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| Zireinersee |
Having walked the short section of the Adlerweg in East Tirol last year I decided to go back this year and hike the main part right across the Tirol which is much longer, over 300 kilometres, from St Johann in Tirol to St Anton am Arlberg. This time I had a guide book and had researched the route more thoroughly. I had worked things out so I could stay at a mix of hotels and alpine huts; I had only booked a few hotels and was intending to arrive at the Alpverein mountain huts without any reservation so that I could be flexible from day to day. (It is so hard to know in advance how far I can hike in a day because everyone’s idea of difficulty varies, and also I had a hunch that the weather would not be as good this year as it was last year.) This is apparently ok to do when you are an Alpverein member like me. What I did not realise at the time was that the route has changed since the guidebook was written and some sections are downright tricky to access and hike and some of these amended parts of the route do not have Alpverein huts. So I had a few anxious afternoons in Austria when I had to make changes to my itinerary on the fly. I was really surprised not to meet anyone else hiking the whole Adlerweg or even doing sections or even mentioning it especially as there were posters about the hike at almost every hut.
August 23 St Johann in Tirol to Pension Maier 28.2 km 1608 m ascent. It was a muggy socked in day as I left St Johann and walked through several surrounding villages to reach the official start of the Adlerweg at an alpine hut called Rummlerhof. The start was marked by a series of boulders each bearing the name of one mountain range that the trail passes through. I was starting with the Wilder Kaiser range where I have skied. I went in light forest up to a big cave and on to a waterfall that I had to walk behind and where lots of climbers were scaling the higher cliffs. I had a lot of uphill through meadows but no view due to the foggy day. I stopped at Gaudeamus Hütte which was really busy and when the weather temporarily cleared a little I could see impressive dolomite mountains towering above me. But it was too early to spend the night there so I just ate my lunch.
At this point I had to decide whether to follow the new official route (which my book described as a variant) going higher up or to stay on the old route lower down. Since I didn’t think I would see much higher up I kept to the original route but this meant I had to find somewhere to stay as there were no Alpverein huts on this section. I phoned a few places and Pension Maier offered me a bed. There was only one problem: after I finished the phone call I thought I should look on the map to see where Pension Maier was, and it appeared to be several kilometres off the route.
My afternoon hike was nice, climbing in forest and then going along the edge of the mountainside, crossing several scree landslides and meeting no other hikers for hours. I then had a long descent to Hintersteinersee where I tried to find somewhere more convenient to stay. Everywhere was full but one guy recommended the place I had booked, which was a good sign; I wasn’t sure what kind of place it was from the phone call but it was closer than I expected. The lake was surrounded by forest and I walked the length of it fast as I could feel my energy reserves running out. Pension Maier turned out to be a busy hostel, more like a pub in character. I was also pleased to find that it was actually on the new route so I was not making a detour. I ate my first schnitzel of the trip and I was worn out.
August 24 Hintersteinersee to Kufstein 16.4 km 664 m ascent. It was a beautiful day at last. I had a steady 5km climb to Hochegg with 360 degree views and I was fairly sure I could distinguish Grossglockner roughly where it should have been. Mostly I could see forested limestone mountains. I had a winding descent through meadows to a tiny settlement with a cute chapel and then forest with window views. At Ashenbrenner Alm I had a coffee looking down on Kufstein then I continued down to the town alongside many mountain bikers. I know Kufstein well, and by mistake I initially tried to check in at the hotel I have stayed at before whereas I had booked to stay at the hotel whose restaurant I had liked before.
At this point I realised I had a problem with accommodation for the next night as I had planned to stay at a private gasthaus but I had forgotten to book and when I phoned it was full (and the owner wasn’t in the least bit helpful), and it was the only accommodation in the area. I spent the whole afternoon trying to work out how to do the next stage of the route and in the end I resorted to phoning the unhelpful gasthaus owner for a second time; I was able to establish that buses came to that area (although on Sunday the bus only came to within a few kilometres which was a shame as I was going there on Sunday) and I managed to work something out finally. In the late afternoon there was a thunderstorm but I was safely in my room making phone calls and searching for bus timetables.
