Days with boys

Thursday and Friday I took vacation days to do something with the kids. Kris went to Frankfurt to give a weightlifting seminar on Saturday. At first I was ambitious, planning to drive to Italy for camping. But the bad weather and long winter continues this year. Then a ski vacation seemed really expensive. Sigh! It's so much easier for me to make "guy plans" when we have good weather. So it's been more of a hanging around the house kind of vacation. We've had a good time though. Today, Saturday, has been the epicenter of laziness. Movies and videogames today, the highlights being "The Hobbit," and Minecraft respectively. We are total beginners at Minecraft, but having fun digging ourselves down into tunnels we can't escape from! Thursday we were pretty active, riding our bikes down to the Thalkirchen climbing gym and bouldering for a couple of hours. After some lunch, we rode back to Marienplatz and took the train out to Lollihop in the western suburbs. I chased the boys around in there for a while, scaring them pretty good a couple of times. We made it home for a late dinner. Friday I went bouldering for a while, then we went to the huge indoor pool in Erding with 18 slides. This was good fun, until a problem occurred: I was sitting and reading a book when Elijah appeared crying and bleeding a lot! He had cut his lip and chipped a tooth by slipping on a stairway in the slide complex. Oh man...we followed a trail of blood back to a first aid station. All that was from his lip! But then the bleeding stopped and he wasn't really hurt any more, thank goodness. We hurried home and then to an emergency dentist appointment, waiting for a couple of hours. They were able to make a filling for his tooth, and he was very brave in the chair with all the gears and lamps and whining sounds! I'm not sure what we'll do tomorrow, but we'd better leave the house. It's tough when it's just cold and cloudy outside...I'm really weak at being inspired by anything other than good weather. I'm bummed to pass that on to my boys but it's hard to avoid. Good weather: hiking, climbing, skiing, even lazing by a lake. Bad weather: reading, movies, games, napping!

5 days in the snow

I had to use up some vacation days from 2012, and a bigger plan fell through, so I ended up with 5 "loose" days. The boys were away at ski camp, and Kris had to work, so I thought about doing multi-day ski traverses, or maybe even a hike. Dreaming of days in the sun high in the Engadin or Bernese Alps, I was saddened to see how poor the weather forecast was. Days would be cloudy, usually with only a little new snow, but poor visibility for the entire week. This put the kibosh on high multi-day tours crossing unknown glaciers. Finally I decided to take it day by day and see how it turned out.

Hoher Seeblaskogel, 3235 m

I left Munich just before the bus came to take the kids to ski camp, and Kris had a scare at home. The bus driver said he needed car seats for the kids, and I'd left them in the car. Gulp! Luckily, we had some old ones he could use. I made the familiar drive to Luesens and slowly got ready. Skins, skis, boots, etc. In the flat part of the valley, and then during the initial ascent through the small forest, I chatted with a guy going to meet his co-workers for a few days of fun at the Westfalenhaus. It was cloudy but visibility was pretty good. I continued alone up the Laengental Valley, remembering what a long way it was to the Weisser Kogel peak at its terminus. I followed a track up and right to enter a lovely side valley with the Grune Tatzen Glacier which I would climb to the summit. I had a difficult time sticking to the skin track in here, later discovering a frozen blob of ice on the bottom of my skins that made life...annoying! But it was nice to be on the narrowing glacier, with rock walls on either side. I skied as far as the skins would take me, a bit below the usual ski depot, then hiked the rest of the way. The clouds were lowering. Here was my blasted Hoth-like view from the top looking back north to Luesens:
And across to the walls of the Luesener Fernerkogel (in old-timey style!):
The skiing was not amazing, because there had been no new snow in a while, and there was a well-frozen crust. I tried to stay in a narrow band of untouched snow on the west wall of the narrow valley, but occasionally had to skreetch and skrunch through icy old tracks. Back at the car I wondered what to do next. I decided to stay for the night at a favorite pension in Gries im Sellrain. They had a sauna and hot tub! I scheduled myself for that immediately, and sitting in the sauna with a bucket of water to pour over hot coals for waves of steam was fantastic. I ate a big dinner, made plans for the next day and slept early.

