Long tour with overnight

50 kilometers (31 miles), with 2400 meters (7700 feet) up/down over two days.

 I planned a tour on Komoot that would walk some mix of familiar and new ground, and be long enough for a chance to test out my sleep system and gauge food requirements.

I brought tortillas, hummus, cheese, nuts and chocolate. Also oatmeal for breakfast, cous-cous for dinner and a ramen noodle packet. This was enough.

I had a tarp, my quilt and sleeping pad, also an umbrella to use for blocking wind.

I started walking at 10 and the weather was beautiful. I took a slightly different way than usual along the Osterbach, travelling through farm country on the right side for broader views. Then I walked up Schwarzenberg. Really cool, they have a restroom and a little room where you can sit and buy a drink. It was early for me, so I didn't get a drink. Now I walked east to some odd forested summits: Sternplatte and Sterneck. The ridge between the two was quite pretty, even though a bulldozer had had its way with it. I walked patches of snow in dark forest here.

Now I turned off grid, intent on getting down into the Jenbachtal. A bit of logging road, then trail got me down from Sterneck. Basically, I would cut through forest if it wasn't too young and bushy/crowded, trying to stay on hummocky ridges. Soon enough I was at the parking lot where people begin hikes in this interesting valley. It holds snow for so long! But finally that battle is being lost. Only a month ago I hopped on snowmobile tracks here, and now only the occasional biker is annoyed by a lingering drift.

Back in the sun, now rather tired, I hiked up to the summit of Farrenpoint. It was so nice here I decided to make this the end point for day one. The summit gets the sun until the last minute. It was only 16:30, but my way was heading to places that would be snowier. I decided to save that for the morning.

Dinner, meditation, and just watching the sun arc into the west made for a rich evening.

I was on my way again at 6:30, heading down and south to a saddle, then up through snow to the Rampoldalm where I enjoyed my oatmeal breakfast. Then to the Lechneralm, which was a pretty snowy place. Here I headed down a road to the Breitenberghütte Naturfreundehaus, thinking vaguely that I can get a coffee if it was open. But darn, it was only 8:40 and they open at 10. So I climbed back up to hit my way into the valley with the Wendelstein railroad. I hadn't seen anyone and felt quite alone on these lonely backroads.

Here I made a mistake, losing the road going down into the valley somehow at a beautiful little meadow. For the next hour I tried to find it by descending the steep forest from the meadow, then giving up. I saw a person on the opposite side of the meadow (rather astonishing), and that made me think they came up from a trail over there. So I wandered over. I got to them and they said they know nothing about the area and came from the other side. Oh! So I finally decided to just descend the steep forest until I hit the trail, it must be down there.

This was a little bit dumb. It was extremely steep. I kept myself above a tree as much as possible so that if I fell I would hit the tree. Finally I was facing into the mountain and digging in with my fingernails, now black with dirt. In this dark, steep and rocky forest, I finally reached the road. I should have backtracked to the beginning of the meadow...it wouldn't have taken longer!

Anyway, I came down to the middle-station for the trail, then started very steeply back uphill to reach the Mailalm. I ate an early lunch at a beautiful eagle-shaped bench above the meadow.

Now it was a torturous walk up the road through snow that would constantly break through. Ugh! Eventually it emerged on a sunny hillside and I met an older man here who asked where I was from. As we talked two skiers came (somehow) down the north side of Wendelstein...crazy! I continued over the pass, visited the Reindleralm because I was tired of walking in snow and the road that was was bare.

After a brief rest, I descended a steep trail back into the Jenbachtal. Happily, I could cut the trail in snow and avoid the mess of post-holes caused by the boots of other hikers. It was an icy, slippery, rocky and rooty time of the day. After a trail traversing to the west I was shocked to see an impressive waterfall over a cliff -- where the trail was supposed to be! I could see the trail on the other side of the rocky fall, and I could see that the tracks I'd been following in the snow abruptly ended here. It seems that the trail had fallen away in recent years. There was no way I was getting across that!

Sigh, what to do...hmm...okay I'll descend the forest on my side of the river, hope to cross at a better point, then meet the switchbacks of the trail on the other side after a brief cross-country traverse. This worked out well...crossing on big, mossy rocks, then climbing the opposite bank with the aid of friendly roots. I walked road down to a point where I could turn back up to reach the high country again at the Steingrabner Alm under the north side of Breitenstein. Tiredly, I started up the road, happy that this was my last real climb of the day!

A bit more heartbreaking breakable snow came when I took a trail shortcut for a while under the dripping, icy walls of the Breitenstein. Someone had been here weeks before, and their tracks were useful, though oddly, filled with leaves. So...hiker came...wind storm came...then me. Since there was no snow since February, that describes the last month of this trail. I got to the alm and was so tired. I blew up my sleeping pad and lay down. It was 14:45 and with all the up and down and snow, I was pretty exhausted!

Finally, it was time to move. One last struggle with snow and difficult trail traversing under the north side of Breitenstein (in a region called the Steinklammern), then it was a heavenly journey down dry ground to the Gasthof Schwaigeralm. This was my re-entry to civilization, with the mask and the ID and the vaccine passport so I could get a beer. Then the walk for hours, watching the sun go down on my left as I entered the dark Osterbach, this time travelling the right side to the charming little bridge below the Catholic youth group building (inside, bright young people were sitting down to dinner).