August 31 Innsbruck to Leutasch 28.1 km 1670 m ascent. This was a really good day with an unsatisfactory ending. I expected it to be one of my harder days because I was doing two sections plus lengthening the second one. After a great breakfast at my four star hotel I took the train from Innsbruck to Hochzirl as part of the official route then had a steady climb to Solsteinhaus, first in forest and then on open hillsides. At first it felt strange to be returning to the Karwendel mountains after being in the city. Solsteinhaus was on a hilltop in a lovely grassy area and I wanted to linger but I had a long walk still ahead. So I continued on up to Eppzirlerscharte, going steeply up on scree. When I looked up there was a lot of climbing to do on switchbacks but I made it ok. I was worried about the steep descent on scree. I sat for a while at the notch enjoying the blue sky and views into the valley. There was a group of hikers sitting there and every one of them was smoking. The descent was not too slippery and I passed many people struggling uphill. At the end of the descent I sat at an alm to eat lunch and then continued down the valley. Looking back up at the notch I was amazed at how high up I'd been. The rocky outline of the mountain range was really beautiful against the blue sky.
I had to walk six kilometres down the valley alongside a creek and then I came to the ugliest place I’ve ever seen in Austria: derelict railway yard with skips, vicious dogs, weed infested path.
The next part seemed to be a climb for the sake of it, on a 4wd trail which went constantly up and didn't match my route notes. Finally I reached a saddle as I was supposed to, but not before I had stopped other hikers to ask if I was going the right way. Just as I started down I heard thunder and then the rain started, and it became heavy. I followed the downhill trail fast to the river and the start of the spread out town of Leutasch, which is another ski resort I haven’t heard about. From here I had to walk along a sealed path by the river for three boring kilometres and by the time I reached my hotel I was exhausted and hungry.
At the hotel they said I couldn't get food there because I wasn’t on half board, which was extremely mean of them as the nearest restaurant was 20 minutes walk away and it was still raining hard. When I went up to my room there was already a couple installed there; the reception girl didn’t believe me and went up to check for herself, with me in tow. She addressed the couple as though they were criminals and after a long wait, when I had to sit watching the guests on half board eating dinner, I was given the room next door. I came downstairs again to ask if I could get a snack (answer was no) and I noticed some loaves of bread on a sideboard in the dining room so I asked a waitress if I could cut some bread for myself. After a brief discussion she said I could so for dinner I ate three slices of walnut bread with the jam I've been carrying in my pack since St Johann.
September 1 Leutasch to Ehrwald 22 km 571 m ascent. The next morning I was keen to eat but I was chastised by a waiter for coming to breakfast at 7.20 when it started at 7.30. Funnily enough I don’t get the impression that the Austrians choose to go through life without food. Today was billed in my guide book as an easy day and I was glad because I was still tired and actually in need of a break from hiking. The day turned out more pleasant than I expected. A thunderstorm was forecast from mid morning onwards. I walked through meadows and light forest along the river, surrounded by high rocky mountains. I stopped at the first alm I came to for cake, just in case the storm would prevent me from eating later. I passed a lake in a grassy bowl. Finally I came to an alm below Zugspitze - I could hear Austrian drinking songs as I was walking along - and I sat at the alm for a while. So I got to see Zugspitze finally after three days of cloud in Garmisch last year (quaintly, the Austrian/German border runs across the summit). My last few kilometres were downhill under a ski lift to the compact town of Ehrwald. It was altogether a nicer ski town than Leutasch. I was pleased to find several restaurants within easy walking distance of my hotel; I went into the first one I saw to ask them if they would be open in the evening as I didn’t want any more surprises. It wasn’t all perfect though: at 5pm it started raining and I had to go and get my dinnertime pizza in the pouring rain.
When contemplating the next day’s hike I realised that I had a major problem, actually two major problems: the first hut I was intending to stay at (no warden on weekdays and without kitchen) might turn out to be locked when I get there and if nobody arrived with a key I would have nowhere to sleep safely and warmly; the next hut, a day’s walk along beyond that one, was closed for renovation and there was nothing else anywhere within many kilometres. Plus the weather forecast was awful. So, again, I spent hours trying to work out what to do and finally came up with a plan that involved two buses. This was the most glaring example of many that showed how the Adlerweg has not been thought out with the thru-hiker in mind!
September 2 Boden to Hanauer Hütte 5.4 km 572 m ascent. The weather was indeed dreadful when I got up and Zugspitze was not on show. I executed my new plan of two buses to Boden via Imst, where it hadn't rained, and I had to spend two hours at the bakery waiting for the second bus. There were several groups of hikers on the bus to Boden so I anticipated my hut that night would be busy. I felt sick on the hairpins descending to this tiny village.
It was raining again by the time I started my short hike to the hut and I soon walked up into cloud along a raging creek but I definitely had my hiking mojo back. I could see the telpher line to the hut but maybe it was a good thing I couldn't see hut far above me. The hut was extremely busy as that morning’s hikers seemed not to have left yet while all the hikers off my bus got there too, but it had a better atmosphere than some.
September 3 Hanauer Hütte to Württembergerhaus 16 km 1240 m ascent. I woke up to a perfect blue sky. How does this happen? Such major changes from day to day and I never knew it was coming. Now I was going to be spending several days on the Lechtaler Alpen Höhenweg, most of which involved difficult but short days. Today I had four passes to cross, all with steep climbs and tricky descents. I went around a series of beautiful cirques, no sign of civilization at all, and all above the tree line. There were small patches of snow, tiny creeks, almost no cows. I spotted some sheep really high up and some horses by a lake. From the first notch the view was not great until the descent, where I had a truly amazing view of little Steinsee with cloud hanging in the valley around the lake.
