Ötztal Bonus Post

Amanda sent us some more photos by email!

Austria Summer 2011 --- Conclusion

We woke up in our small 2-person lager, just as the sun came out above the mountains.



Only a descent of about 1500 meters was left for us. We went down and had breakfast...



... wandered a little bit around the Hütte, savouring the beauty of the Alps...





... then said goodbye to the family running the Hütte, and started our final descent. The battery of the camera decided this was a great moment to stop working, and therefore we cannot show you the fresh homemade butter we had for breakfast the next day.

This post concludes a great holiday of hiking in Austria. It was even better than either of us remembered!

Wonderful Foodz in the Erlanger Hütte

The hike from the Frischmann to the Erlanger Hütte was tougher than expected. The fact that we started out in freezing rain probably did not help either. Also, at the end of the hike we had to climb an unexpected and unexpectedly steep mountain, before we could take off our wet clothes and start feasting on ibex stew...



... and Kaiserschmarrn. I think this was the best food we had this whole holiday.

For dinner we had gepresste Knödel Suppe, pasta Bolognese and a Topfelstrudel.







A wonderful Hütte with great food and really nice Hüttenwirt family. Highly recommended!

Shiny Happy People

For our last hike we first had to climb about 1200 meters to the Frischmann Hütte. Even though we could have taken a taxi for the first 900 meters or so, we decided to walk. This turned out not to be the best decision we ever made, because a lot of people decided to go up by car that day, which made hiking a little less pleasant.

When we got to the end of the road that is accessible by car, we saw why. It turned out that there was an open air church service right there at the Hintere Fundus-Alm, with quite a good attendance.

At the end of the service, the congregation moved to the Alm and ordered lunch and beer. Also, we were treated to some live music.



After drinking too much beer, we decided to check out where we would sleep that night, and eat some lunch. This Schmalz was so good that we ordered it twice.

Beautiful Ladies

So, instead of going to the Amberger Hütte, we hiked to the Schweinfurter Hütte. The clouds and mist in the morning made the mountains even more beautiful.

The Schweinfurter Hütte did not want to give us a bed or lager, which turned out to be a good thing. It can be reached by car, so the hut was full of people with a less than sportsmen-like physique, trying to maintain this physique by stuffing themselves with big plates of food.

We walked down to Niedertai and took a bus to Umhausen from there. The bureau of information was already closed (it was Saturday afternoon, and Niedertai and Umhausen seemed very religious), but the bus driver helped us find a pension for the night. (He actually drove us around Umhausen in his bus --- people in Austria are really awesome!)

Here is our dinner in Umhausen:

Winnebachseehütte

Even though F was not feeling 100%, we still wanted to make good use of the weather and took a bus to Gries to go up to the Winnebachseehütte. This was a trip down memory lane to the extreme: there used to be a day race called Grieser Gletschermarsch, starting at Gries, going to the Winnebachseehütte, crossing a gletscher, and then going back down via the Amberger Hütte down to Gries. We thought we could take it easy and do this in two days, so we checked at the tourist information how the conditions were at the gletscher. The woman there laughed and asked us when it was the last time we tried to do this route. It turns out that it is closed (and has been closed for a while --- 20 years or so) because it is too dangerous now, due to falling rocks.

So we changed our plans, and went a little along the old route of the Gletschermarsch, to see if F could still recognize it.





Not really, but a very nice place anyway.

Similaunhütte

After a pathetic excuse for a breakfast at the Martin-Busch-Hütte, we went up to the Similaunhütte under an amazing blue sky. We met a guy with his dog on our way there, who had decided it was a perfect day to take the old Big Foots out for a spin.





We had a second breakfast at the Similaunhütte, with sausage and beer...

... and then descended all the way to Vent. No pictures of dinner, because F was sick and rather surprisingly did not have any.

Saykogel

We said goodbye to the wonderful Hochjoch-Hospiz and started climbing the Saykogel. The weather could not have been any better.

The Martin-Bush-Hütte disappointed however, especially the food, which was plainly horrible.

Spazzing out on the Mittlere Guslar Spitze

Our next day was a hike of only 1 hour. To make it a little more interesting we extended the hike to also include a summit: the Mittlere Guslar Spitze.

The snow made the road a little slippery and descending F fell and hurt his hand. It was not a major wound or anything, but somehow it was enough to trigger a small epileptic fit. There he was: lying on a steep mountain, spazzing out. Who does not like to spend his holidays like that?

Anyway, after a little while, the ringing in his ears stopped, and we could continue, albeit a little shakily. Then came the next surprise:





Four humongous birds of prey (probably a bartgeier) came up from out of nowhere. These things seemed to have a wingspan of more than two meters --- it was quite an impressive sight!

Luckily it was just a small descend to the Hochjoch-Hospiz, where we had Leberkäse mit Ei for lunch, and Spaghetti Bolognese for dinner.

Snow

The next day the weather forecast worsened. We really wanted to go from the Martin-Busch-Hütte to the Hochjoch-Hospiz via the Saykogel, however, which was in our original planning. Eberhard did not look amused, and proposed that we would go in the opposite direction, starting by going to the Vernagt Hütte, via the Breslauer Hütte on day 1, then an easy day to Hochjoch-Hospiz, and then finally on day 3, when the weather was hopefully a little better (meaning no fresh snow on the Saykogel), to the Martin-Busch-Hütte.

Obedient as we are, we followed the mountain guide's advice. We went up to the Breslauer (no lifts for us), and then went through the rain to Vernagt Hütte. Despite the weather, we really enjoyed ourselves.







In the evening it started snowing and we were glad that we had not planned the Saykogel for the next day. Eberhard obviously really knows what he is talking about.