Germany

Interview with Munich Mountain Girls

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Munich Mountain girls is a community started in 2016 by a mountain girl from Munich. Here you can learn to know sporty mountain girls in Munich. You can sit back and get inspired by reading about inside hiking tips, must have hiking gear and girls’ favorite places to hang out in Munich. I was contacted by Christine (the owner of the page) early June for a short interview and was glad to participate.

Now I can officially myself a Munich Mountain Girl. It’s only a label but its a cool one 😉 I also look forward to get to know all the other girls part of the community and to get inspired and to learn from them.

In the interview you can learn about my first experience in the mountains, about my favorite hike until now in Germany, and what I always have in my back bag when I go hiking :).

You can check out Munich Mountain Girls and the interview with me here.

PS. It’s in German, but I am sure Google will help you to translate it 😉

Enjoy.

Last but not least, I want to share a little glimpse of my hiking trip in Norway. I just got back today but I already miss the mountains there. I will write about the hikes in Norway soon so stay tuned 🙂

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Säuling (2047m) – A mountain that has been on my list since I moved to Germany.

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I remember the very first time I went to Füssen and to Schloss Neuschwanstein. It was back in 2015 and we had just moved to Germany. We were standing on Marienbrücke when I saw Säuling, as a big pyramid in the sunset. I remember telling Elias that we need to find out what that mountain is called and hike it! Eventually we did find out what it was called, but it took me two and half years to finally stand on top of it. Therefore it was a little special to stand on top of Säuling today. It just had been on my list for so long!

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Just couple of words about the Säuling itself. You can hike if from German side or from Austrian side. Or do like us, and hike if from one country to another. We Started from Pflach in Austria and ended in Füssen in Germany. I did not know that one could take Bayern ticket the whole way to Reute im Tirol and Pflach, so that was a nice surprise 🙂  From Pflach we used 2 hours to Säulinghaus. It is a nice hut to take a small break before the really steep ascent to the Säuling peak. We used 40 minutes from the hut to the peak. The weather was perfect, but we were not sure how much snow there could still be. Luckily there was almost none, because this hike would be very difficult to do with snow.

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After a nice lunch and some selfies on the top, we started our descent to Neuschwanstein. I must say, I did not expect the descent to be so steep and so long. Therefore I recommend to start and end the hike in Pflach instead of hiking down to Neuschwanstein and taking the train from Füssen. That is unless you really want to see the castle. We had already seen the castle plenty of times so in retrospective I think it would have been nice to avoid all the tourist and the super slow train from Füssen to Munich. A map of the route is available on outdooractive here.

Säuling in not the only hike that can be started from Füssen, Branderschrofen is also a nice hike that has a hut and is not as long as Säuling. From Branderschrofen you will also have a very nice view to Säuling. I wrote a small post about it here.

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This was the first hike over 2000m in Germany this year, I’m happy to see there that the season is here and the snow is gone.

PS. My next hike is already planned and will be from Kufstein area, so stay tuned.

 

When you end up on the wrong peak because you spotted a shortcut.

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You stand on the feet of the mountains and you spot an awesome peak. You are sure that this is the one you have planned to hike. After all, it matches with the descriptions or at least you make it match, because it looks so awesome and it is in the right direction 😀 Happy and ignorant you set of to the peak. It gets even better, you spot a shortcut! So you see the peak, you see a possible shortcut and you want to beat the guy in jeans in front of you to the peak! Off course you are going to take the steeper but faster shortcut!

I guess you by now have figured out where this story ends up. So the guy in jeans was actually very clever in following the path, because then he saw that the peak we were heading to was not the right one.

Ending up on a wrong peak, not too bad you say. Well, the problem was not actually that it was the wrong peak, but that the shortcut that we had taken did not let us climb the peak:(  To our defense, it would have been possible during summer. There was even a path to the peak, the problem was the snow. Because you see, what we did not know was that the path we had chosen had too much now on it for safe winter hiking. Now you are thinking how stupid is it possible to be right? Hiking on paths that are not suitable for winter hiking, during winter… No we are not that stupid, it is allays safety first so we turned around when we saw that the path was not safe. Cause  you know it is never to late to turn around.. But this makes this the third hike in a row where I do not make it to the peak!!! Be it the right one or the wrong one 😛 .

Had we followed that guy who hikes in jeans during winter (?!), we had seen the next sign that would have made it clear that we were heading to the wrong peak. We would perhaps also had seen the “normal” path to the (wrong) peak and who knows, perhaps we could have made it to the peak following that path, since that one did not cross a ridge.

There are several morals to this story:

  1. If somethings seems to be too good to be true, it probably is.
  2. Do not underestimate people who hike in jeans.
  3. Do not get too carried away and forget to check you path with a map, even when you think you are heading in the right direction and you think you see your peak.

Nevertheless, I still consider this as a fun hiking experience and it was really exploring. Belive it or not, it can also be fun getting of the paths and playing around in the snow in the mountains 🙂 Would I do it again?.. no, because I like to make it to the peak!

