three days are all quite short. Fingers crossed.


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