Pockkogel, 2807 m

My feet felt damaged from the ski boots, and I had some blisters too. On this trip I continually looked in outdoor stores for a chance to buy new liners for my boots, but they were never available. I was also looking for ski-crampons over and over with the same disappointing results. My Dynafit gear is from 2006 and that's just too old nowadays. Sigh! So I decided to wear mountain boots and snowshoe this peak. This way I also wouldn't be disappointed with the poor skiing conditions! I parked at Haggen and hiked up the familiar valley. I'd been this way to climb the Zwieselbacher Rosskogel a couple of times before. Today though, I would exit the valley on the right at an abandoned hunters cabin to climb into the Steintal ("Stone Valley"...quite imaginative!). The weather was pretty good so far!

I enjoyed the snowshoe journey. It can be more difficult than skis, but today it was simply more secure. A hard frozen skin track would have been more tiring. I didn't see anyone the whole day and the solitude was enjoyable. Continuing into the side valley, I eventually turned back north as it narrowed between several peaks. I actually intended to climb the Steintalspitze (2741 m), but I couldn't resist going for the higher Pockkogel. In a couloir now, the terrain steepened and I switched to boots and crampons. Kicking steps I was soon at a col between the two peaks, then following icy tracks through boulders to the summit with a nice bit of scrambling. Alas, the weather had closed in! Here are my dim memories:


Interestingly though, I could hear voices, and through the wisps of cloud I could see down to the north to the terminus of the Dreiseebahn lift of the Kuehtai resort. Tiny people were getting off the lift and streaming down. They probably never suspected a ghostly visitor high above! Thanks to the hours of sun, the snow was actually quite good on the way down, darn it! It would have provided decent spring "firn" skiing conditions. Still, I made it down to the trunk valley pretty fast and hiked out. I wondered what to do. The forecast for the day had been snowy, though only a few flakes had appeared. It looked like Tuesday would be the worst day. I hoped to buy some equipment and to use the internet to do a little bit of work I was excited about, so I drove down to Innsbruck and began a fruitless search through outdoor stores for gear, and ideas for the next days. I continually hoped for a way to make it reasonable to begin a multi-day tour. I'm a bit of a scaredy cat though in bad weather. I don't like the idea of being trapped at a hut by bad weather or forced to turn back. And the forecast continually pushed the good weather out another day. First it was Wednesday, then it moved from Thursday to Friday. And the next low pressure system would arrive Thursday at noon. Jeez! I stayed at the Youth Hostel in Innsbruck. This was serious budget lodging. I felt like Milhouses Dad in there...too old to be there...somehow in the wrong place! I could use the internet a while in the lobby while literally swarms of 10 year olds streamed around me. Dinner was Burger King. Hmm. My roommate was a quiet fellow, intent on his camera and computer. It snowed heavily all night.

Naviser Kreuzjoechl, 2536 m

After a utilitarian breakfast, I just wanted out of the incredibly loud hostel. The avalanche danger was very low despite the heavy snow, which was dismissed as small potatoes. This seemed a little weird to me because I thought it was quite a lot. Innsbruck was blanketed in white, and I had a hard time making it up the roads to Patsch and Matrei. In the Navis valley, I parked at the base of a road leading to the Naviser Huette, then started skinning up, taking every possible shortcut through meadows. I stopped at the hut for some cake and coffee, then geared up again. Higher, I followed more open country to a ridge crest in steep and awkward switchbacks. It quit snowing, but the clouds descended and I was in the usual murk on a high plateau. A few days later, a colleague at work showed me what I should have seen up here on a panorama picture he took earlier in the winter. Ah...blue sky, beautiful mountains all around. Grate...:D Meanwhile I ended up on a narrow ridge and had a scare by nearly walking off at one point...the visibility was so bad I couldn't tell snow from air. With one foot off the ridge, I scrambled awkwardly to pull back. Jeez. I continued somewhat cautiously to the summit, marked by a cross. I was actually not far from a peak I had climbed a few years before, Geier, just a bit further along the ridge. That was also a summit in bad weather. Going down I wanted to vary my route to avoid the narrow ridge. I dropped onto the steep slope to the north, traversing northwest to a rounded ridge, then circled around to hopefully rejoin the route at a flat area before the final steep descent to the Naviser Huette. I could see nothing...I only knew the angle of the slope I was on by the feeling of acceleration in my stomach! I created a method to...well...turn when my stomach dropped too fast. In this way I got down a slope where all I saw was uniform gray-white. Amazingly, I ended up pretty much where I expected too. Thank God for some visibility an hour before! I skied down the steep slope, which was pretty nice with the fresh snow, and just blasted through all the way to the car. It was snowing hard again. That was fun and all, but I give up! It didn't take me long to decide to drive home to Munich for a visit with Kris, Mexican food with her and Evangeline, internet, my own bed...whew.

