Introduction I understood that camping in the Alps was not allowed and so I decided to use the network of huts that exists up in the Alps. With Austrian Alpine Club membership (£40 including mountain rescue insurance) I could get a bed or space on a mattress for between 6-10 Euros. It's a very reasonable price and so my budget for the trip was about 100 Euros. That's what I thought my budget would be, but I learned that none of the huts had self catering facilities - I would either have to cook outside on a camping stove or pay for food served on a plate.
An easy introduction to
Pay-as-you-go mountaineering I chose to have an evening meal (typically 6-9Euros) and bring my own breakfast. Ahh, but I was told that breakfasts despite costing 6 Euros are the biggest meal of the day! (turns out not to be true - 3 slices of bread, butter, jam & tea!). In the end my trip budget had inflated from 50 Euros to 250 Euros. So, I settled on an area of the Alps known as the Stubai Alps just south of Innsbruck. In particular I would be following the "rucksack route" as described in a book called "Trekking in the Stubai Alps" (Allan Hartley, Cicerone Press ISBN 1-85284-354-3). I borrowed some maps from a friend, planned my trip and then I was off on my second foreign adventure this year. Saturday 4th September
Top Tip #1: Bring ear plugs
After just 2 hours of sleep (courtesy of a snorer providing some deep bass keeping me awake all night), I awoke tired and not in the right shape for a tour of the Stubai. I left the youth hostel to be greeted with an approaching thunderstorm, quite impressive filling the whole valley. On the bus (every six minutes) I made my way to the bus rail station (busbahnhof). The bus station part isn't really a bus station, just an ordinary street with bus stops spread out over 300m (including some side lanes). It took a while to figure out which bus stop I needed.
Anyway, I was on my way to the Subaital. The motorways in Austria are scary! The slip roads are the worst I've seen in all the European countries I've visited. Basically you have just 100m of narrow slip road to get your car upto speed before joining the carriageway, and about 50m to bring your car down from 110kph to 30kph (before the very narrow slip road makes a very sharp turn!). I arrived at Neder in dry weather, the start of my walk. I had little more than my usual daysack for walking meaning that the weight was not over burdensome. The first part of the walk is along a track walking along the Pinnisalm valley bottom. The scenery here is amazing with limestone mountains of dolomite stature rising upto 1500m above your head. The track ends at the last farm/cafe (Karalm) and the mountain path continues. By now, clouds were being forced up the valley by another new rain shower and so it was on with the waterproofs again as the rain came down in a torrential manner. The rain eased back but continued for the remaining ascent. The terrain around the path was very much like the lake district. The ground was typically covered in grass and there was plenty of evidence that the land was used for sheep grazing. The path was well worn and eroded but not massively so. I was nearing the saddle of the Pinnisjoch where the slopes became quite steep. the Innsbrucker hut lay just around the corner. Until now, I largely had this walk to myself, but the crowds were swarming all around the Innsbrucker. The hut was in a spectacular location with grand views out across the Gschnitz Valley to the peak the other side. Nearby some scrambling peaks lay a short walk away and rearing up behind the hut was the mighty Habicht (3277m). To call it a hut would suggest something small and cosy - not so! These 'huts' have 160 bed spaces and are very well furnished inside. I enquired about a mattress space only to be told that the hut was full! This is September and it was full!!! I was asked to wait until 10pm (lights out) where they would lay out mattresses on the floor for me to stay. In the meantime it was mid afternoon. The skies were clearing and so I decided to try a nearby summit called Kalkwand (26??m). The path skirts round the Pinnisalm side of one mountain summit before rising to a saddle on scree. It then goes round the back of Kalkwand high above the valley of Gschnitz. Here I turned back, the path was steep and it was 1300m down to the valley bottom for all I could tell! I was gutted that I had to wait until 10pm, I craved sleep after the previous nights disturbance. Would all huts be like this for busyness? Would I come to enjoy Austria or dread it? At last 10pm came and out came the mattresses, I never looked so happy to be rewarded with sleep! Sunday 5th September
The walk was popular with several groups heading out from the Innsbrucker hut and largely straightforward. However the guidebook warned of several steep fixed rope sections. I had no idea how difficult these sections would be, a couple I spoke to yesterday described them as being quite scary and slippery. The 1st section lay on the other side of a spur known as Piamarspitz. The path descended easily but steeply in a series of zigzags with only a few short fixed rope sections. Nothing about it was difficult. The path then contoured round steep slopes of the Beilgrube to descend round the backend of another spur facing the Trauler Bockgruber. The slopes were steeper with some fixed confidence ropes along the path. It paid not to be clumsy here, plenty of attention was given to not slipping or tripping, but it was all care and caution rather than anything awkward or difficult. I then had an easy crossing of the Plattental corrie before a short zigzig rise up a final spur before the Bremer hut. The path descended steeply the other side, but not as steep as the other previous slopes. Shortly after, the path split. The high route took the "Klettersteig", a steep route with rungs and fixed ropes. The low route took an easier zigzag route taking advantage of easy ledges offering passage up a short cliff section. I took the low route, nothing difficult here, but from below the cliff did seem impenetrable.
