Sat, Aug 24

Post date: Aug 25, 2013 6:08:35 PM

Tough driving day from Naturns, Italy back north to Innsbruck, Austria to drop off Ian for his flight back to Scotland.

Unbelievable amount of traffic (vacationers) traveling south from Germany/Austria to Italy. We observed over 18 miles of 2-lane, bumper to bumper, stopped traffic. Yes, 35 miles. I have no idea if they even arrived on the same day. Crazy to the max. Thank goodness we were heading north!

1pm: drop off Ian at airport

2pm: Innsbruck -> east to Telfs -> Klamm/Wetterstein for another quick hike (and lodging) near Leutasch.

• parked at trailhead (1150m) and headed back up to the Wetterstein Hutte, then 10 more minutes up to the WalgamHutte (1753m). I called in (last minutes) for reservations ... 20Euro B&B. Nice family runs it.
• 45 minute uphill hike ... quick pace (1968 ft ascend) over 2 miles.

3pm: lots of daylight left, so decided to do one last climb. Weather was moving in, but there was a 2 hr window.

• Walgalm Hutte (1753m/5750 ft) -> straight up through the steep pasture to the pass -> followed ridge and scrambled up Gehrenspitz (2367m/7765 ft).
• Exactly 60 minutes to ascend over 2000 ft to the summit for the suggested 2.5 hr climb. With no pack, and three weeks of getting fit and acclimated, going uphill is actually fun.
• Quick descent in 30 minutes ... actually able to run along the grassy rim for over a mile. Pretty amazing feeling looking thousands of feet down to the valley floor on both sides, and over into Germany and the Zugspite where' we'd been a week before.
• Hot shower and good dinner was well appreciated.
• Met a nice couple who were rock climbing several popular routes on one of the headwalls. They had to rappel rather quickly to descend prior to a typical afternoon thunderstorm arriving. One just pays close attention to the wind direction and cloud formations, and looking for changes of gray to black.

Total: 6.5 miles, 2.5 hrs, 5700' elev +/-

Wangalm Hut. Stayed here my last evening prior to returning to Munich/US.

One last climb up the Gehrenspitz from here. 20Euro, inc. breakfast!