A wonderful hike, eight days and about 100 kilometres on the Adlerweg in Austria's Eastern Tirol. The main part of the Adlerweg in Western Tirol makes the shape of an eagle in flight when plotted on a map, and my little stretch in Eastern Tirol is either a baby eagle or the prey, or an afterthought. Either way, it follows the Venediger and Grosglockner mountain ranges, mostly in the Hohe Tauern National Park.
I went into this fairly blind as it had been hard to get good information, but I thought what I had from the Tirol.com website would be good enough to get me through. And it was. The hike turned out better than I had expected. Mainly because there was so much climbing, and by golly I love to walk uphill.
Saturday 18 August
Despite initial fears, and a lot of email enquiries which didn’t get good results, it turned out to be easy to get to the trail start in the Virgental at Ströden, an hour out of Lienz on the bus. I filled my water bottles from one of the now familiar water troughs and set out, following a creek, going in and out of light forest and could very soon see a glacier ahead and craggy peaks. There were a couple of timber sheds and some cows. Soon I had left all the other people who‘d got off the bus behind. At a huge confluence of creeks there were lots more cows and after this I had a long climb to above 2700 metres. It felt hard. At the top I sat and ate lunch (a roll snaffled surreptitiously from my breakfast, something I was going to do all week) with sheep nearby.
There followed a descent to my hut for the night, Johannishütte, but I remained above the tree line around 2100 metres. I was just disappointed to see a road through the valley leading to the hut. But to compensate there was another glacier and lots of waterfalls.
At the hut I sat on the busy sundeck drinking a Radler. But once the sun went behind the mountains it got cool quickly and everyone went inside. It surprised me every afternoon how people didn’t sit outside for long. Dinner included pork in sweet pepper sauce and a sweet dumpling for dessert which the girls at the table next to me absolutely frothed over. I slept in a small dormitory.
Sunday
I couldn’t do the prescribed route because the trail over that alpine pass was closed. I don’t know why but it had clearly been closed for a while. So my day was a bit shorter than anticipated, although quite long enough. I started by climbing for an hour and a half, luckily in the shade, to Zopatscharte at 2958 metres. The last part I found the going hard, due to the altitude I guess. The views were amazing including hundreds of peaks, glaciers and a little lake.
The descent to Eisseehütte was hard at first and I rested by a wide creek. After the hut the trail contoured on grassy slopes for ages with long views down to villages in the valley. In one direction the mountainsides were bare scree and in the other they were forested. The cows had recently been along the trail and had pooed all along it. I knew that a climb was coming, but in the meantime the trail crossed numerous cirques. Finally the trail went up to a tiny opening in the line of peaks; I sat for a while on the grass looking at the new valley below, then zigzagged down steeply on the far side.
From here on I could see my destination hut, Bonn-Matreierhütte. It looked closer than it was and also not as far above me as it was. This seemed to be a problem with hiking towards these more remote huts: you could see them a long way ahead and the arrival was always deceptive. But I got there after a long uphill slog. There was no road access, just a telpher line for supplies. I ended up alone in my 6-bed room for the night.
Monday
This was a long day. It was cold when I left the hut, with a climb to another small notch-like pass and then a much longer climb on scree. Once I went through the notch it was windy and I put on rain jacket and beanie. The next valley was vast and spectacular and I spent hours in it, contouring high above another river and crossing multiple creeks (which were more like waterfalls). I had some sheep on my path and one time I really surprised them, they darted away so suddenly that I was spooked.
Badenerhütte was another hut at the top of a long climb that took longer to reach than I expected. The altitude got to me and I stopped to eat my lunch on the way up, but after that break I felt a million dollars. It was very hot and still. I had been intending to stay there but I decided to continue on, so I popped into the hut and told them this; I also wanted to check that they thought I would have time to reach the next hut. Two women eating lunch in the hut had a laugh at my bad German.
What followed was among the best parts of the hike. I could see that I would have to climb up to a very obvious saddle to exit the valley, and that was fine as it was gradual and the valley was wonderful. There were loads of little wildflowers in purple, yellow and white and I saw my first edelweiss.
At the saddle, where I was surprised to pass several hikers (surprised as I hadn’t seen anyone for ages) I came to a pass, Löbentörl, and on the other side the view was just staggering: two huge glaciers and scree for ever. I stood there awestruck.
The descent was great, too. The magnificent views never stopped and I saw a couple of huts across on other mountainsides. At first I was on scree, I crossed a small patch of snow, then a long grassy ridge and then grassy slopes, with the second glacier seemingly at my elbow. I passed a blue lake where someone was actually swimming.