Soon after I reached the hut after 6hrs and 45mins from the Innsbrucker. It was a hot dry day, and I was quite dehydrated. The Bremer hut is in a really nice location sat on a plateau near the top of the Gschnitz valley looking right down it. The views of the Habicht are very fine from this angle. The hut has an extension built in that was in the process of being completed. Had the hut been full, people would have very little room on the sleeping mattresses, one would have been rubbing shoulders with the people either side of you. I met a group 4 young people on the track briefly and I ended up chatting and playing cards with them in the hut and also for the next few nights as we were both headed for the same huts. They were a good lot, and whilst I did try walking with them, they were far too fast! Monday 6th September
We set off at 7.30 up a marked track, the Germans were very fast leaving me to plod up at a slower pace. I arrived at the end of the path marked as red on the map. Beyond lay the continuing narrowing of the ridge to the summit. One of the Germans, Andy had turned back shortly afterwards. I continued along a short narrow ridge to a rockface with a slanting ledge. This ledge had a fixed rope above a rather exposed drop. I didn't go to the fixed rope but one other person I saw did, and he turned back promptly. Of the 4 Germans, two made it to the top and two turned back. The two that made it to the top said the fixed rope was the hardest part of the ridge and that it proceeded a bit easier to the summit. I continued on my way before the 2 summiteering Germans, Christoph and Daniel returned. I retraced my steps to the main path and proceeded to the Nurnburger hut. The path rises steeply to the Simmingjoch pass. Here the path passes beneath some broken shattered cliffs. I heard falling stones above as a bird took flight - small stones were seen falling down onto my path just 5 metres away. The sight made me paranoid, now I was worried that I'd be seeing a great big rock come tumbling down.
I reached the Simmingjoch with its abandoned police hut. This pass used to be on the old Austro-Italian border and was a popular smugglers route between the two countries. I gazed at the mountains around, today had been a wonderful morning. Now the Nurnburger hut was clearly seen and it was only 11.30 in the morning so I just plodded around to kill time before descending down the other side of the Simmingjoch. The descent from the Simmingjoch is one described as needing care in the guide book. The descent was largely straightforward off a broad couloir with only a small section of fixed ropes at the bottom. The fixed ropes, however, do cross slabs which are no doubt slippery in wet weather. Once off the fixed ropes, I proceeded easily down to a lovely small lake at the bottom of the corrie where I had lunch.
Beyond the Lake, the path descends slabs which become increasingly steep beyond which the path branches left to contour round the valley. Here there are a few fixed rope sections above rather exposed drops. There are rungs for your feet providing passage across an otherwise difficult sloping slabby ledge. The problem was short and easy, only the clumsy will have problems here. Another section of fixed ropes and I was down to the main river - cloudy with glacial rockflour. It was a hot sunny day and I needed some more suncream before proceeding to the Nurnburger. That was a bad move, soon after leaving the river I had a steep rockstep up a slab. The wire ropes were slippery now I had suncream on my palms! None the less I managed to get up, but only after getting my hands dirty. Now it was just a simple walk to the Nurnburger hut.
Top Tip #2: Suncream makes wire ropes
slippery, rub some grit into your hands to improve grip. The Nurnburger was the first hut to have hot showers, the bed mattresses were also spaced further apart so you weren't rubbing shoulders with people next to you. I met up with the Germans and they told me all about the Inn. Wetterspitz. That night I lost my round of cards, so it was my turn to buy a round! |
