Grosser Pyhrgas

08-09-12

Gr Pyhrgas

At some point on this trip I resolved that at weekends I would try to keep away from the more popular hills. This resolution has failed for two reasons. Firstly, when you are retired every day feels the same, so weekends sort of creep up unexpectedly. Secondly, there does not seem to be any unpopular hills.
I thought if I chose a hill that I have no idea how to pronounce it would not be crowded. However, as this particular hill is not so difficult and is quite near to the A9 (no, not that one - the Austrian one) there were plenty of others there. And, the majority did it the opposite way round to me - so plenty of time to practice saying 'Guten tag', although I am convinced they were all saying 'gesunt'.

Grosser Pyhrgas (2244m P1250) is about six kilometres north west of Gr Buchstein in the Haller Mauern and the 78th most prominent mountain in the Alps.

Despite the numbers of people I was able to find a parking space in the shade quite near to the Bosruck hutte (1043m). From there I followed the crowd for a short while and then turned left up a hiking trail marked Gr Pyhrgas, that everyone else ignored. It rose moderately steeply through woods and meadows, there was a junction where I turned left and then a right turn on to 'steady steps' track 614 which wound its rocky way through dwarf pines and against the flow of other walkers. Not sure this track really needed steady steps myself. It came out on a saddle on a broad ridge and then it was a simple walk to the (inevitable) summit cross and logbook.

View of summit from saddle

Pure gas - with Gr Buchstein in background

Going back I went back to the saddle and then went down the almost people free Hefersteig track 615. Although not overly difficult this one did require 'steady steps' and I quite enjoyed the odd bit of klettersteig on the way. I certainly felt it was the best way to descend the mountain.

On the Hefersteig

Rohrauerhaus and the Hefersteig

Down in the woods I found the Rohrauer hutte (1308m) and indulged in a beer before heading back to the van on an easy path.
Maybe not the most taxing day - but a P1250 is not a bad way to spend a Saturday.

Bosruck

Doctor, every time I move my head I get a ringing noise in my ear

Grosser Buchstein stops here

07-09-12

The rain has gone and the sky is blue. And, just across the road from Hochtor on the other side of the Gesause vally is a Major, Grosser Buchstein (2224 P1363).

Gr Buckstein from Hochtor

Hidden in the trees off the road is a car park for the Jonsbach train station which is across the river Enns, that can be crossed by a wooden bridge. Inexplicably, there is a no cycling sign which prevents using an unpaved road (continuous red line track 608) that gently rises through the forest on its way to an alternative (and more popular)starting point at Gstatterboden. At Rauchboden track 641 turns off uphill towards the Buchsteinhaus hut (1546m). This is a steep, long track that is generally quite easy walking - at the steeper moments it traverses back and forth across the slope. Much of the time the track is in mixed woodland with occasional glimpses of the summits of Gr Buckstein and Hochtor across the valley.

Buchsteinhaus

On a number of occasions, it is impossible to avoid the huts and refuges as the  tracks literally go along the verandah of the huts. Buchsteinhaus is no exception to this, so you have to walk the gauntlet past the people who always look to me that they have already been to the top and back and regard later comers like me as lazy. Still, it is a chance to have a cup of tea and hang my buff on the back of the seat to let the sun dry out the sweat it has accumulated.

Buchstein from near the haus

From the haus the track becomes one for 'steady steps'. The trees become dwarf pines and the path is steep and scree filled.  Nearer the top there are three options - the klettersteig (via ferrata), the climbers route and the 'normal' way - all are steep. Most people go up the klettersteig and down the normal. So, why should I buck the trend on Buchstein? I am not totally convinced that is the best way round - it could actually have been easier in reverse - because there is just less helpful metal on the normal way.

Via ferrata

Buchstein summit cross

The summit ridge is a walk not a scramble, for once. And, there is another of those flipping metal crosses on the top. As ever, I filled in the logbook.

And then found my way down.

 

Buchstein trig point

Buchstein summit

Despite the torrential rain the previous day, the stream bed coming off the hill was absolutely dry. However, on the way up I had seen that at some time the stream had quite damaged an unpaved road used to transport supplies to the haus. I assumed that this had been like that long term. On the summit looking down I could see there was someone in a yellow vehicle way down the mountainside, but didn't really give it any thought. On the way down, at the point where the stream crosses the road it had been fully restored. Then it occurred to me, the previous day's rain had caused the damage and that the restoration is probably a routine that is often repeated.

