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So Scott had been visiting us for a while, after Egypt, when he wasn't touring Berlin or Eastern Europe. He made it pretty well as an uncle, too bad he couldn’t come with us to the Mountains!! So we woke up early and set him in his train on our way to the Allgäu!
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We drove and drove, and Ida was a gem, as long as she slept. We arrived in Agathazell near Sonthofen at around nine. We unpacked, I built my bike & the Burley, an we went out to the local restaurant for a Swabish roast with little Spatzen! Went shopping, took a hike around Agathazell, Häuser, Moos, and back. Long Day... |
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We started strong on our first day by climbing the local mountain Grünten with 1738 Meters. We packed ida in the MacPack and took off through Moos to Burgberg and then up towards Grünten. We met a couple guys with big Packs on the way up, and they took our picture. I was glad to not have to take up such a pack!
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We stopped at Grünten Haus, a bit above 1500 Meters for some little chees Spatzen and some Almduddler. Ida had a blast crawling around the floor and playing with their toys!
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After Lunch we went on up to the TV-tower and then to the Jaegerdenkmal, the summit of Grünten.
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From there around the Übelhorn down to valley and to the restaurant Alpenblick, where we met our photographs, landing with hang gliders (which explains the large packs on the way up...). Now we are down, we had a great evening to stretch our muscles on the balcony. Tomorrow, we will get back on the bikes...
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Ida slept horribly, which meant Jenny and I didn’t make our goal of waking up at 6:00… After a calming down late morning nap followed by a balcony breakfast in sweaters, we threw our hiking equipment in the burley, the MacPack on Jenny’s back, and got on the bikes. Jenny borrowed one from nice Mrs. Müller, a 3-gear hub-transmission which rode very well, despite the dirty chain.
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We drove about 25 km along the Iller Cycling Route and arrived in Oberstdorf at the bus station around 11:30. Fed Ida some yummy mushed noodles, locked the bikes and switched to hiking mode McIntoshs. We took the bus via Reute over the Austrian boarder to the Station Waldhaus. We we’re the only ones to get out there. Took the path steeply down to the Waldhaus, and further on about a ¾ hour to the Breitachklamm.
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The Klamm was much more extraordinary than our well known Edmundsklamm, with amazing heights at narrow widths! It also brought about some cool temperatures in the clammy shade, as the next thermometer we saw was edging on 33°C!!
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Took a break for the woken up princess to have her afternoon mush, and then walked back to the bus station in Oberstdorf (about 3,5 Hours trip from the Waldhaus altogether).
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We rode the bikes back down to Agathazell, this time about 20 Minutes faster than the way up. I threw on the grill while Ida played in the sand box. We ate Nürnberger, Zucchini/Feta/Red-Onion Packages, Sweet Corn to die for and schish-ka-babs. It finally cooled down in the evening. Jenny has sore muscles and can hardly walk. I think we will take it easy tomorrow…
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Well we wanted to take it easy today, but there is no ramp onto the B19 in Blaichach… The whole story is, we planned on taking the chair lift up to Nebelhorn and just walking to the first hut for a small lunch and then back home. The clouds were forming around the Nebelhorn as we departed in the car towards Oberstdorf. We started to consider breaking it off, but when we didn’t find the ramp, we spontaneously decided to drive to Gunzesried to climb the Steineberg. We grabbed some Brötchen and Nutrolls at the bakery and took off!
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At first some field paths less used, followed by some narrow forest paths that we wouldn’t want to be on in the rain! A bit of asphalt to a farmers place and then some Alm selling cold Apple-Schorles! A bit further and we met up with the path coming from the Mittag-Chair-Lift, and from there on we had some hiking company that took the short-cut. The path was also more difficult, as we approached the summit. It went along the comb, which was very scenic, a prettier way than we expected! We had lunch with Ida about 20 Minutes from the top.
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We had a view of a 20 Meter high ladder and became a bit apprehensive about the way on. Luckily there was a “Normal Way” and the ladder was the “Way for Experienced Hikers”.
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We took the normal way and easily reached the top.
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There we met another 11 Month old baby girl called Betty. We enjoyed the views, looked at that ladder and were glad we did not have to go down it!
