After a rather strict curfew in most European countries, SARS-CoV-2 seems to be temporarily under control and many countries re-opened their borders. Being desperate for mountains and traveling, we planned a "Yeti-hiking-biking-bouldering-trip" through the Austrian Alps, roughly from Innsbruck to Villach.
However, often things tend to end up differently than planned, especially when traveling the Alps where good weather is needed for all sorts of sports. So it came that we actually started our tour where it was planned to end, in Villach, and didn't tour the Austrian Alps, but explored Slovenia, Croatia, and Italy instead... .
The long 7 hours trip from Basel to Villach was only interrupted by a delicious dinner in a Bavarian Biergarten in "Günz an der Günz", where I chose the only vegetarian dish on the menu: "Kässpätzle", and Micha had "Maibock" – although it was already end of June.. .
We stayed the night at a rest area shortly before the Millstätter See, a lake north-west of Villach, where we planned a mountain bike tour in the "Nockberge" for the following day. The trails "Rossalmhüttentrail" and "Alter-Almweg-Trail" were recommended in an old bike magazine and turned out to be a great choice! After a strenuous ascent, the 10 km trails led us 1,300 m down through first smooth and flowy and later bumpy and technical sections.
In the evening we checked in at a huge but comfy campsite directly at the Ossiacher lake next to Villach, where we also met my old PhD friend Ingrid who came from Graz to join us for a day at the lake. We made good use of all the amenities of the camping - had a hearty breakfast, played mini golf, and swam excitedly in the refreshing lake. It was good to fill up a lot of energy for the exhausting activities that should follow in the next two days...
Namely: the mountain "Triglav", with an elevation of 2,863 metres the highest mountain in Slovenia and the highest peak of the Julian Alps. It was just a short ride through the Karawanks tunnel to the starting point of the hike in the naturally wild "Krma" valley. Equipped with plenty of water and energy bars we wandered along endless veins of flawless white limestone, under yellow roofs of laburnum, surrounded only by dark green spruces. Around every corner we expected to see a big wild bear or a howling wolf, but the only animals showing themselves were lots and lots of humming insects, clumsy marmots, and brave chamois.
After little more than half of the distance of the hike, the landscape changed. It became steeper, barren and rocky, and clearly more exhausting. After about another hour, we reached a small saddle from where we could finally see the mountain hut "Triglavski dom na Kredarici" at 2,500 meters at which we planned to stay the night. Once we reached the hut, we were relieved to put up our feet and to enjoy a cool "Radler" – all in the certainty that we had achieved today's goal. The remaining 300 meters to the summit we planned to tackle the next day.
Haha, but far from it! A look at the weather forecast revealed that the next day would not only bring clouds but also some rain. Bummer, what a pity we thought.. . But then the hut warden reproachfully suggested: "Why don't you go now - one hour up, one down, no problem". No sooner said than done. Beer gone, hiking boots on again, and off we went. First we climbed up a steep snow field, then we traversed into the rock face that led up to the summit ridge. Almost the whole route is secured with iron pins and steel cables. Nevertheless, it is not a via ferrata and the exposed nature of the path is great fun, but also requires strong nerves. We actually reached the top with the characteristic "Aljaž Tower", a storm shelter constructed in 1895, after about an hour and we were lucky enough to have the peak all to ourselves. That was the reward of our late evening ascent :) We enjoyed the great vista and the absolute stillness. No wind, no airplanes, no other mountaineers – there was nothing to break the calmness and stunningness of the mountain top.. .
We also made it back down to the hut with in the predicted one hour so that we were just in time for dinner and for a golden sunset before the cold night. The next day was then rather easy and although cloudy, not as rainy as expected. By noon we were back at the parking and could explore the Triglav National Park a little more by car.