Just in case anyone thinks this sounds an easy day out - it turned out to be one of the longer daily distances of the trip. All that traversing adds up. When I got back to the little hidden car park, I ignored the no motorhomes sign and had a lovely quiet night by the river Enns.

Buchstein summit view

Hochtor feelgood

05-09-12

Spent last night in a car park specially for campervans in a charming little village, Vordernberg on the eastern side of the Eisenzer Alpen.

Then in the morning headed into the Gesause National Park.

Hochtor's north wall from Gr Buchstein

Today's mission was to tackle an Ultra, Hochtor (2369m P1520) starting from a little car park next to a bridge over the river Enns. There is no gentle introduction to track 660 -  immediately it goes uphill through the trees with plenty of exposed tree roots (which made me think I don't want to be finishing this walk at dusk). Eventually the track reaches a massive steep wall that was as difficult to take in as Vienna's buildings were. It looked impenetrable. However, the map showed a way - marked by a red dotted line. And, thankfully there was little water in the waterfall to contend with.
On a British OS map, tracks are generally and simply referred to as either footpaths, public footpaths or bridleways. On the freytag & berndt maps there are three kinds of tracks. A continuous red line is for 'a path for hiking or strolling, easily passable on foot'; a dashed red line denotes 'path for hiking in the mountains; whereas a dotted red line is 'Alpine steep track for mountain-experienced hikers with steady steps and with a good head for heights, route partial scramble'. If I was going to get to the Hesshutte refuge at 1699m I was going to have to develop some 'steady steps'.
As an ascent route it was OK, there were several stretches of via ferrata, not all of it really needed when ascending in the dry and useful  step ladders up the vertical bits. There was just one point where I wondered how I would I cope with on descent. The path then entered Ebbrsanger, a steep wooded hanging valley and right at the top of the valley is the Hesshutte precariously hanging over the edge.

Ebbersanger valley - with a tiny Hesshutte at the top

Hesshutte from below

Hesshutte from the start of track 664

So that was the walk-in done. The hutte gave a chance for a cup of fruit tea before tackling the main summit of Hochtor which presented another steep and impenetrable looking wall with a need for more 'steady steps' on track 664.

It looks like all the tracks in Austria are marked with a red square and a horizontal white line - similar to the Austrian flag. So, you have to double check you are following the right track - and I think it could be easily confused with a no-entry sign.

Looking down on a tiny Hesshutte

A 'steady steps' section on the Hochtor summit ridge

Track 663 offered a variety of steep tracks through dwarf pines, walking across scree slopes, and quite a bit of mainly easy via ferrata. I allowed myself be fooled by a false summit - should have checked my GPS and realised there was quite way to go along the summit ridge. Not only that, there was some descent and reascent with 'steady steps' and chains too. However, I was quite pleased that I was keeping well within the timings on the signposts - I was confident that I would be able to get back to my van before dark.

The summit is marked by a big metal cross - I was going to discover that is not a rarity on Austrian summits - and,  in a metal box, there was a logbook to complete, with a plug for this blog duly added.

So all I needed to do was reverse the route. If I could get to the hutte before 17.00 I would carry on down to easily beat the dusk at around 19.30. If I was later than that or the weather turned for the worse I would seek refuge.

Looking back across the Hochtor ridge

I passed the hutte just before17.00 and although there were clouds in the sky I decided to carry on, without even stopping for another cup of tea - and certainly not a beer. I made good time down the valley to the top of the giant wall - and started down the via ferrata. And then the weather turned - the lightning and thunder came repetitively and close. The rain was torrential - I had some shelter from the buttresses above me, but I knew that I could not hang around as I certainly did not want to be there in the dark.
I was soon quite wet and using metal via ferrata in a thunderstorm generated in me a range of interesting emotions. Most interesting to me was that 'panic' wasn't one of those emotions. Do I turn back and go to the hutte wet through and no change of clothing or do I carry on. I carried on down the wall, across the now raging waterfall and down into the trees and their roots. Much lower down I realised that if I kept with the stream that had been the waterfall I could get down to a reservoir in the valley below. So I ignored the marked trail as it turned away from the stream, which eventually became culverted and it brought me out on an unpaved road just as the dusk light was low enough to have made those tree roots a problem. The unpaved road took me right back to the start point.
 As for the rain - that continued for the next 24 hours. If I had gone back to the hutte I would have still had to tackle the via ferrata in the wet and if I had waited for the rain to stop before continuing, it would have been a long wait.
But hey, that's another Ultra.