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We started descending, and Ida got a bit crabby, probably due to the roughness of the terrain causing her to get bumped around a bit in the MacPack. We took another 15 Minute break above the trees to calm her down, then took off again and fell asleep.
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Took a detour near the bottom to go over the fields, went to a local cheesery for cheese and beer (Jenny had an orange pop) and drove home. The weather stayed well the whole time, hot and sunny, near the end the clouds came out. Now we are sitting on our balcony looking at the Mountains around Nebelhorn full of dark clouds. I think it will rain tonight. This time I had to promise Jenny that we will take it easy tomorrow.
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I ventured into Burgberg with Ida in the Burley to fetch Brötchen from the bakery. We had some language issues (american/saxonian vs. swabisch/Bavarian), so I ended up getting more than I wanted, an not the right things. We had a late breakfast with some of that fresh cow’s milk, milked from Mrs. Mueller. Jenny wanted to go to a cheesery in Sonthofen today, not with the bikes, but with the auto (it was our break day…). So we toured around Sonthofen construction sites, saw the town in 3 rounds with the car and finally got to the cheesery, which didn’t offer tours, but sold stuff (cheese, milk, yoghurt). We went home and had some ravioli with pesto that tasted like really strong Bergkaese, and not like ravioli with pesto. We all took a bit of a nap (it was break day!), Ida in the garden after a km of Burley pushing fell asleep. We awoke and decided to go to the local small lake, which was very cold but refreshing.
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We played with Ida all afternoon at the lake, decided our plans for tomorrow (Rubihorn!), and went home. We are packed and ready to go early in the morning.
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We made a point to leave early, so getting up at 6, we drove to Oberstdorf to the Nebelhornbahnparkplatz. After a short easy start to our walk, we had a Brotzeit at 9:30. This was a great break for Ida.
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We continued up countless cutbacks and then the terrain became quite difficult before we finally reached the summit with a great view on this good wether day. We reached a kind of peak then a saddle, took it to the reel peak. It was 11:30 and maybe two dozen people already there.
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We had a good view of Gaisalphorn, with its cross, and many other mountains, but did not know their names.
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We went down about an hour to Gaisalpsee, I went swimming in the cold mountain water. We had lunch and ida had room to crawl around and get moving. We went on further, somewhat difficult, especially when wet shoos sliped on the stones, but we made it to the untere Reichenbachalp for 3 Almduddlers (I drank Ida’s…). Found the Wallraff path back to Oberstdorf. Ida was amazingly good the whole day, with lots of people being amazed by her behaiviour, but right here she got very fussy. We discovered that she needed to be re adjusted in the Mac-Pack more snug. We think she will be ok from now on!
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We found our car (Ida was fast asleep) got some steaks, drove home and had a wonderful grilling early evening! Ida figured out how to drink from our platipus, but most of the water ended up on her shirt!
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Left early again, as Ida (who slept until 2am the first time this vacaction!) was up at 6am anyway. We drove to the Riedebergpass and used that as a basis for hiking the Besler.
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We had a nice Brotzeit shortly after passing the Schönbergalpe, looking over to the pass and ski resort Grasgehren. We went on towords the summit, decided not to climb the 30 meter vertical wall (für geübte!). We took the easier long cut around the back to the top.
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We had a nice view of the Mountains east and south of Oberstdorf.
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We went on down towards the Freiburger Alpe, and had a nice lunch with cat nap on a nice flat piece of land. Directly after our break, we had a ways to go back up. Ida had a blast with all the cows along the way. Each and every cow she saw was the only thing in the world for her, the first and last cow she ever saw. Each cow got an exited greating: “Look, a cow!”. We arrived at our car again at 13:30, thanks to our early start. Went back to Agathazell, had a wonderful coffee and cake time and did some cleaning up. Tonight we will have a tour of the cows and other animals at the farm from Mrs. Mueller!
