For logistical reasons we are staying 2 nights here at Leutkirche Hütte. Makes it easier to escape off the mountain and catch a train back to Garmisch tomorrow. 

 Sleeping in a Mattraslager is always too hot, too noisy, blighted with snorers or just uncomfortable. So we tend to be up and about by 7:00am every morning. Today we took our time because we planned an out and back walk to the next hut. No packs! Fantastic. 

 Beautiful walk in beautiful weather. Stopped for a snow fight. Challenged Liam to hit my camera from 20m. He did unfortunately!!  

  On arrival at Kaeserjochhaus we indulged in kuchen and drinks. Good alternative to lunch. Like rock rabbits we lazed in the sun for ages before heading back. Guy was half crippled with a sore knee so he opted for the same route back.  

  Liam and I set off on an extended alternative route which involved plenty of down hill and eventually a long climb back up.  

 Accidentally got down to civilisation and landed in the midst of a Bavarian type Sunday afternoon on a farm. Men in trad outfits, lederhosen, Tyrolean hats and girls wearing Dirndls. And the live music. Very nice. 

 Liam however was in dire straits with running itchy eyes, sneezing etc. Not surprising with all the flowers at this lower level. A long climb up the mountain again, arriving back by 17:30.   Liam’s new friend: rabbit. 

  I love the evening meals here; everything has meat in it however so the boys have been opting for the bergsteigeressen which is like the house meal of the day. Trouble is that is usually spaghetti bolognaise – I think they are sick of that now! To celebrate our last night in the mountain we had kaeserschmarren which is like chopped pancake with apple sauce. Yum.   

Whiled away time with guitar and cards. Possible thunderstorm and rain later so could be a wet climb down to St Anton tomorrow. What timing perfection.

While I was prancing through the daisies yesterday, the boys took the shorter high route. Afterwards they informed me that it was not more difficult than anything we had done previously. “What about the 125m of vertical ledge” I enquired. “No problem” said Guy, it was a well worn ledge. “Actually…” said Liam, “it was a bit narrow, I had to place one foot in front of the other”

Enough said. I made the right decision.

  
After our minimalist breakfast of bread, jam and coffee (since we not big on meat and cheese at breakfast) we were on the road by 8:00am. Everything feels much easier now I.e. the scale of pain is less. Climbed a ridge & descended to an Alm where an enterprising high altitude cattle farmer sold us drinks.  

 After reading the write up which described the climb ahead as unsuitable for anyone with vertigo, I made the decision to take a lower and longer route. The boys however were undeterred and more than happy to climb a peak which included a shuffle along an unprotected narrow edge (no rope) with a huge drop below. Right decision for me – no pressure to catch up now, I ambled along for the next few hours taking photos and surrounded by flowers everywhere.  

 En-route I found another cattle farm at Boden Alm where I got really great home-made sausage, sauerkraut, mustard & bread. Delicious.   So far I had been getting on fine with my German, but some dialects are hard to follow. Maybe just country folk.    

  The overall trade off for my wimpy detour was that I eventually had to make a long detour and an 800m vertical climb to get to Leutkirche Hütte (2251m)  

 where the boys were already waiting. A leisurely afternoon was spent at the hut, indoors this time since a chilly wind was blowing off the snow. Plenty of card games followed. . and huge maths discussions 

  Really hungry these days and couldn’t wait until dinner at around 18:00.

Another night in the Mattraslager…….. communal sleeping can sometimes be interesting!  Being Saturday night, a number of folk had made this a weekend Jaunt, so much partying and noise (them, not us)

Back to the hills again. We were woken from our comfortable beds by the chiming of a massive church bell close by. 6:30am! OK the sun was up but so were we before long. After breakfast said goodbyes to our very kindly host Frau Hubertus and hiked to the station for the journey to Sankt Anton.  

 The trains here are clean and spacious. All electric and immensely powerful it seems for a lot of the track is uphill and through tunnels. 