Weisskugel

Supposedly, Thursday would be better, at least until noon. I had learned something about my ski boots and I thought I could prevent blisters if I just walked the right way. Also, I wanted to do something bigger or longer than usual. For a long time I'd known about the trip to ski the Weisskugel from the Hintereis Glacier. It seemed punishing, but elegant too. That was enough to put me back in the car Wednesday afternoon and to head for Vent. After the 3 hour drive, I hurried up the Rofental on skis, hoping to find a place to sleep at the Hochjoch Hospiz. I had called them a few times but no one answered. I had left some crucial things at home: sunglasses, sunscreen and headlamp. Drat! I did have some bulky old ski goggles, and I thought I could beg someone for sunscreen. As long as I hurried to the hut, I shouldn't need the headlamp. It was rather difficult in the Rofen valley. The ski trail went above steep cliffs...as it turns out they were water ice climbs down there! (looked fantastic). I skied along the icy "trail," but finally the via ferrata handlines along the way made me nervous, so I switched to boots and crampons. This was not only more secure, but probably a bit faster too. Eventually the country opened up a bit, and I switched back to skis after crossing a bridge. By the time I saw the hut it was getting dark rapidly and I was relieved. It still took more than 30 minutes to get there, and it was full dark when I arrived. The warden told me I could sleep on the terrace (har, what a funny guy :p). No, they had a couple of bunks left, and set me up right away with a beer and a good dinner. I readied my gear for the morning and slept. Leaving the hut under a dark blue sky in the morning, I was pleased to see mountains and valleys in all directions. Yay! First, an awkward hour where I made no effective elevation gain, descending into the long, long Hintereis Valley, then slowly crossing level basins and measuring elevation gain in inches. But I was happy...feet felt good, and the exercise of the previous days had put my into shape. I listened to music and admired the valley walls.

Scenery on the approach

The Weisskugel

The Hintereis valley

The Hintereisjoch is on the left

Views into Italy

The summit ridge

Man approaching the ski summit
Eventually I was clearly on the glacier, seeing big icefalls here and there, however these interesting areas were avoided by a wide margin. The peak and the "Steinschlag" ridgeline mark the Italian border. On that side, a ski area comes pretty close, making it the normal way to climb the Weisskugel. But I liked my way: a semi-solitary nomad emerges from the Northlands! Anyway, I was alone with my thoughts. I had to bundle up at the Hintereisjoch due to strong wind from the south. The weather was already beginning to deteriorate...blue skies were gone, I only hoped the cloud ceiling would stay above my summit long enough for me to have a look around! Difficult, windy conditions slowed me down, but I reached the ski-summit, and felt like I'd have to turn around before the true summit because I couldn't engage in many gear changes in this wind. Luckily, there was an abatement for some reason. Without asking why, I dropped my back and quickly switched to ice ax and crampons, then took off for the ridge scramble to the summit. Up and over a tower, then along a spectacularly narrow ridge, I was there! It had taken 4 hours and 45 minutes from the hut, almost exactly guidebook time (it said 4.5-5 hours). I had great views, though it was punishing to look south into the wind. Wow! I scrambled down, and found a couple at the ski depot. He continued to the summit while she waited. The wind was getting worse again. Finally I was ready to descend, and began a long, enjoyable journey...down the wind-swept southern ice wall, through the Hintereisjoch, streaming down the glacier in a long schuss. Then the clouds enfolded me and I was unable to see again. No problem, I've learned about that! But I did fall a couple of times due to hilarious mis-calculations of slope and body angle. This prompted a party below to ask me if I was really alone?!? People always seem to think I have no idea what I'm doing just because I sometimes appear clumsy or am perhaps too open and friendly. So I continued. Things were awkward around the Hochjochhospiz, with climbs and traverses that ultimately saw me taking off my skis for a while. Then again after the bridge for the walk above cliffs. Finally I skied again near Rofen, but the traverses were marked by stops to haul skis up muddy slopes. I reached the car, and drove home. 4 mountains in 5 days. This was fun or at least an approximation of it! :)