PS. So the peak we wanted to do was called Lacherspitze (1 724 m)This would have been an easy winter hike of ca. 1000m high meters. The peak we almost did is called Kesselwand (1721m) I would go back for this one, since it did look awesome. Also there seemed to be good ski touring possibilities for beginners in that area so maybe I will go back and try out that too.

Some moments from our exploring:

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True exploring, can you see the excitement in Elias’s face?
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At the end of our shortcut there was a hole in the mountain
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I told you the shortcut was steep 😀

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Btw this weekend was the dav’s alpinflohmarkt and this was what I came back with. No crampons and no ice axe as you can see, but I got something for both summer and winter hiking 🙂

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I will go hiking again tomorrow, and try out some of the stuff I got 🙂

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Already looking for the next peak..

Winter hiking and why I need to buy crampons.

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2017-02-26-10-32-31

March as been very busy for me and there has been almost no time for hiking, except for couple of weeks back when we went for a small winter hike. The only requirement this time was to find a hike with an open hut. Kampenwand 1669m was perfect.

Ascent: 1100 hm

Time: ca. 3h up and ca. 2:00h down.

Getting there: Meridian to Prien am Chiemsee (direction Kufstein), then change to RB to Aschau. NB! There are trains only every two hours.

Equipment: You definitely need the following equipment for a successful winter hike:

  • good cloves, water resistant.
  • walking poles
  • thermos
  • sitting pad
  • buff
  • gaiters
  • good waterproof hiking boots and warm clothes.

And now I need to add crampons on the list, because this was the first time I had to turn around because I did not have crampons:( That sucked so much! I was like 100hm from the peak. I could see it, but it got so icy that I did not consider it responsible to even try. It is always safety first! Turning around is not an easy decision to make, not when you really want to get to the peak, but there is brave and there is stupid. Going on without crampons would have been stupid. So we were a group of 5 and 2 of us ( the ones who had crampons) made it to the top. Nevertheless, it was a nice hike. It is always nice to be in the mountains, even when you do not make it to the peak and this experience just made me realize that I need to buy crampons. Perhaps I find some used ones from the upcoming alpin Flohmarkt or just order some online. recommendations are welcome 😉

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As you can see, turning around made sense, when having no crampons.
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This was more or less the place where we decided to turn around.

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I hope to get to do couple of more winter adventures before the spring comes to Bavaria, but let’s see. This weekend I will be off to Barcelona, so no hiking but a lot of tapas 🙂

Sledging in Germany – a serious sport.

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The hut, right before Brünnstein.

Couple of weeks back a friend organized a sledding hike. I had seen Germans walking around with their sledges before, both in the city and in the mountains so I knew that this was an established sport here and not only an activity for kinds. I did not quite understand it thought, and it did seem funny watching adults sledding down a hill. Nevertheless I was ready to try it out!

The hike went to Brünnsteinhaus: – walking up,sledding down.
Ascent: Brünnsteinhaus lies on 1360m and the climb up is 750hm. So an easy and nice hike for winter.

Time: We used ca  2:45h up and 0:45h down. But you can for sure be faster down. Some of the people there really knew what they were dong and were very fast the way down.

Getting there: Take the Meridian to Oberaudorf (direction Kufstein).
If the conditions are ok you could also do the peak: Brünnstein (1619) – another 45-60 minutes. We did the mistake of having a beer on the hut first and after that we just got too lazy, but I saw people doing the peak so it is a possibility, depending on how much snow there is.

The nice thing is that Brünnsteinhaus hut is open also during winter and  you can rent sledges at the hut (5€). I would always recommend to call the hut in advance and ask about the conditions and to make sure that there is enough snow to sledge down. They told us that they had about 60 sledges so unless you are in a very big group you should be able to get a sledge.

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20170219-brunnsteinhaus-kathrin-26Oh man how much fun this was!! On our way up we saw some rather old sledge riders :). They all had such a smile on their faces and their eyes were shining from joy. It really seemed that they had found back to their inner child. Never the less they made me a bit scared, when I saw how fast they were going!

So the excitement was big when we got our sledges and were about to try this out. In the beginning the sledge went crazy fast. I tried to control the speed, but it was almost impossible. So I just drove out from the track into the snow to stop. Then, luckily Elias told me to use my whole feet to break and that made a huge difference! Therefore my tip nr 1: use the whole feet to slow down, not only the heal.

The rest of the way down I was more or less able to control the speed  except in one of the turns where I almost hit a tree 😀 😀 Luckily I jumped of my sledge just in time.

In conclusion I can highly recommend this for everybody, but I would not put any kids on these sledges. They pick up speed extremely fast and you can really injure yourself – as the title says – this is a serious sport! 

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At the end of your ride you just leave the sledge on the roadside, so convenient !
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The view from the hut – can’t complain!