Then I had more views of hanging clouds and layer upon layer of mountains on the horizon - I think these were the higher parts of the central Alps to my south.
I went up and through the next easy notch and then enjoyed long contours around another cirque with velvety grass. I climbed and scrambled to Rosscarscharte then had a difficult descent on very slippery steep scree; at one point I fell to a sitting position and couldn't stand up so I continued down like this but I could see a hiker coming up and I knew I must get through the cable section before he started on the cable. The cable was fairly useless actually as it was not attached at the bottom end. The last climb was to Gebäudjochl saddle and from there I could see Württembergerhaus below but again there was an awkward descent between big rocks and then endless zigzags to the hut. At the hut I sat in the sunshine with high rocky mountain faces virtually in touching distance and finally had kaiserschmarrn.
September 4 Württembergerhaus to Memminger Hütte 9 km 615 m ascent. This was a short but truly great day, for weather and for hike quality. It was cold at first. After reading about the day’s hike in the guide book I was worried about the difficulty but it was fun. I started with a steepish climb to the top ridge of the Lechtaler Alps and as I sat resting I saw several ibex on the scree nearby. I walked along the ridge with fabulous views on all sides; the trail kept switching from side to side on the narrow ridge. The lengthy descent involved crossing many side ridges then I had a steep ascent to a notch. As I came through the notch I was treated to the unbelievable sight of grassy mountains, two azure lakes and Memminger hut.
Although I had just had a long sit before reaching the pass I had to sit again for the view. I had a gradual downhill to the hut in a grassy bowl.
The warden was happy to check me in and chat with my simple German but then she asked me something I could not for the life of me understand and she resorted to English: had I sent my pack up to the hut in their goods cable car? Well, honestly. Anyway, the cable car came up from the other direction. The hut deck faced perfect mountains flecked with snow, velvety grass on the lower slopes and it was hot and sunny.
I became exhausted with all the beauty and I had to go and have a nap while the dorm was still empty. I was one of the first people to arrive at the hut but later I watched dozens of walkers coming down the hill from all directions. This included a group I had seen every day since Boden, who told me there was bad weather on the way and that they were concerned about the next section of the hike. I had a germknödel with custard for afternoon tea and split pea stew with frankfurters for dinner.
September 5 Memminger Hütte to Ansbacher Hütte 11 km 1022 m ascent. Just after 5am everyone started getting up, which meant bad weather really was coming, and I had to queue for the 6am breakfast start. I was on the trail at 6.45. No more blue sky on the Adlerweg for me. The mountain tops were in cloud already. I had a long descent of three km to a river crossing, on the way crossing a ravine with high vertical walls, then a very long climb, and by now it was raining lightly. I was soon in cloud. I saw nobody coming up behind me and it was very peaceful. Then I started climbing steeply on rocks and boulders and I heard, then saw, two groups of hikers. I stopped to chat with the English group. I had by now made a vertical gain of 900 m which was followed by a cable assisted climb through a vertical chute, probably the hardest climb of my hike: about 100 m of pulling myself up on jagged rock. Then it started to hail. I continued up to the next col but that one seemed easy. It got very windy. I could sometimes see the outline of the nearby mountains.
When I reached Ansbacher hut it was only midday but I decided to stop. The warden was very friendly. At first the clouds were swirling and I got some views down to the valley but it rained all afternoon and the views went. It started snowing at 5pm and I stared out the window in amazement then went and asked the warden if that was really snow, but he was not perturbed at all (neither by the snow nor my question). The group I had been seeing since Boden never turned up.
September 6 Ansbacher Hütte to Kaiserjochhaus 13 km 1143 m ascent. There was lots of snow overnight and zero visibility in the morning; I was initially worried I would have to stay at the hut all day so I was pleased to see others venturing out, although there was no question of doing my planned alpine route to Kaiserjochhaus. I followed others downhill to Schnann village, the one I'd glimpsed in the valley yesterday. There was snow on the ground for the first 20 minutes. It was all downhill in forest with the typical twisting and turning. I walked through Schnann and then through Pettneu on a footpath by the river and decided to try going up to Kaiserjochhaus. This could prove to be stupid but there was nothing to do in the villages and it would mean I could complete the Adlerweg as I had intended.
The trail was straight uphill for 1100 m ascent over six km; I was glad it didn't mess around. First I was passing many pasture huts, then I went into dwarf conifer forest, then I was on open grassy hillside. Only the final 1500 m was in cloud and light snow lay on the ground in the last 700 m. I was following a stream the whole way, mostly easy but wet underfoot, but the air wasn't cold. I got to the hut up at 2310 m by 1pm which was a great effort, and it was lovely and warm inside but there were no views to be had. As compensation I had kaiserschmarrn which had whipped cream on the applesauce and came with jam also. I went to bed at 7pm, while it was raining, and the rain had washed all the snow away.
September 7 Kaiserjochhaus to St Anton am Arlberg 11.7 km 369 m ascent. It was snowing when I woke up and had clearly been snowing all night.
Nobody thought my intended route would be a problem but as usual in poor weather nobody else was going my way. The path was easy to see, the painted signs very visible and I can only assume the paint they use must be snow repellent. I did some walking in fresh snow.
It was a good feeling. I did very little all day beyond lying on my bed, buying bread and cheese for a picnic dinner in my room and eating some of my emergency chocolate rations.
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