Skiing, Darin and Hochgern

Saturday the boys and Sergiu and I went to the Wilder Kaiser "Skiwelt" for a day of downhill skiing. This was great fun, especially because there was a "cloud sea" that we climbed above a few hundred feet below the summit. We did many runs. Elijah especially liked going through an icy forest, with many different trails through the trees. Sergiu just started skiing, so that was really tough for him! Outside of this we had a nice adventure by traversing across and down to the town of Ellmau, then taking a train back up to the summit of Hartkaiser. By the time we got down to the car at 5:00 pm, we'd had a great workout! Fellow Cascadian climber Darin B. was in Munich for a work trip, and we had the chance to meet up. Darin had a very early "home page" with climbs in the Cascades that inspired me a long time ago, and he's kept track of my doings in Europe. We went to the Thalkirchen climbing gym, running into Georg and Vanessa too. It's nice to engineer a meeting between a couple of climbing legends (at least in my mind). I showed Darin the hard 5.10c(?) crack in the gym, and the big overhang routes. Then we had a Weissbier upstairs. He was blown away by a climbing gym that serves beer and pizza, is absolutely huge, and is open until midnight (I didn't even know that). While Sergiu, the boys and I were skiing, he was hiking up Hochgern in the Chiemgauer Alps with a friend. Sometime after midnight I walked with Darin to the U-bahn station and he went to his hotel, sadly having to catch a flight at 10:30 Sunday morning. I've done so little hiking-type exercise lately, I thought I should get up early and go out for a morning trip. After hearing about Hochgern I figured I should do that. I decided to ski, maybe it would be faster on the way down that way. I had a little trouble finding the trailhead, but eventually I was skiing up icy roads, constantly tempted to take steeper boot tracks through the trees. I usually took them, and ended up awkwardly skinning over rocks and roots time and time again. I hadn't had any food or drink since the Weissbier the night before, and only had 7 euros. By the time I got to the Hochgernhaus below the summit, I was so hungry and thirsty. I ordered tea, spetzi and a piece of apple pie. Ah! Vitality restored. I was getting to be like the Castle Wolfenstein guy, all bloody, you know? I hung out in the hut for a while, hoping the snow would soften a bit. I wasn't enthusiastic about descending the narrow, hard icy trail! Above the hut the trail traversed a ridge then climbed a final summit plug. Again, there was a cloud sea, and the sun felt just great. I've seen so little of it lately! I talked to a guy on the summit who looked a lot like Hans Kammerlander, but probably wasn't. I know he lives over in Vorarlberg and probably wouldn't be hiking up a Munich "suburb peak." Man, I would have congratulated him on this amazing gear route he made recently called "Princip Hoffnung." I took a few pictures with my camera, ineptly, at 640x480 resolution (doh!) and reluctantly skied down. I descended the way I'd come (very conservatively, along the lines of a conversation Darin and I'd had the night before...), but then went straight down southern slopes from a small hill on the ascent ridge. This was fantastic firn! Wow, I was in heaven. But it ended fairly quickly, and my attempt to make it last just led me to an awkward exit in thick trees. Eventually I was back on the trail, skidding and snowplowing for all I was worth, alarming the people coming up who would gather themselves into bunches in preparation to allow me to pass. I felt bad about being a trail hog, so I'd always primly close up my skis and sidle by so as not to be an inconvenience, but this always meant an alarming increase in speed after I'd pass a party. The forest would then echo with the SCRUNCH! of me breaking hard on ice. There were so, so, so many people coming up. This is one of the few higher peaks I've seen that really belongs to people in boots instead of skiers. It's good to know. I think next time I'll just walk. Fun weekend, and I hope to see Darin back here so we can do some alpine rock climbs in the Wilder Kaiser!