I was getting quite tired and it was still hot. I sat down and finished my lunch (I had snaffled two sets of bread and cheese today) and then had a final very long and very steep descent on hundreds of steps. I passed a huge waterfall. As I descended I became worried that the place I was heading for might not have accommodation as the signage didn’t always have the bed symbol; also I could see what I thought was my destination and it looked too small to have rooms.
But I got down into the valley and realised I could not yet see the hut I was aiming for, Venedigerhaus, as it was a further kilometre down a dirt road. I continued on and it turned out to be more of a large pub with lots of folk drinking on the terrace. I went in and asked if they had a bed for me; the barman said he thought they were full, which was a disappointment to me as I was exhausted and didn’t want to walk another hour to the next place. But then the owner appeared, asked if I was a student, and said they had a dormitory. I ended up with a single room; it was really grotty but it had a bed. I had a drink on the terrace with a view of that glacier, then ate dinner (schnitzel) inside the pub with an awful lot of flies for company.
Tuesday
There was a big hiking group staying at Venedigerhaus which explained why the barman thought they were full. Because of this crowd the food ran out quickly at breakfast so it was good I got there early to grab both breakfast and lunch. I hiked on a trail alongside the river towards the next accommodation place, Matreier Tauernhaus, and realised I had gone a bit wrong the day before, adding some extra distance.
At Matreier Tauernhaus I could have caught a bus into Matrei, as my route notes suggested, but I chose to hike there instead. I did not actually know how far it was, it could have been between ten and twenty kilometres. There was a hiking signpost to Matrei so I decided it would be safe to follow it (but it did not tell the distance).
Early on the trail followed the river, rising and falling. I stopped to photograph some cows standing across 'my' path and one of them licked my elbow as I did this. Then I found myself on a succession of farm roads, passing farmhouses and seeing farmers in the fields. It was hot work on long straight stretches of road. I kept hoping to see Matrei but it was elusive.
At a hamlet called Gruben the signs sent me into the forest and the trail rose steadily. I was heading in the right direction but very concerned with all the climbing as Matrei is most definitely in a valley. I crossed several streams cascading down the hillsides and saw no one. Finally I came to an opening in the forest and - joy of joys - I could see Matrei far below. I mean really far below. I took a gamble on a steeply descending path and ate my lunch in the shade by a little shrine.
This path ended at someone's property, still high above the town, and luckily an old man was working on his grass so I asked him the way down. He showed me, but I soon decided to take a short cut across a field. The man yelled at me so I went back to the road. Once I felt he would be out of my earshot I went back to a cross country route, which worked well apart from having to get over a barbed wire fence. I got to the road into Matrei and made it to my hotel. It was only 2.30 but I had walked enough. The town was deserted and hot.
I don’t think I was ever lost or away from the real route, but I should have checked the distance before setting out!
Wednesday
My route notes said the hike continued from Glanz, a hamlet outside Matrei, but I had to get there first. It was a six kilometre uphill walk on a sealed road with lots of hairpins, passing houses and then fields. I could see across the Matrei basin where I had been walking yesterday.
The actual hike started in larch forest with a steep climb. Then I went through meadows, where the eponymous edelweiss in Edelweiss Meadow were sadly past their prime. I reached a mountain restaurant in a lovely setting, and then walked past sheep, cows, goats and a few horses. After crossing a creek I had a big climb beside one of those waterways that I couldn’t decide whether to call creek or waterfall. I was on tussock grass and surrounded by mountains whose peaks were in cloud. I stopped a couple of times and once a hiker passed me; after that I watched his progress up the slope.
The hut, Südetendeutschehütte, was on a cliff edge with a telpher line and a nice deck that nobody used. I had ascended over 2200 metres for the day. The owners were Nepalis and I sat chatting with them for a while while they made momos (gyoza). However when dinner came I was given a plate of ham and mashed potato and only selected folk got the momos. There was no salad or dessert, so altogether a substandard meal compared with the other huts.
For some pleasant reason people wanted to chat to me here (in German, which was fine by me) but one woman gave me a real grilling. It’s always women, it seems, who are amazed that I’m alone. The hut was busy and I was starting to work out that a lot of the visitors are not hiking very far or for much of the day.
Thursday
I did two silly things today. The first was that straight from the hut I followed a sign to a 'Glocknerblick' but didn’t know when I had reached it so continued scrambling on scree long after I should have turned back. That just wasted time but I had nice views of glaciers, peaks and such. Of course, dummo.
