Since 2016, I had invited Mike, one of the Oxford Munro baggers, to come over to Munich. On the first November weekend 2019, it finally happened. In the run up it looked like a rainy weekend but then the forecast improved for All Saints, the 1st of November, which is a public holiday in Bavaria. We left Munich at 8 am and by 9 am we had reached Ellmau on the South Side of the Wilder Kaiser and ascended the toll (Maut) road to the Wochenbrunner Alm. Whilst the glen was foggy, we soon left the clouds to walk through an autumnal beech tree forest...
... that filtered the rays of sun light.
The weather was not November weather at all. I had to remove my long jumper and just wore my T-shirt. We then reached the Gruttenhütte (1620 m) above the cloud inversion that was by now melting in the November sunlight.
Here is Mike at the hut which was already closed for winter.
Above is the Schotterkar and the South walls of the Ellmauer Halt, the largest peak in the Wilder Kaiser range.
The Gansänger-Steig traverses from right to left or East to West on the grassy bands.
Here is Mike on one of the exposed bits which are secured by steel cables.
Here, Mike has nearly reached the end of the traverse which is marked by a notch.
Next comes the so-called Jägerwandtreppe. It seems over the top but the ground below is lose and presumably prone to rock fall.
The first snow appears and to the West is the Treffauer, another prominent Wilder Kaiser peak.
Fun scrambling. Luckily the sunshine had melted all ice that might have formed at night.
Soon a face with a steep crack appears. However, the iron men and women had added plenty of iron steps and secured it with a steel cable so that the scrambling was like climbing a ladder.
The steel cables continued...
... to reach a snowy path that led...
...
... via a shelter...
... to the last cable-secured scramble.
Here is Mike just below the summit...
... and here Mike reaches the Ellmauer Halt (2344 m).
To the North lies the Totenkirchl west wall, one of the best climbing faces in the Northern limestone alps.
Here is Mike at the summit...
... here is the summit cross...
... and here is the view to the high peaks in the South. I think the highest is the Großglockner (3798 m), the highest peak in Austria.
After that a long descent again through the beautiful autumn forest.
A November mountain scramble in a T-shirt. Who would have thought that?
HW
