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




On the way to Kreuzkopf

After a bit we reached a very steep scree slope up a gully with bits of wire screwed on to supposedly help you up - except it was too high to reach. Half way up I made the mistake of stopping and couldn't seem to move after that...not up, down or sideways. In the end John had to stretch down and offer the end of his stick which I gladly grabbed.
Stuck

We arrived at the Kellerjochhutte (2,218) at 2.30pm in time for sausage kraut and potato. We had the rest of the day off, sitting in the sun in deck chairs admiring the incredible view west to mountains we had already walked.
Kellerjochhutte


P.S. having got here so early we half wondered whether to press on to the next place but are glad we didn't. It's a classic trad mountain hutte run by a pair of friendly laid back women who can cook. And tonight we have special entertainment laid on in the form of a huge thunder storm. We are told not to worry if the place shakes.

On holiday at Kellerjochhutte
PPS - John insists on adding the photo below which bears no relevance to the text.

Descending from Kreuzjoch

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1 comment:

  1. Nice to read from you Christine and happy to hear the good news from your knee.
    Have a nice time and enjoy.

    ReplyDelete