I had Tiroler groestl for dinner (too much salty meat), and I managed to act as an interpreter when a French man ordered some wine and could not understand when the waitress told him (in German and in English) that it was wine mixed with lemonade. The man’s wife said I had saved their life which I felt was understating things a bit.
August 25 Pinegg to Langkampfen 25.1 km 945 m ascent. This was now the Brandenberger range. I had to be resourceful to get this portion done but my plan worked well. I took a train and then bus to the hamlet of Pinegg and then walked two Adlerweg stages back towards Kufstein and stayed again in Kufstein. Pinegg to Buchacker Alm was along a river with a gradual climb; there were lots of bikes but no hikers. Then I undulated upward through meadows. It was hot and muggy. Near the top there were suddenly lots of hikers, maybe because of a cable car nearby. I had soda water with lemon at Buchacker then moved on to the next stage which was mainly downhill. I had a good view down to the Wörgl train tracks (Wörgl is a big junction I’ve been through many times). Thunder started while I was on my way down. The undulating trail had a lot of switchbacks, cows, mountains in the distance and the sky was black.
There were no hikers as I came down. It rained a bit off and on and the thunder continued. I found it tiring, maybe due to the heaviness of the weather. I had a steep descent in forest (lots of leaf litter) and got to Langkampfen station, which was strangely about a kilometre out of the town in the middle of the fields. The trip to Kufstein took five minutes and is part of the official Adlerweg.
August 26 Aschau to Erfurter Hütte 17.7 km 1457 m ascent. This was a great day, starting with a sunny morning. I took the train and bus to Aschau (very close to Pinegg) and resumed my hike in the proper direction. I went up, up, up on a dirt road passing isolated farmhouses, trees and meadows. I climbed to col after col so it was quite hard work. Then suddenly I had real mountain views and saw bare rocky peaks. Finally I looked down on fabulous Zireinersee, a perfect round lake in a mountain fringed bowl, with cows even walking in the water at the edge of the lake. I sat by the lake edge although it looked prettier from above, but I was worried that rain was coming and wanted to get going on the hike’s difficult part. From just past the lake the rock wall I had to get past looked so close and impenetrable. I had a steep climb on scree and rock with some cables, some parts really steep, and big steps until at the top I emerged into a grassy bowl surrounded by peaks each with a cross on top. It was still several kilometres to the hut, contouring across the bowl and with the sky full of black clouds to my right. The hut was by the top of three chairlifts and a cable car so this was clearly a ski resort but I had never heard of it. The hut deck had views up close of a solid line of mountains across the valley in silhouette due to the dark thundery sky, with Achensee looking as though it was painted on the valley floor far below.
There was loud thunder once I was at the hut and then a little rain. The hut had a nice restaurant.
August 27 Erfurter Hütte to Binsalm 27.8 km 1056 m ascent. I had a perfect blue sky day and no thunderstorm. Now it was time for the Karwendel mountains but first I had a five kilometre descent from Erfurter hut to Achensee across ski pistes and in forest, and then walked along the lake edge to the spa town of Pertisau. There were lots of people around strolling and sunbaking. From the lake I walked slightly uphill along a river through meadows to two restaurants and everywhere was very busy with walkers and bikes. I could see big mountains ahead. Eventually I started a steep climb with lots of zigzags and I hardly stopped on the climb despite it being hard. There were daytrippers coming down but nobody else going up. I arrived at Lamsenjoch Hütte, where I had planned to stay, at 2.30 but the terrace was in shade and the views were only back to where I’d come from, so I continued four kilometres to the next hut. It was a good decision: I had great views while walking, and as I left the hut I could see my recent zigzags etched on the mountainside. Binsalm was a private hut and its deck faced a huge mountain straight on. Even better, I got a dorm to myself.