Val Gardena Ice

Georg and I got to spend the weekend climbing ice in Val Gardena. I'd always wondered about ice climbing in the Dolomites, and apparently they've had a good season. Somehow I'm too tired to write it all up, but we had a great time. The icefalls right in the town of St. Christina were especially inviting.

Geierfall (WI4-5)

It's been a rough winter. I had a cold at least 4 times since October, but finally seem to have worked through it. My new job is keeping me really busy too, but happily I was able to get out for a quick ice trip with Christian. Georg had been in the Ammergau "Eis Box" the weekend before, giving us a tip that the climbing was good. So we made the short (45 minute?) approach and ended up below the Geierfall.

It was only when I came back home that I figured out that for the whole day I'd confused Geierfall with it's neighbor climb on the left, the "Eis Box." I thought the Eis Box was the name for the whole cirq, with several climbs. So this colored my impressions of everything. For example, the Geierfall has a short entry pitch which is often walked around. Normally you won't catch me walking around perfectly good pitches! But the Eis Box topo seemed to "match" this section, and it described the first pitch as WI5, with a WI3 variant on the left. We certainly didn't want to climb WI5! So we walked around...but the pitch really didn't look that hard...maybe WI4-, and that for only 5 meters max?

We got the ropes out and I started up. Christian hadn't been on ice in two years, and it'd been 11 months for me. Such is life! I climbed easily up and then it got pretty steep. I protected fairly often, and really enjoyed the climbing. I snaked up and left, then back right on a mix of steep curtains and cauliflowered lower angle steps. Finally, I traversed up and left to a good belay spot among cauliflowers, placing three good screws for the anchor. I felt quite confident and excited about the climbing.

Christian came up, getting a good reminder of why ice climbing is so engaging. He was worried about his rusty skills for the climb, but knowing that he could rest anytime he needed allowed him to work on and learn the pitch. Still, he had a great expression on his face every time he had a chance to get a rest for feet or hands with a strategically placed foot ledge or something like that! Good fun...

I thought the second pitch would be a fair bit easier, and it was at first, but then it hit 90 degrees in a section of delicate chandeliers, often overhanging. I started to get pumped, and surprised myself by managing to place a screw in the middle of the hard stuff. I climbed a little higher, then back down to the screw to rest a couple minutes. Basically I got nervous about how long the vertical section would continue and couldn't recover from the pump. I'd forgotten a maxim of steep ice: as you pull on the upper tool, push down and in on the lower tool. After a rest, I fired through the vertical moves and was soon rewarded with lower angle terrain. Traversing a bit left led to an excellent belay location with bolts, protected by an overhang.

If I had more quickdraws I could have finished the climb, but we were a bit short. Christian came up, having a heck of a time on the 90 degree part, but he was an excellent trooper. We weren't sure if we were at the end of the real climbing at this belay, or what lay above a short steep section, so I decided to go up, and I'd climb down if there were just uninteresting snow slops above the 5 meter ice step.

I traversed right, then hurriedly put in a screw under a showerbath from an overhang of dripping water. I kept thinking "fancy a little wetwork, FREITAG?" from the Eiger Sanction. Above the steep step, things did angle off dramatically, and for the first time there was fun good ol' WI3 ice. I ran it out up to the anchor at the top of the falls. Christian came up and we rigged for rappel as another party arrived. However we didn't know if our ropes reached the ground (we really had no idea how long the route was...we only knew we'd done 2.5 pitches). So we sadly pulled the ropes back up and decamped for a slightly higher anchor that connected to the rock anchor at the end of our second pitch. In the end, we could reach the ground even from that high anchor, so let it be known: the Geierfall can be descended with a full 60 meter rappel.



The Geierfall is the central flow of ice.



A couple of guys practically soloed the route and then went away in the time it took us to put our gear away...which was humbling! But we had a lot of fun. We walked away and made plans to climb more Ammergau ice. Thanks Christian!

