Birnhorn passed o’er

18/19-10-12

Steinberge Alps

I had a dilemma, the morning after I came off Hochkönig the weather that I had me worried I might get caught up in whilst up there, arrived. In the valleys it rained for 36 hours and on the hills it snowed. I kind of resigned myself to start heading northwards through Germany and home. However, I could see that the weather forecast was offering one day of sunshine later in the week, so I took the risk and waited. Well, as it turned out in the Austrian Tyrol/German Bavarian Alps this one day turned into a fine Indian summer for several days  once you got above the valleys full of temperature inverted mist that lasted until lunchtime each day. 

Good job too, because I overslept on the first fine day – and therefore just spent the afternoon wandering around the lower slopes of Birnhorn without a map.

Leogang under the clouds

On 18 October, still without a map, however by now with some idea of the layout of the mountain, I set off from Ullachtal in thick mist, past a picnic site with heavy duty barbecue facilities on a vigorous track that has a series of those nature trail information boards way up the hillside. As ever, the track started in forest and then went through dwarf pines to break out above the cloud level  to reveal the rocky outline of the Steinberge Alps. 

 

The path crosses a dry river bed and then becomes a mixture of easy cabled kletterstieg and concrete steps. There are a few sections of very narrow ledges that are quite exposed but not too difficult. To the right there are a couple of  proper kletterstieg routes that lead to other tops in the range.

Passauerhutte from below

At the top of the corrie there was the now closed Passauerhutte – although it does have an open winterraum and a room, like a conservatory, where you can sit inside in poor weather. Beyond the hut was the evidence of the rain/snow earlier in the week and this evidence took some pioneering and navigating work. Both the pioneering and navigating slowed me down quite a bit – in other words, I lost the track for a while and spent a lot of time and energy ploughing through fresh deep snow.

Behind the hut

Now which way?

When I eventually reached the  steep rocky slopes of the summit ridge I was quite pleased with myself as I had found the marked trail, again. However, it seemed rather odd because instead of fixed metal cable etc the route up was aided by rather ancient rope that at times was decidedly frayed and worn. As I had already passed my planned ‘turn round’ time I very nearly gave up at this point. Half way up the slope (cIiff?) I came across this sign:

Now they tell me!

Can you see my footprints?

There is no such corresponding sign at the bottom, mind you.  But, anyway from this point on the difficulties were only presented by the snow and ice rather than the climbing difficulties. All the while I was muttering to myself ‘you should be turning back, I know the winterraum is open but you haven’t got anything but a sandwich made from stale bread and an apple, you should be turning back, you know’. The obsessive hillbagger is replying – ‘yeah, but you don’t want to have to do this all again, do you?’ Guess which side won?

The summit of Birnhorn (2634m P1665 i.e. an Ultra), as ever, has an unimaginative and dull cross spoiling the view. Otherwise the views were great – but the lateness of the hour was pressing. By now I was beginning to worry if I would be able to get as far as the Passauerhutte before dusk.

Leogang without the mist by now

Summit view

 

The new kletterstieg route turned out to be fairly easy, despite the snow. The only disadvantage it brought was that I had to pioneer a new route across the deep fresh snow in the corrie rather than use the one I had made on the ascent. Eventually I found my original track and then an easier way back to the hut, than I had used on the ascent. 

By the time I had reached the hut there was just about enough daylight to be able to find my way around the room to discover the candles, lighters and wood burning stove. And, thankfully (because I was the first person to use the room this winter) a plentiful supply of  teabags, powdered soup, chocolate and alcohol.

View from the hut in the morning

 At daybreak, in the morning, I set off back down the mountain – with a hangover.

Birnhorn from the west

Chuffing flight

Hiking on the High King

14-10-12

Hochkönig - the High King - (2941m P2181) is the highest mountain in the Austrian Berchtesgaden Alps. And home to this chamois:

Chamois

Arthurhaus car park

 I set off from the Arthurhaus (1503m) on track 430 which as far as the Mitterfeldam hut heads off in the opposite direction to the Hochkönig summit.

Mitterfeldalm - with Raucheck in the background

The track then unambiguously heads for Hochkönig - although there were times when I had difficulty finding the track in fresh snow (more about that later).
There were a pair of rock climbers just about to start up the near vertical wall of what looked like from below a very high pillar of rock called Torsaule. As I ascended higher on the trail it wasn't long before I was looking down at the summit of Torsaule.
 

 And, after an hour or so the trail became increasingly covered with fresh snow and no evidence anyone else had gone before me. Thankfully, as it is also a ski trail, there were poles marking out the route for most of the time. However, there were some awkward steep and slippy rocks at times. In the end - and especially on the descent - I avoided some of these obstacles by tramping through the deep snow around the rocky areas. With my fingers crossed that I wasn't going to fall through into a sink hole, stream bed or, worse, glacial lake.
In the sunshine, I could see the Matrashutte that is right on the summit of Hochkönig. Great, I thought, I had still plenty of time to get there - and there will be a view.