We followed the pristine "Pišnica" river up to the 1,611 m high "Vršič" road pass. In Slovenia, this road is also known as the "Russian Road", because it was originally built for military purposes by over 10,000 Russian prisoners in the early 19th century. On the other side of the pass the road descends into the beautiful Soča valley, but we decided to leave the Soča for another trip and instead headed back to Austria where we had left our bikes in the security of the fancy campsite. To replenish the lost calories, we rewarded ourselves with a tasty pizza and "Kärntner Fleischnudel" – which turned out to be nothing else than the Austrian counterpart of "Schwäbische Maultaschen" – at the local restaurant.
For the next days we had planned to do some more mountainbiking and via ferratas in the area and then slowly start heading west again to explore the "Hohe Tauern" mountain area. But well, the weather forecast predicted rain again and this time the rain actually came big time. Another consultation of the rain radar showed that the whole Alps, from east to west, were affected by heavy rain and thunderstorms forecasted to last some days.. . Hm.. pretty bad conditions for being in the mountains. But after some checking of maps and weather forecasts, we found the perfect solution: the Croatian coast with sun and plesant 28 degrees was only a 2.5 hours drive away.. . No sooner said than done. ;)
Along the way we intended to visit the "Postojna" caves, Slovenia's largest cave system where you can also see olms, blind aquatic salamanders that can grow extremely old. But the parking of the site was entirely filled up – due to the Slovenian national day as we later found out. We skipped the olm and instead visited the Slovene Mediterranean coast before heading towards Croatia.
In Croatia, our aim was the island "Krk", where Micha had some faint memories from holidays in the 80s with his parents at a FKK campsite. The FKK campsite actually still existed, but we were not to eager to look at naked people, so we decided to go to a "normal" campsite. It was another fancy but not too big campsite, with swallows nesting in the bathroom, "private" beach, Stand-Up-Paddle (SUP) rental, and some rocks to boulder along the coast. Argh, so relaxing! I decided to spend a full day at the beach, did some reading, a lot of swimming, an hour of SUP to better observe the many fishes in the bristine water, and more swimming. Micha couldn't keep still and did some hiking over the island during which he discovered a beach-site restaurant in "Stara Baška" at which we later enjoyed the sun set and a tasty dinner.
As wonderful as it was, one day at the beach was – even for me – enough, so we decided to go on a mountain bike tour over the island plateau to Baška for the next day. It was a lovely, but hot and sweaty tour, and we were glad when at half time we could cool down a bit in the sea.
After only three days in the heat, we were ready again to get back to some Alpine climate ;) Unfortunately however, the weather was not really improving. We stayed another night at another campsite on Krk island, did some sightseeing in "Rijeka", the European Capital of Culture 2020, and then decided to head towards "Lago di Garda" in Italy – due to its location along the way home, mountains, and a not all-bad weather forecast.
The area around the town "Arco", at the northern end of Lago di Garda is a famous climbing spot. However, we didn't bring any climbing equipment, other than shoes and the crash pad for bouldering. So, instead of staying at the lake, we headed about an hour further north-west into a secluded valley called "Valle di Daone", or "little Canada" by the locals. The end of the valley extends into the fantastic "Parco Naturale Adamello Brenta", a large protected area and geopark including the Adamello massif and the amazing landscape of the "Dolomiti di Brenta", which gave the park its name. It was still a bit too early in the year to climb the Monte Adamello (3539 m), which piled up at the end of the valley with its dazzling glacier, but we found a nice and in parts challenging mountain bike tour in the valley floor leading to the hut "Val di Fumo", where we enjoyed a delicious lunch.
The rest of our time in the valley was well spent exploring the many magnificent granite boulder blocks. I still think that the bouldering areas in Ticino are among the best in the world, but this tiny, little known valley has an enourmous amount of world-class boulders in all levels of difficulty. The granite is as smooth as granite can be, and the forms are manifold, from steep overhangs with round slopers to high-friction slabs and tiny crimps. We were so fascinated and had so much fun trying the boulders, that we didn't climb anything harder than grade 6, but of those we did plenty... .