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We had another very early start, and were on the trial at Balderschwang by 7:45. The temperature had sunk overnight, and had reached 4,0°C on our Ford-Thermometer. We wrapped all we had around Ida, and started up the mountain. We walked up as far as we needed to, in order to get some sum for our cold handed Baby. At the first bench in the sun, we took our Brotzeit. In the sun, everything was better. The first part of the tour up to Untere Balderschwanger Alp was a boring climb, with lots of old asphalt. After that though, it became very nice, and even a bit challenging as we ascended to Siplingerkopf on narrow mountain paths. We got to the top as the second group that day, but as we were up there about a dozen more people arrived.
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We went on to Heidenkopf. This path along the upper ridge was the best hike of the vacation to date! Quite difficult and constantly amazing views of the Alps to the left, and the Hoher Grat – Stuiben – Steineberg – Mittagberg range on the right.
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After Heidenkopf, we went to the next little peak and had lunch there!
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We decided not to take the route in our book back down to Balderschwang, but continued along the upper ridge to Girenkopf. This proved to be another great path!
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All three summits had great views, and we even got some lessons from local hikers (it was a Sunday!) as to which Mountains were which. We took the west way back down to Balderschwang. This was definitely a good hiking day, and the weather stayed amazing for us!
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This is the first part of our two day tour, Idas first hut sleeping experience! The route: Oberstdorf – Oytal – Gleitweg – Edmund Probst Haus – Nebelhorn – Probst Haus – Sleeping – Koblat – Grosser Daumen –Probst Haus – Geologischer Lehrpfad – Oberstdorf. Although we generally prefer the path less taken, we chose the route to have an easy and fast emergency decent option (with the cable car from Probst Haus) and to be able to leave some weight at our base for the summit climbs. So we got up at 5:30 and took off to Oberstdorf, took a short ascent up the Kuehberg and then a long and easy stroll along the Oybach to the Oytalbach, where we had our Brotzeit.
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We were looking at how our path went on, and where we had to be at the end on the south side of the mountain. It didn’t look like you could walk up that way, it was so steep. So we just started up the field and over stream/waterfall to the Gleitweg. The Gleitweg was quite difficult with a baby on your back, very steep and some slippery parts when wet. It took us a long time (100 minutes?) with the burning sun shining on us on the very monotonous cut backs until we got to any recognizable land mark (Maexelegg). From there we saw the lake Sealpsee and got a second wind now that we could finally see something of a goal.
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From Maexelegg to the Alpe looking over the lake it was pretty easy going and took us only about 30 minutes. It was 13:30 by then, and way past Ida’s lunch time. We stopped there, fed her, rehydrated ourselves (it is amazing how 2 liters of sparkling water fit in so easily!) and had to advise quite a few people coming down from the cable car whether or not to go down the Gleitweg to Oytal (we were apparently the only ones going up that way, and judged it easier to go up than down…). The view of the mountains south/east including the remarkable Hoefats is noteworthy. Just a hop, skip and a jump and we were at the Edmund-Probst-Haus.
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There were multitudes of people around the cable car station, spending money at the bars and restaurants and riding the car up and down. We checked in the hut, shed some weight and took off on the path “for experienced hikers” to the Nebelhorn summit (2224 m).
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Sadly enough, the last stretch of the cable car also goes directly (!) to the summit, so we shared or arrival with maybe 100 other people (the weather was extremely good).
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Nonetheless, the view was unique and other than a straight in view of the Hochvogel, we could clearly see the Zugspitze (highest Mountain in Germany) and just about every mountain we have climed on this trip.
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To cap off the day at the summit, I discovered a wonderful Bavarian invention for thirsty hikers: Radlermass! (of course there is a pub at the top of the mountain…). Anyway, were satisfied to believe that we were the only ones up there that took the difficult way up the Gleitweg all the way to the summit (about 1 Mile of Height!) with our own feet. We waited until the last cable car went down (we had to explain to the conductor that we didn’t want to ride the car), experienced some alone time on the summit, checked out the beginning of the Hindelanger Klettersteig (maybe next time!) before walking back down to the hut for a good dinner. I think we all slept decently, it being Ida’s first night in a hut.