 From there we caught another bus which climbed even higher into the Arlberg Pass. Just to complete it all we took a cable car from Lech to the mountain top at 2450m high. 

 The good news – for once the hiking part was really easy. Beautifully clear crisp and sunny day, spring flowers and snow all around plus stunning mountain vistas.  

 These photos certainly do not do it justice (will have to wait for the Nikon pics later)  

  Got to the hut relatively early sometime after lunch. As the afternoon progressed the place got busier due to it’s accessibility to Lech and the cableway.  

 Consequently supper was somewhat hectic and although we played many rounds of cards, we were finally driven to bed by around 21:30 by the noisy kids and parents.Tomorrow will be another serious all day hike with high altitude, cliff side paths and sheer drops. Damn; at least the next hut should be sparsely populated….. 

We needed this. Lie-in, relaxed breakfast then explored Zams, starting with the outdoor shop of course. De-mistified the bus system and went to next town Landeck with a view to hiring bicycles. None available, probably a good thing since not many small roads around here.  Invested in Voltarin which got applied liberally to all our sore bits.
 

 Towns around here exist in flat valleys flanked by massive mountains. The bus system is fantastic, with gleaming yellow Postbus everywhere.  

 The river Inn running through the valley towns is hectic at present from melting snow. Reminded me of the Sjambok rapid on the Orange River in RSA.  
 
Later returned to base at Zams where Guy faded into a PM nap after spending all night on mathematical mind games. Liam and I walked to Zammer Lochputz which is a spectacular waterfall gorge draining the vast mountain valley which we hiked yesterday.  

Been a hydroelectric plant there too for about 100 years. Metal walkways and tunnels led us at high level through the area.
 

 Splurged on an early dinner because we all starving. 

Then back early to prepare for tomorrow’s trek into the hills – our last 4 days of mountain.

We needed this break!

Well we could have stayed another day at Wurtemberger Haus. Apart from sore legs and blisters it was raining.  But no, in the firm belief that things will get better, we set out on another extreme day which went totally off plan. 

 
After a difficult ascent to our highest point so far we were enveloped in cloud and rain. Vertical drop-offs, narrow crumbling ledges and all the things I really love (not).  Apparently the views would have been spectacular but fortunately I could not see any of that otherwise I might have never made it.   The clouds hid the scary bits, the rain drove us on but when thunder and lightning arrived we scrambled under the nearest small rock and huddled there for about half an hour lest we got zapped.  Black gekko-like creatures seemed to like it however and were mating all over. Furthest thing from my mind.  

The route followed the ridge of the mountain at ~2600m altitude. Problem arose when we finally started to descend. The GPS lost its downloaded map during a battery change, the paper map was packed away out of the rain, and the hut sign at the next junction was missing.  So we followed our noses.  

After a knee-wrecking descent of nearly 1000m with a hut in sight that actually wasn’t, we realised our mistake.  Lunched in the drizzle with the invaluable solid-fuel cooker and re-evaluated our options.  

 The decision was made.  3 hours of steep uphill, or descend completely to civilisation (also 3 hours).  It was the latter because Guy’s knee had packed in so he was hobbling with a stick. At least I’m not the only one now.  En-route came across a remote and totally inaccessible farmhouse which provided us with land jäger, bread coffee & beer.  

   The remaining descent to town of Zams through a incredibly deep gorge seemed to take forever. 

 Arrived around 8pm, found a very nice Gastehaus run by an elderly lady who was even prepared to take on our stinky washing. Boys got off lightly there!   Late night pizza and a comfy bed. Everything aches – at least that is not just an age thing…. 
 

Beautiful start to the day – weather fantastic and scenery outstanding. We already at 2200m altitude and with three mountain “jochs” to cross we set out with a spring in our steps. How wrong can you be! First crossing fine, some ropes and warily crossing steep snow.  

Boys settled in to a mountain maths session between the rocks.  

Then on to cross Rosskarscharte with steep drops, scree, snow and ropes. Unfortunately part of the rope disappeared under the snow so a precarious work-around was required. When Guy later referred to it as “sketchy” I felt less of a wimp. Abseiling was never my thing! 