Then I turned to my proper work for the day and went over the Graditzkögel pass. At the top I saw the Grossglockner (Austria's highest mountain) when the clouds parted for a while. I was lucky because the clouds came in for good very soon after. There followed a long relaxing descent on tussock grass with many creek crossings. My route notes had said to watch out for a tricky unbridged creek but there was a brand new bridge when I got there.
As I came down close to the Dorfertal and my destination hut Kalser Tauernhaus I saw a sign to Schwarzsee. Thinking this was a lake mentioned in my route notes as a good side trip I decided to go there instead of going to the hut first. Big mistake. The trail climbed and climbed with no sign of a lake and no other hikers. I kept thinking I would just go up to the next crag. After 45 minutes I saw the lake, not on the trail but far below. And it would have been a much easier hike from the hut in the valley. When I got to the hut and looked at the map I saw that it was Dorfsee, not Schwarzsee. Then I looked at my notes and saw that they talked about Dorfsee. Schwarzsee was three hours away!
At night there was a big storm and a power cut. The hut people gave us schnapps to make up for the inconvenience.
Friday
This morning I made my surreptitious lunch so quickly that I had already made a jam sandwich, thinking that jam was all I was getting, before the waitress brought me a plate of cheese and salami.
I had a flat hour through the Dorfertal under cloudy skies and then a steep climb to an inn. Then I came all the way back down on a road. Then I went all the way back up and more, on a hairpin trail in the forest. I emerged in a steep sided gorge above the tree line.
At the end of the gorge I turned onto a grassy hillside following a sign to my destination, Stüdlhütte. The trailed climbed as it contoured the valley and I walked steadily. I only stopped briefly when the sun came out for long enough for me to put on sunblock (and then went back in again for the day). After yesterday's silliness I had studied my route notes carefully, but now my trail didn’t seem to match the description. I became a bit concerned even while I could see plenty of evidence of other hikers having been here. Then I saw a group of hikers ahead of me and I felt better.
And then all of a sudden there was the hut in front of me. I was gobsmacked, and very pleased. When I went back and reread my notes they still didn’t make sense. Those other hikers, it turned out, were climbing up a crag. I went inside to tell the hut people I was hiking further. The guy told me, astonishingly, that I had to pay €6 in compensation for booking and then not staying. This was ridiculous, as they had never confirmed my booking, and anyway with no wifi or cell service I had no way of cancelling other than in person. I could have made a run for it, but he ungraciously let me off.
The weather was closing in. This hut is the closest I would have got to the Grossglockner, but I did not see it. I had a brief glimpse of the big glacier on its face and that was all. Apparently I was fortunate to get that much today.
I followed a sign towards Lucknerhütte. It was a gradual descent and after a short time I could already see the hut below. This wasn’t the route in my notes but it would have been a waste of time to do that route as I would not have seen anything, and I managed to avoid the rain by taking a quicker trail.
This hut was a dream. It was very busy when I arrived but soon everyone cleared out as the weather worsened (there was road access not far away). It had a lovely deck where I sat nursing a Radler until the rain became too heavy. I had a 4-bed dorm room to myself and the showers were free. And wifi. The restaurant was cosy and the half board meal included schnitzel cordon bleu and crepes with ice cream. And a complimentary schnapps. Everyone was so friendly and put up with my poor German.
Saturday
The hut was surrounded by low cloud when I got up, which lifted a bit from time to time. I had breakfast, marvelled again at how nice this hut was, and left when there was a break in the weather. I hiked down to the next hut on a trail for twenty minutes by the river (the official end of my Adlerweg hike), then decided to continue to the village of Kals on the road. I wasn’t taking any chances with random hiking trails today and going wrong, as the rain was definitely on the way and the buses from Kals to Lienz were only every three hours so I wanted to be sure to get the midday one.
The road into Kals was nice but I couldn’t see much because of the low clouds. All downhill at a gentle grade and almost no cars. Two drivers offered me a lift. When I stepped off the road for a toilet break I slipped down the embankment, my first fall on the hike. Close to Kals I ventured off the road to try to shorten the distance a bit but I ended up going cross country through fields and my legs and feet got soaked from the wet grass.
I reached Kals in good time and for something to do I bought my dinner at the supermarket (the only place open in this very sleepy village, but boy was it busy) and got the bus. It was raining almost all the time I was in the village. And then in almost no time I was back in Lienz.
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