Update: I found these great pictures from Georg's 2010 trip, they show the steepness of the route:

Let's see, haven't posted anything here in a while, but I'd like to get back to blogging. Recent news is that we got a lot of snow here in Munich. At the Google office in Munich I work in the attic, with a slanted window right next to my desk (I have to crouch to go around the desk). It's been dark the last few days because of all the snow piled up over the window. Recently it started melting, and sudden avalanches ran down the roof, exposing more of the sky. The cafeteria windows were packed with snow, giving the impression of being inside a glacier. Fun stuff!

I've also been climbing a lot in the gym lately, and today I had a mini-breakthrough, only impressive to me. I managed to lead a UIAA 8- route (5.11c) without resting, which was really fun. What really seemed to help was visualizing every move one day a week before when I was sick at home. Incredibly, I did much better after that because I accurately remembered the sequences and positions for each difficult move. The route is called "Terraforming," and will likely be taken down soon. Now I'm working on a grade 8 route (~5.11d - 5.12a) where I've got all the sequences, and I plan to visualize the hell out of it in order to get the lead. It's gotten to where I can lead every grade 7 (5.10d) route without resting, though sometimes I don't get them on the first try. I also credit doing lots of bouldering over the past few months, that has done a lot for my technique. 

Work has been really fun. Assembly language galore!

Yesterday I had a lucid dream and of course, I flew all over the place. So much fun. I think that's the third or fourth lucid dream since I started trying to learn that skill.

I also quit Facebook about a week ago. Man, I'm getting a lot of time to work on projects! A Summitpost API project is in the works with Matt over at SP.

So, life is good 'round here.

EDIT: Just discovered this excellent link about climbing hard. It mirrors a lot of my own findings but teaches me a few new tricks too.

Elmauer Halt hike

My former neighbor Riki had been trying to climb up the Elmauer Halt for more than a year, enduring bad weather, trips with folks who were scared of heights and other woes. She enlisted me to go earlier in the summer and finally a day arose when we could juggle busy schedules and meet up. She drove her family's beautiful new black Nissan and we got to the trailhead with no traffic at all. I always forget what a fast hiker Riki is, and within 40 minutes, we were at the Gruttenhütte, advertised by trail signs to take an hour and a half! I'd made her promise not to worry too much about timing, but just to enjoy ourselves. (Riki and I used to only do "dawn patrols" together, racing back to town before 10 am after hiking or skiing). But nobody told her legs that :D.

So it wasn't much longer and we were above the hut, hiking through a boulderfield on fresh snow, and talking about the usual parent topics of kids, kids allowances, toys, and all that stuff only fascinating to the be-kidded like us! It's always nice to get another perspective on the whole perplexing thing. I told some stories about Rowan and Elijah and how different they can be from each other.

Meanwhile, we found the trail again (I'd led us off into a wilderness of snow and rock), then climbed more steeply to the beautiful trail that traverses above and below cliffs almost magically to the  Rote-Rinne Scharte ("Red Gully Pass," imaginatively named). We continued on steeper ground, now following an iron cable to mark the way on good rock. Fresh snow had made things a bit slippery however. We were constantly surprised by how greasy the rock felt with our wet shoes. I would take two (hilarious!) pratfalls on the descent because of this. Below the Scharte, we climbed on loose rock rather than follow the "contrived" ladder of iron steps hammered into the rock a few feet above the general slope. This was a fun diversion, however, my be-velcroed camera decided to let go from my pack in here, and say goodbye after 6 wonderful years into the red maul of the Rote-Rinne Scharte! Goodbye camera! I...loved you!

It's time had come. I was thinking about buying a new one for a while, and maybe now was the time. Any advice? It was a Panasonic Lumix, circa 2006 vintage.




We continued on enjoyable scrambling terrain, eventually reaching a fun ladder. Above this, we scrambled further to the summit and enjoyed great views in all directions. The recent snow was melting, but the great alpine chain to the south presented a stunning sight: a broad snowline extending along the chain showing that the mid-week snow had been quite extensive. Would it fully melt? After all, it was only mid-September.


 


I tried to smoke my pipe on top, but after 5 matches in a weak wind I gave up! Oh well. We had nice sandwiches, identified Riki's parents house (approximately), and talked about Greece. After a good long time, we headed down, running into dozens of people climbing up. It truly is the most popular hike in the Wilder Kaiser. We were glad to have the mountains to ourselves on the way up, especially because we saw herds of gämse, grazing near the boulderfields.