August 28 Binsalm to Karwendelhaus 18.8 km 1133 m ascent. This was a magic day in the mountains although the weather was heavy again. I went down into a valley full of rental rooms then climbed through meadows with cows on the path. It was a true mountain environment. I contoured a lengthy scree slope to the temporarily closed Falken Hütte and sat by the hut; while being renovated they had removed the sign to the next hut so I initially went the wrong way when I left. I descended on a good path in forest and then went through a narrow steep sided valley, scattered with boulders, and had a long climb. At the top I had a long chat with a mountain biker in German, and once I was exhausted from this he produced perfect English. I could still see Falken Hütte dimly in the distance even though I was about nine kilometres further on. There was an ultra here in the Karwendel that I wanted to do but was already full when I found out about it so I was delighted to see that the race signs were already in place and I was hiking some of the course.
Karwendelhaus was an old stone building with a sunny terrace overlooking two separate valleys and had high mountains up close. There was a group of Austrian hikers at my table at dinner and they were eccentric in two ways: firstly they were Austrian and I wasn’t meeting any Austrians hiking and secondly they ate a dessert of Germknödel with custard before having a main course of meats and cheeses.
August 29 Karwendelhaus to Hallerangerhaus 17.8 km 1493 m ascent. I might call this my hardest hiking day ever and the book said it was the hardest day of the Adlerweg. The descent from Bikkarspitze was the big killer rather than the climb up to it. It was a cloudy muggy day with a constant threat of rain and I think many people did not set out on the climb because of the weather. Right from the hut was a steep climb with lots of scree but not too loose and I got to the col quite quickly.
I saw a couple of chamois deer. The final 500 metres to the summit of Birkkarspitze had aid cables, narrow chutes and was very tricky. I was dreading coming back down. Great view at the top in all directions, mainly scree slopes and patches of snow.
The very long descent was horrible (even after the summit part) with tight zigzags and almost vertical straight bits on loose scree, some cabled sections (in few places the pins had pulled out which didn't give me much confidence) and it was endless. I kept slipping and fell four times; it wasn’t serious but I got several grazes and bruises. The trail crossed two long patches of snow; for one of these I put on my trail crampons just because I had them with me. Even when I reached the tree line the path would come back to scree. All this descent was in a long gorge and the views back to the summit were fantastic. I was happy the rain held off but it was a bit drizzly. I had gone up at the same time as a solo German hiker and after we left the summit I could watch him descending way ahead of me; when I saw him slow down or turn to walk sideways I knew there was something tricky coming.
At the bottom was a huge wide river bed and then another climb but this time on a good dirt road. I passed a lovely waterfall then because I was tired the path seemed to take far too long to reach the hut. The hut warden was not very welcoming as I didn't have a reservation but the hut was newly furnished and very nice. I had decided that I would have kaiserschmarrn at this hut as a reward for this very hard day but she said they weren’t cooking it even though it was on the menu. My knees felt really tired.
August 30 Hallerangerhaus to Innsbruck 20.8 km 1015 m ascent. A hot sunny day. After a short steep climb I came into a big cirque and had a long gradual climb towards Stempeljoch. I could see several trails in the distance and all were on scree but mine was actually hidden from view and was steeper than any of these. A hiker asked me to take a photo of him and gave me very precise instructions then examined my work carefully, so I got him to take a photo of me believing he would get the best angle.
The final part of the climb to the col, the hidden from view part, involved circular rubber discs as steps and a long chained section, but I then emerged into a grassy bowl, and I could see cows standing on a patch of snow licking it. I had another climb to a notch then another bowl to contour and views of endless mountains. The path was leading to the top of the cable car bringing people up from Innsbruck so it was busy with daytrippers and I was surprised it wasn’t easier going. It was on a bit of a precarious ledge on the edge of the mountainside.
Eventually I started my descent to Innsbruck. I wasn’t sure if I was taking the correct path but lots of locals were hiking up so I reckoned it must come from somewhere. It did - an alm. I asked a beer drinking patron if the path led on to Innsbruck and he said it did but was steep. It was. I came to the cable car base station and caught a bus into Innsbruck; due to a communication breakdown I got off the bus in the centre of town and had a long hot walk to my hotel. The hotel was very nice and I wished I didn’t have to rush off the next morning.
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