Day 3: Kalser Tauern Haus to Sudetendeutsche Hütte

We did the hike Ellen, Christiaan and poppamomma did the day before in reverse.



It was another rainy day, with a little sun, causing beautifully saturated colors and picturesque cloudy landscapes.

This presumably is the snowfield where Henk decided to hone his luge skills.



And that was the end of this short hike. We were getting ready to do a more serious hike with Ellen and Christiaan.

In numbers: 3:36 h, 6.72 km, 1227 m ascent, 403 m descent.

Musical Intermezzo: Porchfest

A very Ithaca tradition: Porchfest.



Roads are painted...



... childrens' faces are painted...



... and there is music everywhere.











Ithaca is still awesome!

Day 2: Rudolfshütte to Kalser Tauern Haus

Another day that started off with sunshine. A decided to promote her gym today, so we had a photo session on a snowfield. In fact, she promised her gym she would do this, and in return they did not charge her any membership fees for the two months she was not in Williamsburg --- the gym responded very enthusiastically when they received the photo by email.



We had the choice between a very short day and a short day, and opted for the latter, taking a little detour over a joch.



The plan was to meet Ellen, Christiaan and poppamomma in the Kalser Tauern Haus, who were hiking in the opposite direction. We expected them to already have arrived by the time we got there.



We had to wait for a little bit, however, because Henk fell and slided down a snowfield, and the hike took longer than expected.



The hut even provided entertainment in the form of a teenager playing a Hohner accordion.



This was, of course, very exciting for us and the other guests, and we could not stop making videos.



Now that I look at it again, I think that the consumption of copious amounts of beer may have something to do with this as well.



In numbers: 4:42 h, 9.97 km, 780 m ascent, 1337 m descent.

Day 1: Fürthermoaralm to Berghotel Rudolfshütte

A beautiful day with a beautiful hike. After hiking up from the Alm to the lake, we hiked along the lake towards a beautiful valley with a gorgeous waterfall.





The waterfall was more impressive in real life.



And these little bridges still freak me out.



Then over the Kapruner Törl, with some nice glaciers... and on and on (it was a little longer than expected).



Finally we were there, in a private room with shower, a sauna with view over the mountains, and buffet dinner where the main course was veal's head in its own sauce.

In numbers: 6:45 h, 15.81 km, 1733 m ascent, 1235 m descent.

Tour 2: Day 0 Zell Am See

After taking a train and doing our laundry, we ended up in Zell Am See, which is full of Muslim tourists! (See here for background and more pictures.)

The infrastructure for non-hikers is (therefore) very well developed. We decided to go with the flow, and went up by bus and the contraption above.



These brought us to the huge dams that provide are used to create electricity. The electric company owning these dams obviously thinks PR is important as well, and provides touristic photo ops, a museum, etc.





After unashamedly being a tourist for a day, we walked down a few hundred meters to an Alm, where we spent the night.



UPDATE:

Below are the webcam shots from the dam.

And two more.

Day 6: Neue Heilbronner Hütte to Wormser Hütte

The longest hike in this series of hikes was the last one.



We went from valley to valley, with ever changing nature, and the weather was gorgeous.



And we were fully prepared for the fact that the last two hours were awful: hiking up a ski piste to the hut.

We were welcomed with Schnapps, and enjoyed the usual fare...



... plus as an added bonus, a nice sunset.





In numbers: 8:46 h, 16.87 km, 1054 m ascent, 1021 m descent.



This was the end of our first hike, and the day after we went down by lift.

Day 5: Konstanzer Hütte to Neue Heilbronner Hütte

Day 4: Darmstädter Hütte to Konstanzer Hütte

A rainy day, so we chose the short option for this day.





Without a reservation, this meant we had to sleep in the Winterraum with a lot of noisy mountain bikers.

In numbers: only 3:55 hours, 7,61 km, 423 m ascent and 1144 m descent.