E5 Days 91-95

Wednesday, June 5

Beautiful mountain panorama or snow-covered peaks

• Great breakfast at the hotel before packing up and walking to the bus stop.

• Bus to Lech, bus to Warth, bus to St. Anton, and wow, we’re driving over the Flexen Pass and then the Arlberg Pass!
• It’s amazing, but at an altitude of 1,800 metres there is clearly a LOT of snow.
• Beautiful mountain panoramas stretch out before us and we sit back and let them pass us by, quite happy that we don’t have to hike through metres of snow.

• In St. Anton am Arlberg, we board the Railjet and travel along the familiar Zurich-Vienna route to Zams.

• Just one stop, but the Railjet is packed and instantly transports us back to the stress of everyday life: all around us are people with mobile phones and laptops, talking about work and making loud phone calls.
• We are glad to escape it all in Zams, leave the hustle and bustle behind us and retreat back to the peaceful mountain world.
• The path takes us through Zams and then we follow a mountain runner up to the hiking trail, where the Zams ski hut is already signposted.

• This is, appropriately, our destination for today.
• Via paths that are sometimes very steep, sometimes gravel roads, and a cow pasture with a cow and calf (great), we reach the ski hut.

• There we got an ‘upgrade’: since there are only four guests today, the four of us are staying in a four-person room with a private shower and toilet 🙂
• Ronny and Andi, the hut owner and his son, tell us that they just opened for the summer season today – we are their first guests!
• Nevertheless, they also think that there isn’t usually this much snow at this time of year – Andi shows us webcam images from 5 June in previous years and yes, it’s clear that there hasn’t been this much snow for a long time (see https://www.skihuette-zams.at/skihuette/webcam ).
• Ronny thinks the route over to Wenns should be doable – apart from a few snowfields on the north-facing slope, there shouldn’t be much snow.
• He is impressed by our venture and tells us that he has never heard of anyone spending several months on the E5; most E5 hikers complete the route across the Alps in 6 to 10 days at most.
• We also chat with the two other guests: two people from Kiel who are on an ‘active holiday’ and decided on the E5 without further ado, even though they don’t have much hiking experience.

• At the very least, we teach them how to play Schafkopf, a popular Bavarian card game, and then enjoy a very cosy evening with fun games, a magnificent panorama, pleasant conversations, lots of laughter, a glass or two of schnapps to celebrate the day, and overall it is very sociable and cosy.

Thursday, June 6 

Panoramic trail and new hiking plans

• A leisurely breakfast at a later hour, which suits Johanna, who prepares it, and then the Kielers leave us to drive directly to Merano (where the weather is better and the snow conditions are not quite as critical).

• Yesterday, Andi, Johanna and Ronny told us that the three of them run the hut – even in high season – and, surprisingly, despite its name (‘Skihütte’ or ski hut), most of their guests come in summer – hikers on the E5 trail.
• We decide to tackle the crossing to Wenns and set off for Krahberg, which is just under 2,200 metres above sea level.

• We have to cross one or two snowfields on the northern slope, but it’s easily manageable and we reach the summit, where a magnificent mountain panorama awaits us in all directions.

• Paragliders take off from here – it’s great to watch, and we take a break on the bench so we can watch the take-offs.

• Once, the start doesn’t go quite so smoothly and someone shouts ‘Stop, stop!’ – a brief adrenaline rush, but then the situation is quickly brought under control again.
• A wonderful, snow-free path with an incredible panorama leads us to the Gogles Alm, which fortunately is open and where we treat ourselves to coffee and Radler (a wild combination) and a break.

• We continue along scenic paths via the Galflur Alm, which is unfortunately ‘temporarily’ closed, as Google informs us, to the Lachner Alm, where we stop for refreshments as we are now hungry and have time to spare.

• Unlike at Gogles Alm, which you can reach by car, we are the only guests here and the landlady is extremely kind and takes great care of us.

• Due to the snow conditions, we are unable to complete a few stages of the ‘classic’ E5 across the Alps, so we checked whether there were still places available later in the summer at the ‘key huts’ (namely the Memminger Hut and Braunschweiger Hut, which are unmissable). – and as luck would have it, while checking during our break at the Lachner Alm, we discover exactly two slots available at both huts, perfectly spaced apart! We can hardly believe our luck and immediately book the places here and now with 5G on the Lachner Alm with its magnificent panorama – nice!
• Fortified and elated by our new hiking plans and, in particular, our E5 revenge plans, we set off on the descent via the old alpine path, past many cows and into the village of Wenns at the entrance to the Pitz Valley.

• At the Hotel Weiratherhof, we are welcomed by our lovely hosts, check into our room, take a shower and have a Talking Hands meeting before falling into bed.

Friday, June 7 

Through the Pitztal Valley

• Another leisurely breakfast ‘together’ with a huge biker gang, who are quicker than us and have already set off, while we are just helping ourselves to our third helping from the fantastic breakfast buffet.

• Refreshed, we set off after chatting briefly with our hosts about the E5 and how there is still snow everywhere, and we agree that ‘Well, these are the mountains, you have to take it as it comes.’

• Small roads lead us down into the valley until we reach a gravel path to Pitze – but not without getting lost three times and ending up in front of a sign saying ‘Path closed’.

• A little later, as we walk along the other side, we see why – there is no bridge over one of the rushing streams – ah, good thing we’re on this side, we think to ourselves.
• We can admire the mighty Stubai waterfall, which is even more impressive thanks to the snowmelt.

