Have you ever been so throughly discouraged with yourself that you wanted to shamelessly cry, pout, and throw a tantrum like a 4 year old refused dessert? Late in June Dominic decided to take me climbing. To be fair I had pestered him about it being summer and not once being in the Mountains. He suggested a few hikes that I thought were too difficult and agreed on something longer but not so technically challenging. What I thought would be easier ended up almost breaking my desire to ever hike again... almost.
The day started well enough, woke up in good time, had a relaxed breakfast and made our 2 hour drive over to the Austrian Alps. The drive was beautiful dotted with farmhouses, lakes, and of course the mountains. We parked and followed the somewhat confusing direction the trail head. The direction said to walk past the memorial, to those who have died on the hike, but it meant on the main road not the actual path that goes next to the memorial. But yeah a memorial?!?!?! I didn’t think anything of it until later. Now this hike is rate children friendly, so I thought no big deal I got this.
The going up wasn’t picnic in the park easy. It was a pretty quick ascent and challenging. I was breathing hard, not in the best condition, but I expected that, and sweating but for the most part keeping up, and more importantly not quitting.
The actual parts that had ropes to attach on to, we didn’t need, because it was technically not challenging, only conditionally exhausting. Now at this point I’m not bitching, only apologizing for my slowassness, but to be fair for every 2.5 steps for me, is only one step for Dominic. DAMN him and his stork legs! Like seriously how is a hobbit capable of keeping up with an Elf? Oh that’s right by being carried on horseback. Well, I didn’t have any horses only my two feet in very heavy boots. Hiking in boots is definitely new to me. Back in hawaii it was flipflops or sneakers, but I digress. So we are climbing and climbing, drinking water, and basically enjoying the view.
Then like two whales breaching for air, we reach the top of our ascent, and I think “finally I can breath, it’s literally all downhill from here.” But oh no we weren’t finished, we agreed to head over to the actual top marked by A cross. To me it looked 5 mins away, I thought no big deal, then 20 mins later we reach the cross and find a seat. Now we know why Fanchon doesn’t speculate. It was nice to sit, even in the sun, and eat and drink lots of water. At this point I’m still optimistic. I thought the tough part was behind me. I climbed the mountain top and survived, and the view, OH the view was spectacular.
After our pause, we slowly made our descent. In my mind I’m thinking “the descent sucks for the knees”, not realizing how true that thought was. Initially the descent was rocky, then it was really rocky and really steep. It basically was another climb but we did it in reverse. Going down I’m always more cautious than I am climbing up. Something about looking down really gives me a case of the “oh shit, I’m going to fall”. As the steepness of the climb down continued I started to panic it will all be like that... and it was.
My legs were weak and I could feel my knee’s swelling, and so starts my bitching. Now Dominic was a trooper and just let it all slide off his back. I wasn’t directing my anger at him but at the damn mountain. My movements were slow and I felt that I wasn’t getting anywhere. We would walk for about 20 mins and I would think we were almost there just to look down and see that the road was still just a speck in the far distance. We were passed by one guy who was just finishing his hike as we started our descent. Which meant he had a good 2 hr break then started heading down and still passed us. Basically I needed an additional 2.5hours more than the suggested time. It was miserable! And for that reason alone I say this hike was not worth it. If there is an alternative route down, that isn’t so steep and nerve racking, than maybe I would give Berg Traunstein another chance, but for now Berg Traunstein is on my nope list. A silver lining, after the hike we took a nice dip in the freezing lake, which really helped cool the joints.
Recap
1. Trekked up a strenuous 1691m high mountain.
2. It was technically easy and we didn’t need our climbing equipment, and bonus we were in the shade so it wasn’t too hot climbing.
3. The views were beautiful at the top but the actual top, with the cross, is a way’s away from the Alm.
4. The hike down was basically a reverse climb, aka the devil, aka my enemy, aka I hated it.
5. Bonus cold lake water nearby to cool heated joints.
Was it worth it?
uuuhhh that’s a big ol’ nope
My legs were weak and I could feel my knee’s swelling, and so starts my bitching. Now Dominic was a trooper and just let it all slide off his back. I wasn’t directing my anger at him but at the damn mountain. My movements were slow and I felt that I wasn’t getting anywhere. We would walk for about 20 mins and I would think we were almost there just to look down and see that the road was still just a speck in the far distance. We were passed by one guy who was just finishing his hike as we started our descent. Which meant he had a good 2 hr break then started heading down and still passed us. Basically I needed an additional 2.5hours more than the suggested time. It was miserable! And for that reason alone I say this hike was not worth it. If there is an alternative route down, that isn’t so steep and nerve racking, than maybe I would give Berg Traunstein another chance, but for now Berg Traunstein is on my nope list. A silver lining, after the hike we took a nice dip in the freezing lake, which really helped cool the joints.
Recap
1. Trekked up a strenuous 1691m high mountain.
2. It was technically easy and we didn’t need our climbing equipment, and bonus we were in the shade so it wasn’t too hot climbing.
3. The views were beautiful at the top but the actual top, with the cross, is a way’s away from the Alm.
4. The hike down was basically a reverse climb, aka the devil, aka my enemy, aka I hated it.
5. Bonus cold lake water nearby to cool heated joints.
Was it worth it?
uuuhhh that’s a big ol’ nope