Well, and then – just after we did some washing of our dirty cloths – rain came again... . Since we were already near Switzerland, we decided to end the holidays with this teriffic bouldering, do some grocery shopping of Italian delicacies, and drive home to be ready for the weekend, which promised good weather and sun again.. .
This was a wonderful trip where we discovered many new areas that we didn't know before, and which we certainly did not visit for the last time
However, often things tend to end up differently than planned, especially when traveling the Alps where good weather is needed for all sorts of sports. So it came that we actually started our tour where it was planned to end, in Villach, and didn't tour the Austrian Alps, but explored Slovenia, Croatia, and Italy instead... .
The long 7 hours trip from Basel to Villach was only interrupted by a delicious dinner in a Bavarian Biergarten in "Günz an der Günz", where I chose the only vegetarian dish on the menu: "Kässpätzle", and Micha had "Maibock" – although it was already end of June.. .
We stayed the night at a rest area shortly before the Millstätter See, a lake north-west of Villach, where we planned a mountain bike tour in the "Nockberge" for the following day. The trails "Rossalmhüttentrail" and "Alter-Almweg-Trail" were recommended in an old bike magazine and turned out to be a great choice! After a strenuous ascent, the 10 km trails led us 1,300 m down through first smooth and flowy and later bumpy and technical sections.
In the evening we checked in at a huge but comfy campsite directly at the Ossiacher lake next to Villach, where we also met my old PhD friend Ingrid who came from Graz to join us for a day at the lake. We made good use of all the amenities of the camping - had a hearty breakfast, played mini golf, and swam excitedly in the refreshing lake. It was good to fill up a lot of energy for the exhausting activities that should follow in the next two days...
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After little more than half of the distance of the hike, the landscape changed. It became steeper, barren and rocky, and clearly more exhausting. After about another hour, we reached a small saddle from where we could finally see the mountain hut "Triglavski dom na Kredarici" at 2,500 meters at which we planned to stay the night. Once we reached the hut, we were relieved to put up our feet and to enjoy a cool "Radler" – all in the certainty that we had achieved today's goal. The remaining 300 meters to the summit we planned to tackle the next day.
Haha, but far from it! A look at the weather forecast revealed that the next day would not only bring clouds but also some rain. Bummer, what a pity we thought.. . But then the hut warden reproachfully suggested: "Why don't you go now - one hour up, one down, no problem". No sooner said than done. Beer gone, hiking boots on again, and off we went. First we climbed up a steep snow field, then we traversed into the rock face that led up to the summit ridge. Almost the whole route is secured with iron pins and steel cables. Nevertheless, it is not a via ferrata and the exposed nature of the path is great fun, but also requires strong nerves. We actually reached the top with the characteristic "Aljaž Tower", a storm shelter constructed in 1895, after about an hour and we were lucky enough to have the peak all to ourselves. That was the reward of our late evening ascent :) We enjoyed the great vista and the absolute stillness. No wind, no airplanes, no other mountaineers – there was nothing to break the calmness and stunningness of the mountain top.. .
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We also made it back down to the hut with in the predicted one hour so that we were just in time for dinner and for a golden sunset before the cold night. The next day was then rather easy and although cloudy, not as rainy as expected. By noon we were back at the parking and could explore the Triglav National Park a little more by car.
We followed the pristine "Pišnica" river up to the 1,611 m high "Vršič" road pass. In Slovenia, this road is also known as the "Russian Road", because it was originally built for military purposes by over 10,000 Russian prisoners in the early 19th century. On the other side of the pass the road descends into the beautiful Soča valley, but we decided to leave the Soča for another trip and instead headed back to Austria where we had left our bikes in the security of the fancy campsite. To replenish the lost calories, we rewarded ourselves with a tasty pizza and "Kärntner Fleischnudel" – which turned out to be nothing else than the Austrian counterpart of "Schwäbische Maultaschen" – at the local restaurant.
