Friday 14th June: Weather: 13°C to 22°C: cool with blue skies and sunny all day, hot in afternoon
Binsalm to Karwendelhaus: 20.8k from 7.45am to 4.45pm: 9hrs with 2 x 30 min breaks
Accommodation: Karwendelhaus Hutte
Leaving Binsalm at 7.45am
Up to Hohljoch where we’re going
Engalm with it’s 700 cows
Ibex frolicking in snow
On the way up to Hohljoch at 1794m
Ian at Hohljoch 1794m
Morning tea at Hohljocj
Track across scree doesn’t look good
Better to go down to Lalidersalm
Then up to Falkenhutte at 1848m
Falkenhutte, 6 million euro renno
This was a good track NOT to take
Snow 2m cut by workers
Lunch at absentee landlords hut
Down to the Karwendaltal
Cold water feet wash after hot walk
Steep uphill to Karwendelhaus
Looking back at Falkenhutte
Chamois: Here’s looking at you kid
21k later at Karwendelhaus
Tomorrow’s walk down to Sharnitz
Apple Strudel Karwendel style
A stupendous day, as good as it gets, with fabulous alp views on a sunny blue sky day! We’re not sure if we can cross into the Karwendel Mountains from Binsalm beause of the deep snow. But a group of 5 Italian hikers are going there so we're prepared to have a go, with backup if needed. Truth is, we did do the 20.8k walk via the high route into Karwendeltal, and we never saw hide nor hair of this group again, and as I write, they hadn’t yet turned up at Karwendalhaus!! Our highlight was getting to Hohljoch at 1794m, then on to the Falkenhutte at 1848m, choosing paths that were on the south side of mountains where we could see there was less snow. This area of Karwendel is so magnificent and so popular that Falkenhutte is undergoing a 6 million Euro renovation. Finally we get to Karwendelhaus at the end of a long day.
We’re awake at 6am and have a cup of Jetboiled tea before packing ready to leave early for a long day, 27k if necessary. Breakfast is at 7.30am and we’re the first there. The coffee is cold but the yoghurt is home made from their own cows and almost makes up for the cold coffee. We’re away at 7.45am.
It’s a 300m descent to Engalm on a cool blue sky day at 13°C, where there’s a beautiful green pasture with supposedly 700 cows (so the Cicerone book tells us). An hour later and we’ve started the steep uphill climb through the forest. There’s snow on the other side of the gully, but not our side which is good, and we can see a herd of ibex frolicking on the large snow drift. Another hour of steep ascent and we’re happy to arrive at our first hurdle, Hohljoch at 1794m where a large deep snow drift has spread around the yellow direction sign. Time for a cup of coffee on the seat just out of the wind, contemplating our next move.
We have the choice of the mid level path across the scree at the bottom of the Laliderer Spitz, a giant 1000m wall of sheer cliff blocking the sun, or going even lower into the valley to the hamlet of Lalidersalm then up even higher to Falkenhutte. We can see two hikers ahead of us on the scree route and it doesn’t look good. They’re going very very slowly. We’re prepared to take the down and up track taking an hour longer to be safe.
There’s still snow on this track down, but crossable, and soon we’re at the bottom, across the stony creek bed and heading up the zig zag path to Falken Hutte. This hut is undergoing a 6 million Euro renovation, and is closed for this season, hence our stop at Binsalm instead of here. It’s in a strategic location the Karwendel Mountains, with magical views to the massive walls of the Karwendel. We’re lucky! As the renovation has meant that the construction workers have maintained the road on the other side, keeping it free of snow and land slips.
There’s a crane in place and a couple of workers unloading roofing shingles when we pass, so we’re confident that if they’ve come up, we can go down. As we suspected the road down is clear of scree and snow, and clearly they’ve cut through snow drifts almost 2m high to allow passage of the construction vehicles. It’s 1.30pm by the time we’ve descended past what we considered the most snow-bound section, and we’re starving when we see a collection of huts, one of which has a table and chairs outside. The shutters are closed so it’s clearly an absentee landlord, and we make ourselves at home on his verandah. Lunch of 3 day old bread, cheese and tomatoes from Maurach, with a cup of tea.
Continuing down the road to a junction of several paths at Kleiner Ahornboden, we’re hot and thirsty, as the day has warmed up to what feels like 30°C in the strong UV sun, but is only 22°C. We’ve already been walking for 6 hours, and stop for a short break, dipping our feet in the freezing cold mountain stream. Then up through the forest track along the Karwendeltal for another one and a half hours, shuffling through many snow drifts on the path, and seeing several chamois on the meadows.
It’s 4.45pm and we’ve been on the go for 9 hours with two breaks of 30 minutes each, when we finally arrive at Karwendelhaus, a German hut DAV (Deutsch Alpin Verein) whih holds 180 people. But the hut only opened yesterday for teh season so tonight there’s only about 60 people here. The warden speaks English very well and soon we’re in our 4 person dorm looking for the wash room - no shower. We make the most of the luke warm water, a face washer and hand towel before heading down to the dining room for a beer while sorting our fabulous photos for the day.
Dinner is a la carte which suits us fine. So we choose a a knodel, an orange sized compressed ball of meat/cheese/egges and whatever else, with sauer kraut, a side salad and apple strudel with cream - to share between us as German/Austrian meals tend to be large. The dining room fills with about 6o people, and at 7pm our 5 friends from Binsalm finally turn up, so we’ll ask them which way they came.
No one else has turned up in our 4 person dorm so we'll have a quiet night. It’s cold upstairs and I pinch the extra blankets from the two spare beds. 9pm and we’re in bed.