Another view of Hochtor from Gr Buckstein

Klimt up a staircase in Wien

My collection of flags of countries visited on this trip :-)

   02/04-09-12

Vienna is so close to Bratislava it seemed silly not to visit it too.

Usually on a city break you tend to have an ‘in a bubble’ experience – all you see of the world outside the touristy bit is at the airport and on the shuttle bus or train to the centre based hotel. Driving across the country to get there gives a different perspective. 

My first impression of Vienna was that it is a big noisy traffic blighted city and that it does not nestle in mountains as I had expected – maybe I had mixed it up with somewhere like Geneva. 

I quickly withdrew from trying to drive in the city and left my van in a campsite by the river Donau/Danube and then cycled into town on mainly excellent although, at times, confusing cycle tracks. 

Schweizertor 16th baroque Swiss gate - Alte burg castle

The issue with Vienna for me is that it lacks subtlety – the buildings are just too big to take in and there are so many big pieces of ‘Art’. Other tourists were frantically taking pictures with their cameras, phones and iPads. I found that the wide angle on my camera just was not wide enough. However, cycling around the centre there were moments of wonder and awe. And I do like the way the modern city and the historic buildings are mingled together.

Best of all were:

       1. The freytag & berndt book and mapshop with a large Alpine section containing hundreds of different maps from all over Europe – for example,  they had more Discoverer/Discovery maps of Ireland than I have ever seen in any Irish bookshop. There was a serious temptation of spending a year’s pension on maps, that I had to fight.

           2. A room full of  paintings by the brilliant Pieter Bruegel the Elder in the Kunsthistorisches Museum – including  the astonishing Hunter in the Snow. There were works of other lesser artists (like Durer or Rubens) and occasionally there was something that looked familiar from constant reproduction, like Rembrandt’s self portrait or Vermeer’s Artist studio. Arcimboldo's portraits of heads are fun. Unfortunately, like many other galleries there were just too many of those paintings of Christ being breastfed, semi-naked depictions of Greek myths and those endless portraits of so-called nobles. Certainly not enough landscapes, for my taste.

3. Ah but, and  I reveal my ignorance here, I was not aware that in the same museum/gallery were those paintings by Gustav Klimt that are reproduced everywhere and are there literally to decorate the landing wall at the top of the stairs. The museum have put in a platform so that you can go up there, as the sign said ‘at your own risk’ and look at the paintings close up. However, the platform does spoil the view of them as intended by the artist and the architect. A case of ‘went up a staircase and came down slightly disappointed that I could not view the summit from below’.

So, churches can be useful - as a hoarding site.

Anti-war sculpture, Albertinaplatz

Bratislava - a capital place

Bratislava Hrad

01/02-09-12

Bratislava’s centre is another of those cities where the old buildings have been largely preserved and become museum pieces that have little to do with the day to day life of most of the people who live around it. There are signs of prosperity outside the tourist centre, however there are also signs of the soviet legacy.

I quite liked the centre as it is not too big and not too showy. Although, as usual, the castles and churches are a reminder that in the past the wealth and power rested with the rulers and the church and were probably built at the cost of the lives of the rest of the people.

The main squares and the streets around it in the ‘Historical Centre’ were lively with tourists, craft stalls  and street musicians. 

Everyday scene in the streets of Bratislava

Bratislava Hrad from across the Danube

P95 and 6.50 Euro

One major soviet legacy is the busy dual carriageway that chops the city centre in two – separating St Martin’s Cathedral from the Bratislava Hrad (Castle) quite brutally – and introducing a continuous roar of traffic. The road as it crosses the river has a restaurant at the top of a tower – I decided against bagging the tower as it is only a P95 and costs 6.50 Euros. 

So, instead, I cycled alongside the rivers  Danube and Morava on the Slovakian side to Devin castle, up on a crag overlooking where the rivers meet. Although the idea of following those rivers sounds romantic it wasn’t that much different an experience as cycling the towpath on the Huddersfield  Narrow canal. However, you cannot look across to Austria from Marsden. 

Just one word of advice to anyone thinking of using the Bratislava campsite near Zlate piesky - don't. It was dirty, noisy and they obviously have serious problems with security - it has its own police station - not even with wi-fi as a compensation. Shame, as I used a couple of other campsites in Slovakia and they were fine - and really cheap.

Devin and the Danube

Devin Hrad

A shop for baggers.