Matrashutte on the summit of Hochkönig

 Then I found the ladder marked on the map only 200 metres distant  from the summit. As you will see from the picture below the ladder is half-buried in the snow. That wasn't so much of a problem, it is the next steep bit where there is a chain to help get on to a platform on the right. The ladder is in the shade all day and therefore quite icy.  It took me quite a while to sort myself out and then cut/kick my own steps to the platform.


In any guide book, you usually get the advice that mountain weather can change very quickly. For most of the day I had enjoyed blue skies above, although there was a cold southerly breeze and I could see clouds building up on the mountains to the south. In the time it took me to complete the final 200 metres those clouds arrived on this mountain. I didn't hang around, I didn't want to be caught in a white-out - and if it meant more snow I didn't want my ascent footsteps to be filled in. And, anyway it was now past my planned turn-round time. So, I didn't have my hoped for cup of tea - indeed, I didn't even bother to check if the Matrashutte was open or not.



As it happens, the clouds settled above the summit level and there was no precipitation of any kind (until the following morning).
The climbers were still high up on Torsaule as I passed by - despite the chilling wind and no sunshine. The chamois I saw in the morning were still feeding happily.  I made it back to the car park, before it got dark - after a ten hour hike on the High King.

Oh dear

Raucheck up

13-10-12

Tennengebirge hills from Werfen

Bedroom view from Unterholz of Hohe Tauern national park

Having spent the night before in the Unterholz car park  I was able to make a relatively early start on the way up Raucheck (2430m P1463) the highest point in the Austrian Tennengebirge Alps. From the car park there is an obvious marked trail 32 that heads directly up the hillside past Alpenghutte Mahdegg-Alm and through the woods, then dwarf pine into the scree filled valley below the Thronleiter klettersteig ladder. And, for me, out of the mist.

First glimpse

On this first section there were two other parties - however they seemed to be heading for the various huts at lower altitudes rather than the summit.

I must confess that as I clambered up the klettersteig ladder - muttering to myself the maxim 'don't look down, don't look down' - I understood why. That ladder is steep and exposed.

Thronleiter

Above the ladder is more scree, before finally emerging onto a steep and extensive limestone pavement riddled with sink holes and other potential traps. With occasional patches of  fresh snow.

Looking across to Hochkonig

Raucheck summit 

Raucheck view

Another dreary summit cross

As ever in Austria, the summit is marked by a dreary cross spoiling the view. There were no recent entries in the logbook - although I did find Petter Borstadt's entry back in 2010.

Edelweisserhutte

On my descent, I called into the Edelweisserhutte and chatted with two Austrians who were planning to stay the night. They expressed surprise 1. that anyone else was up there in the weather, 2. that I was alone and 3. that I was English. When I explained that the weather would be seen as a nice day in GB, they laughed. I was only half-joking.


I also avoided the ladder and used the alternative path down into the scree.

Raucheck from Mitterfeldalm

Stolen parrot disappears in mist

11-10-12

Not a promising start

Switched countries again. Now I am back in Austria - however, the brilliant sunshine that I left last time I was here seems to have gone. So too have the crowds on every hill. For this one, the summit logbook showed I was the first person to make an entry for several days.
I started off in mist from a tiny car park (1338m) by a locked gate at the end of a forest road from Obervellach. After following the road around the next sharp bend I picked up a marked track nr.328 that continued through the woods.

Polinikhutte

Just as the track came out of the woods by a closed for the winter hut, Polinikhutte (1873m) I also came out, thankfully, from the mist. The sky above was not completely cloudless, by any means, but it was warmer and clearer than down in the valley.
The track continued through more woods than eventually turned into the usual dwarf pine and then heath and bare rock.

View from Polinikhutte

Like a cauldron

Only two hours to go

As I went higher, I entered into the next layer of cloud. And there were small patches of fresh snow from the previous day's rain. This made it interesting when I got to the bit where there were some occasional lengths of fixed rope - however, there were no real difficulties getting up on to the summit ridge. At that point the higher level of cloud came and went in the strong breeze so that occasionally there were views across to Großglockner. That is, if the lower level of cloud had not been obstructing the view.

Polinik summit ridge

Polinik summit

Dreary cross on summit

To get back to the start of the walk, I simply reversed the route, However, by the way, I had just bagged Polinik, another Ultra (P1580), the highest point in the eastern part of the Austrian Hohe Tauern national park and at 2784m the third highest mountain of the trip, so far. By the time I got back to the van it was dark as well as misty - and I slept the night in that little car park.

View from Polinik summit