The end of 2015 also remained without significant snowfall, even high up in the Swiss Alps, thus concluding a very mild year overall. From Hüttlisboden (1,510 m), which at this time is usually a beautiful resting spot on the popular ski tour to Gulmen (1,798 m), I gaze at the sunset over the Glarus Alps behind the deep, fog-filled valley floor with Lake Walen. Read more
After a sunny and mild November day in the Steinernes Meer, I lay on the veranda in front of the Ingolstädterhaus and looked up at the star-studded night sky with the Milky Way and occasional shooting stars. Professional photographers would call it good timing; for me, it’s simply luck to be in the right place at the right time – this time during a new moon on a cloudless night with high pressure and clear air at a mountain hut at 2,119 m altitude – such unique experiences are gifts and make up the essence of travel. Read more
On a sunny late autumn day in November 2015, I visited the Ingolstädter Haus in the Steinernes Meer, which is located at 2,119 m at the Dießbachscharte and is overlooked by the local mountain “Großer Hundstod” (2,593 m). The mountain hut’s location on the pass offers a magnificent view of the mountains of the Berchtesgaden National Park, the Hochkönig or mountain groups such as the Loferer Steinberge and Wilder Kaiser. Read more
Funtensee and Kärlingerhaus, a mountain hut belonging to the German Alpine Club, are located in a wonderfully beautiful mountain landscape within Berchtesgaden National Park, offering magnificent hiking and mountain tours. Consequently, the hut is very popular, if not often overcrowded, during the summer months. It’s quieter in late autumn, when fewer hikers are out due to shorter days and closed huts, and they have to stay overnight as self-caterers in the hut’s winter room – which I found to be comfortably equipped. Read more
Late September 2015 brought a special full moon night: the full moon not only appeared larger due to its closer proximity to Earth, but it also passed through the Earth’s shadow that night, leading to a lunar eclipse and a so-called “Blood Moon” – a moon coloured red by rays deflected by the Earth. Read more
When even the sheep prefer a patch of old snow to the lush, flowering alpine meadows, it’s a sure sign of a sunny and hot mountain summer. This brings me to the question: can a sheep actually sweat? Read more
The midsummer weather at the beginning of July 2015 brought plenty of sunshine and unusually warm temperatures, even in higher mountain regions like here at the Totalphütte at 2,385 m in the Rätikon. The cumulus clouds piled high in the warm air over the Swiss mountains, as well as the peaks of the Kirchlispitzen and Drusenfluh (2,827 m), glowed colourfully in the last light of the sunset, while the full moon simultaneously rose above the horizon – what a show! Read more
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