3rd Annual Alpine Hike

Representin' Sullivan, MO in the Alps

This past weekend Fabian and I traveled to Austria with his mother for our third annual Alpine hike. We take a different trail (or trails) each year. This year we began at the Lünersee - a lake in Vorarlberg, Austria - at an altitude of 6,463 feet above sea level. We took a gondola from the parking lot up to the lake itself. The lake was dammed in the 1950s, raising the water level significantly. It has been producing hydroelectric power for the valley below ever since.

On Saturday morning, we first walked along the edge of the lake for about 45 minutes, then we took a right and headed over the tree level and into the rocky, windy valley up towards the Swiss border. It began to rain, then snow-rain, then flat out snow on us while we fought our way to the Verajoch - our first ridge to hike over. Suddenly on the other side, the fog cleared and the sun shone! We took a quick break and nibbled some bread and sausages before walking on past the Schweizer Tor - a giant hole in the mountains through which you can see down into Switzerland.   

Luckily, we got to walk straight without climbing too much as we passed the Schweizer Tor. But then it went straight back up and over the Öfapass, before heading down into the valley where we would spend the night at the Lindauerhütte ("The Lindau mountain hut", which is actually more of a lodge).

At the hut, we played card games and ordered the "mountain climber meal" from the waitresses in red lederhosen. Fabi and his mom get at a discount at the huts because of their membership in the German Alpine Club. We were amazed to find warm water at this lodge (definitely not standard for such establishments), and we slept in a room with 18 mattresses and 2 loud snorers. I was so tired that it didn't bother me much. The only heating in the room came from all the sleeping bodies. Surprisingly, it got so warm that we opened a window in the middle of the night!

The next morning, we had yogurt with fruit and two cups of coffee each before hitting the trail again. This time it was only sunny! All the bad weather had passed. We could, however, see faint traces of the snow that had fallen the afternoon before. Here are some pretty, yellow-blooming succulents that greeted us along the way, popping out of the snow.

On Sunday morning, our trail took us straight back up again to the Drusentor - through evergreens, then white and red rock, then to the very top and through a tiny crevasse. At this point we officially crossed over into Switzerland. Here is my cheesy proof:

We had also climbed 1,000 feet higher than our starting point. We were now at 7,546 feet - just under 2 Gateway Arches higher than before. Not bad for a girl who grew up on the Great Plains. Here we took a short break again to eat something. A friendly family of Swiss people came up and sat down next to us, speaking "Switzer Ditch" (Swiss German). I understood nothing, but liked their sweet dog.

From here we made our way around the giant mass of rock we'd begun to circle on Saturday. The trail meandered through countless cow fields and was nothing but sludge and soft, fresh cow patties. Eventually we made our own trail through the grass to avoid sinking in.

Then we saw some cows standing on each others' backs. As if Alpine cattle weren't intense enough with their giant bells and impossible grazing altitudes. :P

 

No Alpine hike is complete without making friends with the cattle.

Just about when I felt I couldn't hike anymore, we started going upwards again. This time out of the cow fields and up towards the Cavelljoch - the final ridge to cross before descending back down towards the lake. Near the top we took another break and noticed that our faces and necks had been burnt crispy by the sun exposure in the mountains. We put our caps back on and kept trekking.

Finally we turned a corner and saw the lake below! We knew that the last gondola back to the parking lot went at 5 pm, and it was already 3:20. So we high-tailed it down the mountain, shaving 1/2 hour off the trail's average walking time. (And you can bet that my knees felt it the next day!)

Back at the lake, we were told that the gondola actually goes until everybody who wants to ride it has gone. Our running had been for nothing! But we enjoyed a warm apple strudel with whipped cream and sat in the sun as a reward for our hard work. Fabi eventually decided to walk back down to the car, on the "Mean Step" trail. Margit and I waited on a wooden bench until the line died down, then leisurely rode down the mountain with 20 others.

We got on the road around 6:30 pm. Now that the fog had cleared, I could see just how high we'd driven up to the parking lot. The sheer immensity of the heights we'd reached had me feeling a little shocked and queasy in the back seat. As we snaked down the curvy roads to the main valley, I realized I had just walked around at heights between 10 and 12 Gateway Arches above sea level!

I instinctively felt better once we'd reached the flat highway again. We got home after 10 pm. I hobbled to work the next morning. I had to teach three teenagers in Stuttgart at 9:30 am. Talk about a hard Monday morning.