   We Lunched in the shelter of a large rock, used the solid fuel cooker for home–made soup (fantastic). 

 The final crossing turned out to be the most hair-raising experience for me; a long and very steep descent over crumbling rock and scree. Some ropes but mostly disintegrating or washed-away path. Needed a change of underpants after that one!  Needless to say – no pictures of that route!

 Finally reached Wurtemberger Haus, relatively early so we able to sort ourselves out at leisure. Not busy and provisioned only by helicopter. Great supper on the sun deck overlooking the world. Later played cards until a thunderstorm arrived big time. Stunning to watch, kept boys fascinated for ages. I headed for bed and read the description for tomorrow 😕 not a recipe for a good nights sleep.

Like most things, it started easy and ended tough. We needed to descend to Imst to get new boots for Guy. So starting from our very nice hut that we had worked so hard to reach, we embarked on 30 mins of uphill along a cliff side path 

 Reached a working ski-lift which descended for ages to a lower station, then another lift to upper Imst and a half hour hike to town.  

  Found a knowledgable sports shop (nice change) so Guy now chuffed in his new Meindls. The hard part was then finding a bus to a nearby town from where we would start our ascent. It then took us 5 hours of non-stop uphill to climb 1300 metres to Steinsee Hütte. En-route passed a massive stone quarry. Maybe that’s the wrong description because there are literally trillions of tons of stone scree on the lower slopes. We were all finished by the time we got to the hut. Quite busy with a load of big school kids from a nearby town. 

 Our dinner on the balcony was surprisingly good considering that this in an inaccessible but. Even jeep track to lower reaches had been washed away. Soup starter, lasagne and pudding. All happy. Guy collapsed in bed early. Liam read his book outside and later we chatted. Nice end to the day. And.. I got a proper shower AND washed my clothes. We all smelt like polecats on arrival 😋 The boys not quite up this clothes washing yet, so polecats again tomorrow!

Change of plan. We need to hike out to  civilisation to get new boots for Guy. Heading to Muttekopfhütte instead, which involves another descent to a busy road crossing (ugh) at Hahntenjoch.  Loads of bikers passing. Apparently some 14000 BMW bikers descended on Garmisch this weekend. 

Then once again we disappeared into the hills with another high Joch to cross (2400m). This time cables and footholds and (much worse) loose scree.  

Got to Muttekopfhütte by 15:30 to everyone’s delight.  Beer and apfelstrudel revived us.   

 
Although this hut was built around 1890 it has been modernised to being almost an hotel.  Electricity was welcome because the solar charger not working with my phone or GPS. 

Boys headed off to explore nearby cliff before dinner.  That too was the best meal so far.   Schnitzel, just to make Ross envious!!    

 
  
Card games followed. Now we all have sore leg muscles.  Tomorrow we drop down off the mountain to Imst to shop for boots, then abandon civilisation again for the next week. 

• If I had known how difficult today would be I might have planned it differently. After a Jungle Oats start to the day we made steep 400 vertical climb to Loreascharte. Outstanding view of a vast valley below. Only problem being that we had to  climb steeply down a loose stone path that damn near killed my legs and which went on forever.   
• That was the theme of the day- about 20kms which included 1200m of vertical ascent PLUS 1200m of descent. Even Guy’s boots disintegrated and eventually (believe it or not) he was hiking in my Crocs! We crossed rivers, rock screes and snow in +30c temperatures.  At around 16:00 we still had to clear this valley and climb over the mountain with few hundred meters vertical descent on other side.  
• Snow crossings a bit hairy due to risk of caverns underneath   
• We finally got to the hut after 10 hours. It was a busy place with loads of kids around. Clearly there must be another easy route here.    Unlike last night when we played cards (game called sh..head?), tonight we were all finished and all hit bed after dinner.   
• Suffice to say that I am enormously proud of my grandsons who kept at it till the end without a murmur of complaint!