 



After my pratfall-laced descent, we went to the Gruttenhütte, having drinks, soup and pie. It was so crowded we had to go sit on a grassy ledge away from the hut, bedeviled only by children running around behind us. The whole trip had a feeling of a year "summing up," and this good extra rest on the descent reinforced that. Now we talked about jobs and all their foibles.

Within 30 minutes we were back at the car, stopping only to buy a pumpkin for Frederik and Heidi. I figured I'd wait until closer to Halloween to get one.

Thanks Riki for a great hike, ca-ching, another Kaiser trip in the bank!! (Fleischbank, that is! (this is an insider Wilder Kaiser joke (no it's not (okay, fine)))).


A last look at the Elmauer Halt

Purchase of Pumpkin (one)

Mitterhorn hike

I had a bit of time to go for a hike before picking up Kris and the boys at the airport. I had to get them on Saturday at 5 pm, which is a nervous time for a hiking day. Will I make it back in time or be late? My solution was to drive to my destination the night before, sleep by the car and begin hiking very (very!) early in the morning. I'd never been to the Loferer Steingebirge, but I knew it was the home of absolutely giant rock climbs like "Ende Nie," a 38-pitch monster at grade VII. My friends Stephan and Adrian had climbed it and I heard about the even more endless descent. It would be cool to check that area out, and it would be a good hike because of big elevation gain and loss (over 1700 meters).

After a dinner at an Italian restaurant in Lofer, where a band played military music downtown that echoed through the streets, I unrolled my sleeping bag near the car. Still a bit jetlagged from a trip to Texas, I woke up around 2 am and looked at the stars. Finally at about 3:30 I realized I wouldn't get any more sleep, so I started hiking. Endless switchbacks up the left side of a narrow valley, then coming into a broader section that remained nonetheless steep. The signs for the trail suggested it would take 3.5 hours to reach the hut, but I was there in less than 2! I was hungry, without much food for the hike, so I decided to smoke my pipe and wait for breakfast to be served. It was great to sit out, watching the moon and the deep valley. After about 30 minutes outside I was cold, so I went in the hut to wait for breakfast. At 6:30 they finally started serving something, so I had coffee and an omelette. Around 7, I started walking again, making for the "Nackter Hund" klettersteig as an interesting way up the Mitterhorn peak. Good trail with eventual scrambling through cliffs (an unnecessary cable was present at times) led me to a high pass, where I could see towns to the south, the Kitzbühler Alps, and snowy peaks of the crest. From here spectacular hiking on the ridge crest finally led to a notch and an improbable protected trail leading down and traversing the mountainside on the north. The klettersteig cable began here, and was pretty helpful around exposed corners, going slightly up and down. I was climbing the Southeast Ridge of the Mitterhorn at this point, and the cables began leading straight up vertical cliffs, even the occasional overhanging step assisted by iron rungs for footholds. After a few entertaining minutes I was on the summit.


Dawn

The view to Mitterhorn (2506 m) 


Beautiful rocks on the ridge

On the Southeast Ridge klettersteig

I'd just visited my sisters in Oklahoma City, and sadly, Cathy's dog Cowboy had died just today. I knew because she texted me while I hiked in solitude up the dark valley. Now I built a cairn for Cowboy, who was a good dog with a strange habit of lying down strategically behind your car wheels before you left the house. Once I had to go practically drag him out of the way so we could go to the store. Not only that, but he was all wet from his daily swim, making the half-drag/half-carry task even more awkward.

I found a suitable place, just below the summit on the south side and piled up some rocks into a tower. I thought he'd like the sunny location, told him goodbye, then started walking down the normal route on the peak. After an hour or so, I was back at the hut for a beer, which made the girl who had served me an omelette only a couple hours before laugh. I guess I thought the hike above the hut would take longer! But anyway, satisfied with my "mini-hike" from there, I then started down, really enjoying listening to Sharon Van Etten, a singer with a beautiful voice.


Near the summit

Cowboy's Cairn





Views to the south 

The round trip time was 8:45, with 2 hours spent hanging 'round the hut.