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This is the second part of our two day tour. Ida slept well at night, fed around 5:00 and fell back asleep, so I let the girls sleep in abit and went out to watch the sun rise from part-way up to the Nebelhorn summit. I should have gone all the way up, because I only saw a bit of colors, the sun didn’t show itself until we were on our way up later in the morning. So we packed up, again minimizing weight (we didn’t need the sleeping bags or dirty diapers on the hike today…) and hit the trail around 7:00. We walked through Koblat, a stony plateau with some ups and downs.
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As we were nearing the point of ascent, we saw the first person of the morning, above on the Hindelanger Klettersteig. We met at the crossing point of our paths, but we were first on the summit of the Großer Daumen, probably the first people there that day at around 10:00.
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We talked to the mountain climber, he left the hut around 6:00 and took 3 hours for the Klettersteig alone, carrying all sorts of climbing safety equipment. After he left (went on to Breitenberg) we enjoyed the morning views and a few minutes of summit loneliness, with nobody in site. On our way back down we started to meet people after about 45 minutes, first some other people staying at the hut, then a half our later big groups of people in 10 minute tact (from arriving cable cars?). Anyway, we were glad to have had an early start. We arrived back at the Probst Haus with Ida fast asleep at 12:15. We filled up our water, repacked the rest of our weight, had lunch, watched paragliders take of, and then started the driving way down the mountain to Oberstdorf. It was quite steep at the beginning, with slippery parts on loose gravel. The sun was blaring, and it got really hot! It was not a pretty path, or really worth while. We met some people halfway between two cable car stations, who could not decide whether to go on up, or turn around… Anyway, it eventually got flatter and easier and even somewhat worthwhile as the information tables of the Geological Education Path started. We stopped for a Radlermass and a diaper change (the last of six diapers!) at the Seealpe, and continued down, taking a left turn towards Kühberg walking above the ski jumping track and down to the car! We cooked up some more mush for Ida at the car. According to Murphee’s Law, Ida pooped her last diaper and we had to drive her all the way home being quite stinky! Anyway, we arrived home safely, we had great weather, and enjoyed the evening with the grill and sunset!
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Rotspitz / Gr Daumen / Hindelanger Klettersteig / Nebelhorn / Rubihorn
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We knew the weather would be iffy today, with showers until 8:00 and starting again in the afternoon, but we really wanted to finish of our hiking agenda with the Hoher Ifen! We were mentally prepared to turn around if the weather gets to bad, but we were pretty lucky. So we timed it right to arrive at the Auenhuette with some rain remaining, no other hikers in sight. We took the path up to Ifenhuette (about 45 Minutes), because the chair lift made us nervous with Ida. Had breakfast with the cows under a roof, where it eventually stopped raining around 9:30.
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We took of up the hill and across the stone-fields. The fog didn’t seem to want to let up on the east side of the Ifen. The trail across the boulders started to rise, and eventually we came to a steel-rope-secured climb up to the Hoher Ifen Plateau. Due to the ropes, this part was very manageable.
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Thereafter we had a light stroll up the tilted plateau (20 Minutes) to the summit cross. It was amazing to see how the wind was blowing from west to east, keeping the plateau free of fog, but eddying to the east to keep that side full of fog!
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Noteworthy is also the extraordinarily steep drop on all sides! We were alone up there and saw some nice birds (Bergdohlen & Kolkraben) as well as great fog free views of the famous Gottesacker from close up, views of the Schwarzwassertal, and of the Widderstein looking up over the clouds. We had amazing luck with the weather as we started our descent at 11:30, the sun was shining and the fog was mostly gone.
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We started to see people (especially groups of 6-12 people) on the way up, and we were asked many times how much further it is… It was kind of strange to be the only people going down the mountain. Anyway, the clouds did start closing in again, and at 12:30 when we could see the Ifenhuette the rain started. We arrived at the hut at 12:50 in pouring alpine rain storm. Good thing we were prepared, Ida stayed dry and warm in her MacPack, and we finally made use of our rain jackets! It seemed quite a few less well prepared people (cotton sweaters, no rain coat?) broke of their tour early and came to eat with us in the hut. We had a great time feeding Ida, drinking a Radlermass, and eating warm filling Austrian Pancakes! We declined the chair lift on the way down, and made it in light rain back to our car. We had amazing luck with the weather this day!
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