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. Read more
Oimzeit (alpine pasture time) is the most wonderful time – that’s what it says on one of the alpine huts, and I couldn’t agree more. After the cattle drive at the end of last summer, I visited Ackernalm again for the first time this year. Yellow blooming globeflowers shone on the lush green meadows. The cowbells’ jingling can be heard from afar, forming a constant backdrop of sound. In the evening, I sat on the Grabenbergalm below the Fuchsloch in the last rays of the evening sun, looking out at the Schinder, Halserspitz, and Blaubergkamm behind the Brandenberger Ache.
As I set off in the dark of early morning from the car park on the Ackernalm to experience the sunrise on Veitsberg (1,787 m), a car pulled up beside me. A tired young couple in traditional dress wound down the passenger window. A friend had gone missing from the party, and they asked if I had seen a young woman in a dirndl. The music, the laughter, the arriving and departing guests of the celebration at the mountain inn – the Almkirta – had been audible all night. She hadn’t passed my roof tent, and I hadn’t encountered her anywhere else. As I later found out, she had found a safe and cosy hideaway with a handsome young man. Read more
After more than seven years, I returned to the Halserspitz (1,866 m) and the Blaubergkamm in the Tegernsee Mountains. A colleague had never done the wonderful circular tour from Wildbad Kreuth via the Blaubergkamm before. So we arranged a joint hike and set off on a Sunday morning shortly after sunrise from the hikers’ car park behind Wildbad Kreuth. Read more
The Lake Achensee lies like a fjord in a deep incision between the Rofan and Karwendel mountains. On its shores, mountain forests rise steeply towards rocky peaks and ridges, while the villages of Achenkirch, Maurach and Pertisau lie in the flat valley sections amidst still-green meadows. The autumn-coloured larches add splashes of colour to the dark green of the spruce and pine forests. A white veil of clouds hangs in the sky, which has a warm, milky effect on the light of the already low-lying sun and, in combination, creates a light and colour atmosphere that is unique throughout the seasons. Read more
East of Kufstein, the gateway to Tyrol, lies the Kaiser Mountains. The two mountain ranges, Zahmer Kaiser in the north and Wilder Kaiser in the south, are separated by the Kaisertal valley. Most of the mountains are a nature reserve. From Kufstein, an easy path leads up to the Ritzau-Alm and further to the sun terrace of the Vorderkaiserfeldenhütte. From there, on a clear day, you can enjoy a panorama stretching from the Wilder Kaiser over the Zillertal Alps, Inn Valley, Rofan Mountains, Karwendel, all the way to the Wendelstein. Read more
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