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And the last hike of 2016 went to…

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Long time no see, have you been hiking? I have 😀 !

Between all these Christmas markets, Gluhwein evenings (I just can not get enough Gluhwein 😛 ) and Christmas parties, I finally found time and will to go hiking again. Originally I had a different hike planned but then life happened. I discovered that I had a concert ticket for a concert on Saturday night and that the weather was not looking too good for Sunday. Luckily my dear love managed to convince me to go on an easy hike on Saturday :).  Normally I am not hard to convince, but on Friday evening I was still feeling little hangover from a Christmas party we had at work and did really not feel liek going hiking on Saturday. Especially when I knew that I also had to go to a concert after the hike. Luckily my love did all the packing and preparations so I just needed to say yes!

Saturday morning of we were to the following hike:

Route: Flintsbach -Hohe Asten 1104 m – Riesenkopf 1338 m – Maiwand 1135 m-Hohe Asten 1104 m – Flintsbach

Time: depends on your speed, but approximately 3 hours to Riesenkopf  and 30 -40 min to Maiwand. 1,5 hour down from Hohe Asten.

Elevation gain: Approximately 1000m, little more it you do Maiwand.

Transport: approximately 1 hour by train from Munich direction Kufstein.

This hike is very easy, so it is perfect for a beginner or for a family – EXCEPT Maiwand! Maiwand peak is therefore optional. It is just for the more adventitious ones, because it requires surefootedness and that you are not afraid to climb a short wall using only rope. If you don’t feel up for it just go to Riesenkopf and back to the hut.

On Riesenkopf  we had a loong break and just enjoyed the sun.

img_20161210_113358No snow in December as you can see. Isn’t that strange? Is this how the winters from now on are going to look like? 😦

Here are some pictures from Maiwand. No extra equipment is needed. If you feel safer you can take a helmet with you, but there is no danger for loose rocks.

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We split the group into two and it was only four of us doing Maiwand in the end.

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You need to climb this short wall both on you way there and back. Somehow, the way back is much easier than the way down 😉

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Surefootedness is needed on this short but exposed ridge. If you look closely you can see the Maiwand peak on the background.

As you see there are two tricky parts to hiking Maiwand.

  1. The path to it is quite hard to find. Basically when you see the red sign saying “Nor for güpte” this is where you need to take to the right to do the pike. BTW, you can easily see Maiwand from Riesenkopf . After taking to the right at sign, you just need to try to keep going right the path is really not marked. But after a short while ( 5 – 8 mins) you can see the peak and you will know where to go.
  2.  There is a approximately 6 m high wall  where you have to rely on a rope to get down (see the pics in the slideshow). The rope is already there so you don’t need to bring your own.

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Hohe Asten is usually open the whole year and is a very nice hut for enjoining a beer with a nice view.

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What is your last hike of year 2016 and what hiking plans do you have for 2017??

Hoher Fricken and why you should not stay in the valley.

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2016-11-26-13-50-24

Last weekend we did a very nice hike to Hoher Fricken 1940m. For me it is still so strange that here in Germany you can go hiking in the end on November and not meet any snow! Sometimes I miss the snow, especially when seeing all the nice skiing pictures from Norway 😉 but in the other hand it is so nice to be able to hike so late in the year. The air is clearer high up, the sky is more colorful. I also think the mountains are the nicest with some snow on them. To see the white mountain tops in the horizon is just so beautiful. And then there is this magical fog, that often lies in the valleys.

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When we did this hike it was really gray and boring weather in the valley. So I was not expecting to have any view from the peak. After walking for one hour we met the fog, after one more hour we walked out of the fog and got this view.

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This got me thinking, what if I would have stayed down in the valley? I would not even know what I was missing out on! There are too few  opportunities in the year to miss out on some of them. So I am so glad I did not stay down in the vally because no amount of wine on Friday evening would have made up for missing this view. At least not in my oppinion 😉

So the hike we did was the following:

Route: Bahnhof Farchant (670 m) – Kuhfluchtfälle (850 m) – Hoher Fricken (1940 m)

Time: 7 hours, less if you don’t spend a lot of time on the peak.

Assent: 1300 m

Transport: To get there and back you can take a train. Trains leave every hour from Munich.

Once in Farchant, just follow the signs from the train station. It’s not hard to find. In the beginning you go up on a side of a very nice waterfall.

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The trail is really quite steep so be prepared for that. It is 1300 height meters on 6 km. So it is steep. You will see signs that say “Nur fur geübte” which means only for experienced hikes, but in fact the trail is not exposed at all or in any way dangerous. The only hard part is that it is steep so you need to be reasonably fit and ready to sweat a little.

The decent is not that steep. You cross the ridge having a view to Zugspitze and go down on the other side of the mountain.

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On the way down I had to climb this super cool tree. #nevergrowup  and #daretopaly 😉

 

What are your favorite early winter hikes? I am wondering where to go for this weekend 😀 All tips are welcome!