Marco and I know for many years as we were triathletes in Peine, a town in Northern Germany. He now lives near the Lago di Garda with his Italian wife, two daughters and Heidi the dog. As we are now living near the Alps, we meet regularly. This time, Marco had suggested the Hochfeiler (3510 m), the highest peak of the Zillertaler Alps right on the border between Austria and Italy. We met in Sterzing for lunch and on a wet Sunday, we walked up the Pfitschertal to the Hochfeilerhütte. Here is Heidi the dog, inspecting the lush glen.
Higher up in the glen we got into a thunderstorm and battled our way to the Hochfeilerhütte at 2715 m (more than twice the height of the Ben). Its a really nice Alpine hut with young staff which feels very different than the secret howff (both are superb in their opposite ways): https://www.alpenvereinaktiv.com/de/bewirtschaftete-huette/hochfeilerhuette/7026248/
We had the winter room for ourselves and after dinner and beers we had an early night and rose at 5.50 h, had breakfast just after 6 h and started walking at 6.40 h. Here is the way to the ridge that the rises to the right to the summit of the Hochfeiler. Heidi is in the front and "boyfriend" (aka the shy hut dog) is behind.
We soon reached the first snow. Heidi is a real mountain dog and loved it.
In this picture, the lower part of the ridge protrudes in the distance whilst Marco ascends a snowfield.
Ahead is the summit, 800 m above the hut at 3510 m. Good that we had crampons and an ice axe. There was a strong, gusting wind and clouds flew over the hill, like during a Scottish winter's day.
Here are Marco and Heidi making the summit...
... and here are Marco, Heidi and myself at the summit cross.
Clouds came and went. Here is Heidi, who had a super day, at the start of the descent.
And here Marco reached a place with sun, less wind.
I took crampons off and put my shorts on.
Higher up in the glen we got into a thunderstorm and battled our way to the Hochfeilerhütte at 2715 m (more than twice the height of the Ben). Its a really nice Alpine hut with young staff which feels very different than the secret howff (both are superb in their opposite ways): https://www.alpenvereinaktiv.com/de/bewirtschaftete-huette/hochfeilerhuette/7026248/
We had the winter room for ourselves and after dinner and beers we had an early night and rose at 5.50 h, had breakfast just after 6 h and started walking at 6.40 h. Here is the way to the ridge that the rises to the right to the summit of the Hochfeiler. Heidi is in the front and "boyfriend" (aka the shy hut dog) is behind.
We soon reached the first snow. Heidi is a real mountain dog and loved it.
In this picture, the lower part of the ridge protrudes in the distance whilst Marco ascends a snowfield.
Ahead is the summit, 800 m above the hut at 3510 m. Good that we had crampons and an ice axe. There was a strong, gusting wind and clouds flew over the hill, like during a Scottish winter's day.
Here are Marco and Heidi making the summit...
... and here are Marco, Heidi and myself at the summit cross.
Clouds came and went. Here is Heidi, who had a super day, at the start of the descent.
And here Marco reached a place with sun, less wind.
I took crampons off and put my shorts on.
Here, we reach the lower slopes of the Hochfeilder ridge with the Hochfeiler hut in the glen below.
We had a 1 h break and a second breakfast. May my chief cardiologist ignore the next picture, please?
After that we descended back to the car. After the white and then grey upper slopes of the mountains, green and the omnipresent Alpine Gentian reappeared.
Here, we approach the tree line...
... and soon entered a world of warm, lush green...
... to reach our cars.
A wee bit of mandatory Italian food shopping, over the Brenner and back in Munich in under 3 h.
HW
