The last day of summer dawns

At the summit of the Hinteres Sonnwendjoch, I wait at dawn for the sunrise over the Kaiser Mountains in Tyrol. This would be the last hot summer’s day of the year. Just a few days later, around a metre of snow fell here and on the Ackernalm with the first cold front, ushering in autumn quite abruptly and intensely.

The night was still relatively mild, and the early ascent under a clear starry sky was short with a pleasant gradient. While the north side drops off steeply and rockily, the southern mountain slopes follow the average inclination of the folded rock layers beneath. This can be seen in the mountain ranges on a large scale and the rock structure at the summit on a small scale.

A fresh westerly wind made me look for a sheltered spot behind the rocks at the summit. There, I could relax and follow all the colour transitions of the dawn, from blue and purple to golden yellow and orange, until finally the warming sun appeared over the Kaiser Mountains. The Hinteres Sonnwendjoch (1,986 m) offers a 360-degree panorama from the Bavarian Prealps in the north to the main Alpine ridge in the south. I was still missing the sunrise from this summit, after visits to the Frechjoch or the Veitsberg south of the Ackernalm.

The sunset behind the Schinder on the evening before the ascent ended a warm summer’s day on the meadows of the Ackernalm, still rich in grasses and flowers, where the alpine cows were spending the last days of the season. I always enjoy the different seasons and weather in the mountains, even the uncomfortable sides (properly sheltered) during summer thunderstorms.

Suddenly, festive trumpet sounds echoed across the valley, inviting the alpine farmers and dairy workers to the end-of-season celebration at the mountain inn – the so-called Almkirta. The cattle drive was due in the coming weekends, before the massive snowfall in mid-September thoroughly disrupted all plans.