• We also see lots of Haflinger horses, some of them with foals – not to be confused (as I always do) with the little ponies, of which we also see a foal (it’s just small, chubby and fluffy <3).

• The road into the Pitztal valley, surrounded by several 3,000-metre peaks, is impressive and offers fantastic views of the snow-covered summits.

• However, the most beautiful part is undoubtedly the Kitzgarten Gorge, a gorge carved deep into the rock with vertical cliffs rising up on the left and right and the Pitze rushing wildly through the middle – very impressive to walk through.
• The route is long, but we finally reach Köfles, where Mum and Dad have reserved an apartment for the four of us, which we move into straight away.

• After we’ve had a relaxing shower, Mum and Dad slowly arrive and, like us, can’t find the flat straight away (it’s a bit hidden away).
• Mum cooks delicious asparagus with salad and chickpeas – really tasty.
• We chat, enjoy the evening and then head off to bed, because tomorrow we’re off again early. 

Saturday, June 8 

Marmots and snowfields

• Breakfast is at 7 a.m., because we want to leave at 9 a.m. (and we are called ‘Bieber’, so we need time for a leisurely breakfast, as is well known).
• Dad has baked a Sacher cake, which we all enjoy with delicious bread and homemade strawberry jam.
• We pack our bags, get ready and actually leave at around 9 a.m.

• First, we walk through the gentle valley.
• ‘Look, it’s really beautiful here,’ says Dad, already nervous about the climb ahead: ‘We don’t have to go up the mountain at all.’

• We follow the gravel path along the Pitze to Mittelberg, where the ascent to the Braunschweiger Hut begins.
• Right at the start is the Gletscherstube, where we stop for lunch while watching the hiking cinema.

• We can observe hikers walking determinedly to a nearby fork in the path where an excavator is standing, standing around indecisively and taking a closer look at all the paths, and then usually turning back in the end.
• A few daredevils climb up the Jägersteig (which is signposted as a black hiking trail and requires sure-footedness, etc., and where, as we can see from here, there are still some steep snowfields) -wild!

• We walk up the emergency slope, starting to cross snowfields at 2000 metres, thankfully not too steep, until the Jägersteig joins the path, which has now become a hiking trail, and the snowfields become steeper at around 2400 metres.

• ‘No further,’ Dad decides and immediately calls the Braunschweig hut owner to cancel and get grumpy, as he still wants to charge Mum and Dad the full hut price (Matthäus and I cancelled the hut in good time due to the snow conditions, so we only had to pay a 10% fee).
• Meanwhile, a Tyrolean man with Tübinger in tow runs past us and says, ‘Well, the Jägersteig was no walk in the park!’
• Shortly afterwards, we see two hikers coming from the Jägersteig who look so exhausted that we think to ourselves, ‘Yes, it was definitely no walk in the park!’
• On the way down, we are rewarded for the not-so-short hike and see some marmots 🙂

• We also see a young ibex (or at least that’s what we think it is).

• From Mittelberg, we take the bus to Köfles and drive to Haus Marinus, where we quickly reserve rooms for the night.

• The Belgian couple who run the house as a guesthouse give us a warm welcome, which lifts our spirits a little.
• For dinner, the Belgian man recommends the fish pond, which is ‘only a 10-minute walk away’.
• After half an hour, we arrive at the restaurant.
• It is very quaint and a bit stuck in the last century.
• As the name suggests, they do indeed serve delicious fish, which we treat ourselves to, and we chat a bit with the landlord, who tells us: ‘At the moment, the only money coming in is from the campsite, mainly from Germans and Dutch.’

Sunday, June 9 

Sacred Heart Sunday, Capricorns and bouldering session

• It’s an early start, as we want to attend the Sacred Heart Sunday Mass in St. Leonhard. I don’t know exactly what that involves, but it has something to do with the Tyrolean struggle for freedom, Andreas Hofer and a great deal of national pride, so you could say we’re lingering a little in the last century.

• The whole event lasts about two hours and consists of a mass followed by a procession through the entire village (which, thankfully, isn’t that big), for which the fire brigade has cordoned off the main road through the Pitztal valley. It really feels like travelling back in time and experiencing culture shock all at once – they even fire guns and a cannon – what an experience!
• Afterwards, Mum and Dad go to vote in the adjacent community centre before we make our way up to the Steinbockzentrum.
• The building itself is interesting: ‘Ah,’ says Mum, ‘they used that red concrete there.’

• First, you walk through the museum, where you learn, among other things, that ibexes were almost extinct in the Alps, except for a colony in northern Italy, from which all ibexes now descend, which is of course not ideal from a genetic point of view.

• Then you walk through the enclosure, first past the marmots, which have of course all escaped and are now running around somewhere.
• Finally, you come to the ibexes, which you can observe at your leisure and very clearly – fantastic!

• There are also lots of young ibexes (we saw one in the wild yesterday! Now we’re sure) – wow!

• We enjoy watching these graceful creatures for a while before getting into the car and saying, ‘Ciao, Mum and Dad,’ as the two drop us off at the climbing centre in Imst, where I enjoy a free climbing session thanks to my Pitztal Card.
• Completely out of practice, I am exhausted after an hour of bouldering.
• We take the train to Innsbruck, where we are grateful to be able to stay with Lisa and Andi. 

• Lisa is already back from her training course today, and it’s so nice to see her again.
• We spend a wonderful evening with spinach dumplings made by Lisa herself, lots of chatting and a round of Phase 10 – fantastic!