Wednesday 5th June: Weather: 12°C to 31°C: Sunny and hot again but 20°C at 2,200m
Innsbruck: Bus to Igls: cable car to Patscherkofel: 15k walk back to Igls: Bus to Innsbruck
Accommodation: Air BnB 2 Leopold Strasse Innsbruck
Innsbruck at 9am and 31°C
Looking back from Cable Car
Cable Car Patscherkofelbahn 1964m
View from Top
Inn Valley from Patscherkofel 2246m
Too much snow track to Tulfeinalm
On top of the world
Lines of Trucks from Brenner Pass
Ian wishing for a cable car down
2 hrs and 1000metres descent
Back to Cable Car at Igls
A fabulous day after a bus to Igls then Cable car to the Patscherkofelbahn (Cable Car Station) then a 300metre climb to the top of Patscherkofel at 2246metres before walking back down to Igls, a descent of 1200 metres.
Our day started at 7am with breakfast of tea, fruity nut mix and yoghurt. Then after booking the 10.17am train from Innsbruck to St Johann for tomorrow (long story), we buy some bread and cheese for today’s lunch at the local Mpreis supermarket and wander up to the Tourist Office. We're hoping to find out more about the snow levels in 2 weeks time on the Lechtaler Aps high above Innsbruck where we hope to walk hut to hut for 7 days on the last stages of the Alderweg. If there’s still snow on the passes, we’ll have to take the valley route which is OK but not as challenging.
The girl at the Tourist Office speaks perfect English - that’s good - but knows nothing about the Alderweg - What is the Alderweg? It’s been a heavily marketed hike in Tirol Austria and we’re surprised she doesn’t know about it, except to say she can still see snow on the mountain tops - derh!! But she was useful in telling us where to catch the J bus to get to the cable car up to the Patscherkofelbahn.
Five minutes later we’re on the J bus to Igls, and getting off a stop too soon, have to walk the 1k up to the start of the new cable car station completed in 2017. It’s brand spanking new and so smooth we’re soon at the top station and discover that the 7k walk we wanted to do across to Tulfeinalm is closed due to potential avalanches - not worth the risk. So after a Jetboiled coffee and apple strudel sitting on a bench seat with fabulous views over the Inn Valley and icing topped alps, we elect to walk to the top of Patscherkofel, a 40 minute hike on a graded track to the telecommunications tower at a height of 2246 metres.
The views are even more stupendous, both up and down the valley. It’s a pleasant 20°C with blue skies, and we can see the Inn Valley motorway carrying a line of trucks exiting the Brenner Pass. Back down to the Bahn station, we decide to walk down to Igls to the bus instead of taking the cable car back down. Of course we should have walked up then got the cable car down but we didn’t know the track across the top would be closed.
It was more of a service road than a track and well graded, with glimpses down the valley through the pine trees. We're still full of apple strudel from coffee at 11.30 and didn’t feel like lunch til 3.30 when we found a seat in the shade as by now after descending into the valley, the temperature had risen above 30°C. Ian’s feet and knees are yearning for a seat in the cable car which hums over head on it’s way down the valley.
By 4.15 we’re at Igls where there’s a bus waiting to leave from the Cable Car start. Perfect timing and 15 minutes later we’re in Innsbruck, stepping out to a hot 32°C. A 10 minute walk down Maria Theresien Strasse, through the Triumphal Arch to our local Mpreis supermarket to buy three beers, then up to our room to wash and sort out clothes for tomorrow. Kathrin is kindly minding a small bag for us with our airline clothes and unwanted gear until we return in 3 weeks.
After washing and packing, Ian watches the State of Origin replay which QLD win 14 - 8, and I blog, trying to catch up on the past few days as there was no space or inclination to drag out my computer on the trains yesterday. It’s 6.30 when we have dinner - the last of our pork, mushrooms, onions and a zucchini. Kathrin's kitchen is just perfect for us with a sit in dining table. In less than 30 minutes, our clothes hanging outside on the balcony rail are dry - that’s how hot it is still.
The weather forecast for the next week is for a complete change with the possibility of rain and temperatures 7°C min to 15°C max. More packing and sorting and and a rethink of the jumper I was going to leave behind and we’re in bed at 9pm.