Midnight Hiking in the Alps



Untersberg



view from halfway up Untersberg

Yesterday was Friday. I was looking forward to back-to-back days of biking to train for my upcoming Rad Marathon, however the weather wasn't looking too promising for Saturday. In fact, Ronan's school sports day, which was scheduled for Saturday, was canceled. So I figured biking might not be an option. Then I got a call from our new friend Thomas, the father of one of Ronan's friends from school. I've been biking with him a few times and our families play pick-up soccer together. Last Friday, we went cycling along with his brother-in-law and another friend. He told me to bring my bathing suit, so I did. I really didn't expect to go swimming, but we ended up at a Badesee (swimming lake) and I ended up getting talked into swimming across the lake and back. Got home and felt like I had done 2/3 of a triathalon. Thomas is the kind of person who pushes you into doing things you're not sure you want to do, but once you've done them, you're glad you did it.

So when he called yesterday and proposed that James and I join him, his wife, and another friend on an evening hike, I had an inkling of what I might be getting into. He said we leave at 5:00 pm when you're done with work, Ronan can stay with our kids, we'll hike 3 hours up the mountain and 2 hours down in the dark, back at the car around 11 pm and home by midnight, weather report looks good, should be a good view. He said it was not a dangerous mountain, he hikes it all the time, just bring good shoes, a snack and lots of water. Since the weather had cleared up that afternoon and stopped raining, James and I agreed we should just go for it.

We arrived at Thomas's house just at 5pm and were off to a late start cause Ronan got slightly lost on his bike on the way there. Off we went in their VW van toward Salzburg. The mountain in question on this adventure is called Untersberg. It lies just to the north of Salzburg.

Thomas said it would be a nice leisurely hike up and then back down the mountain. Well, leisurely it was not. First of all, due to the late start, he opted that we take the ski piste trail instead of the switchbacks. This meant that we were hiking fairly much straight upwards for the first 500 meters, then we got onto the forest trail, which was not near as steep and made for good going, but then it led back to the ski trail and back to hiking on a step incline, mix of grass, rock, and skree. James and I were able to keep up, barely. They hiked at a good pace and have clearly done this hike many times. In fact, Monica, Thomas' wife told me that he often bikes to the mountain from Burghausen, hikes it and then bikes home (50 hilly kms each way). This guy also bikes from Burghausen to Croatia (700kms) in three days going practically non-stop and doing at least two mountain passes along the way. So he is pretty darn fit. In fact, he's invited me to go with him on his next trip to Croatia, but I'm pretty sure I'm not ready for that adventure yet.

Anyway, back to the mountain. It took well over three hours to get to the peak, we made it by about 10:30 pm after Thomas telling us about 4 times that it was just another 20 minutes. I was so ready to stop at the first peak, but he insisted we go all the way to the Hochthron (main peak). We did get a fabulous view of Salzburg, which was lit up like a Christmas tree and we could see the line of traffic on the Munich autobahn.



 

 While enjoying the view, it was all I could do not to think about how hard it was going to be to descend in the dark. I tend to go a lot slower going down than up. I didn't have ankle-high hiking boots, which I knew was going to be a problem. I was worried that I'd twist or break an ankle on the skree going down. The Austrians all had these hiking poles, neither James nor I did, big disadvantage on the way down. Instead of snacking at the top, we decided we'd go back to the Berghuetten halfway down the mountain to snack, then we'd have a good bit of the descent behind us. Surprisingly we had quite a lot of light still at the beginning of our descent, it wasn't quite proper dark and we had the glare of the city lights to help us. Unfortunately, I did not underestimate the discomfort of the descent. By about a quarter of the way down, my thighs were burning and my pace slowed. The rest of the group waited for me at each turn. It was important to stick together at this point. There really was nothing to do but keep going, intensely focused on each step and where I placed my feet. I did fall a few times, but it was those slow motion falls that you can brace for as you're going down. Made it to the Berghuette (mountain hut used in the winter by skiers) where we snacked and rested, and where it began to lightly rain.

The remainder of the descent was even more difficult because once we got below the treeline, we no longer benefited from the glare of the city lights and the rain made the grass and rocks wet and slippery. I did some good butt-sliding because my thighs were just giving out, I had a bad case of jelly legs. We eventually and miraculously (to me) made it to the dirt road which we chose to take the rest of the way, even though it was slightly longer, instead of continuing down the steep ski trail. I don't think my legs could have handled any more of the steepness and I was grateful for the mild incline of the road. Thomas told me they hike this mountain in winter, equipped with plastic bags, which they then use to sled down the mountain in about 20 minutes. That sounded much better to me than hiking it down. Finally, we all made it back to the car, tired and exhausted, but safe and sound, by 1 am. Wow, 6 1/2 hours of hiking. Can't remember the last time I've done a hike that steep and that long. Needless to say I'm having trouble getting around today, hope it rains tomorrow, so I don't have to do my bike training.

I have to say that these folks who live in the or near the Alps are a hearty, tough, physically fit people, I thought we in the northwest were tough, but I've been put in my place. Nothing like knowing there's lots of room for improvement. Hmm, I might have to go biking tomorrow after all.

p.s. When we picked Ronan up from Thomas's house today, Thomas had just come back from jogging, Monica was off jogging in the evening, and they wanted to know if we want to play football on Sunday. See what I mean by tough? Thomas is already talking about our next hiking and biking adventure. Well, I now definitely know what to expect and hopefully me and my thighs will be ready.

James at the top of Untersberg