|
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For the next days we had planned to do some more mountainbiking and via ferratas in the area and then slowly start heading west again to explore the "Hohe Tauern" mountain area. But well, the weather forecast predicted rain again and this time the rain actually came big time. Another consultation of the rain radar showed that the whole Alps, from east to west, were affected by heavy rain and thunderstorms forecasted to last some days.. . Hm.. pretty bad conditions for being in the mountains. But after some checking of maps and weather forecasts, we found the perfect solution: the Croatian coast with sun and plesant 28 degrees was only a 2.5 hours drive away.. . No sooner said than done. ;)
Along the way we intended to visit the "Postojna" caves, Slovenia's largest cave system where you can also see olms, blind aquatic salamanders that can grow extremely old. But the parking of the site was entirely filled up – due to the Slovenian national day as we later found out. We skipped the olm and instead visited the Slovene Mediterranean coast before heading towards Croatia.
In Croatia, our aim was the island "Krk", where Micha had some faint memories from holidays in the 80s with his parents at a FKK campsite. The FKK campsite actually still existed, but we were not to eager to look at naked people, so we decided to go to a "normal" campsite. It was another fancy but not too big campsite, with swallows nesting in the bathroom, "private" beach, Stand-Up-Paddle (SUP) rental, and some rocks to boulder along the coast. Argh, so relaxing! I decided to spend a full day at the beach, did some reading, a lot of swimming, an hour of SUP to better observe the many fishes in the bristine water, and more swimming. Micha couldn't keep still and did some hiking over the island during which he discovered a beach-site restaurant in "Stara Baška" at which we later enjoyed the sun set and a tasty dinner.
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As wonderful as it was, one day at the beach was – even for me – enough, so we decided to go on a mountain bike tour over the island plateau to Baška for the next day. It was a lovely, but hot and sweaty tour, and we were glad when at half time we could cool down a bit in the sea.
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After only three days in the heat, we were ready again to get back to some Alpine climate ;) Unfortunately however, the weather was not really improving. We stayed another night at another campsite on Krk island, did some sightseeing in "Rijeka", the European Capital of Culture 2020, and then decided to head towards "Lago di Garda" in Italy – due to its location along the way home, mountains, and a not all-bad weather forecast.
The area around the town "Arco", at the northern end of Lago di Garda is a famous climbing spot. However, we didn't bring any climbing equipment, other than shoes and the crash pad for bouldering. So, instead of staying at the lake, we headed about an hour further north-west into a secluded valley called "Valle di Daone", or "little Canada" by the locals. The end of the valley extends into the fantastic "Parco Naturale Adamello Brenta", a large protected area and geopark including the Adamello massif and the amazing landscape of the "Dolomiti di Brenta", which gave the park its name. It was still a bit too early in the year to climb the Monte Adamello (3539 m), which piled up at the end of the valley with its dazzling glacier, but we found a nice and in parts challenging mountain bike tour in the valley floor leading to the hut "Val di Fumo", where we enjoyed a delicious lunch.
|
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The rest of our time in the valley was well spent exploring the many magnificent granite boulder blocks. I still think that the bouldering areas in Ticino are among the best in the world, but this tiny, little known valley has an enourmous amount of world-class boulders in all levels of difficulty. The granite is as smooth as granite can be, and the forms are manifold, from steep overhangs with round slopers to high-friction slabs and tiny crimps. We were so fascinated and had so much fun trying the boulders, that we didn't climb anything harder than grade 6, but of those we did plenty... .
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Well, and then – just after we did some washing of our dirty cloths – rain came again... . Since we were already near Switzerland, we decided to end the holidays with this teriffic bouldering, do some grocery shopping of Italian delicacies, and drive home to be ready for the weekend, which promised good weather and sun again.. .
|
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This was a wonderful trip where we discovered many new areas that we didn't know before, and which we certainly did not visit for the last time
