Schneeberg, 2061 m

It's summer! Things have stopped flooding! It doesn't rain, even when you really, really want it to! When it is summer, you can climb mountains because they are not covered in snow anymore!

Later in the summer I had agreed to go on a 3 day hike in the Alps with some friends. As at least one of these friends runs constantly and has done at least two marathons, I figured it wouldn't hurt to put in a bit of training and get up on some mountains for the month beforehand. Obviously, I also just really, really love mountains.



Today's post and photos concern a hike I did with a couple of Vorarlbergers up the Schneeberg, highest mountain in lower austria and easternmost peak of the alps over 2000 m in elevation. The hike started in drizzle but this quickly evaporated as we walked up the winding track next to the railway which leads up to the plateau near the peak. The railway is pretty cool actually, and it certainly demonstrates how tricky it is for trains to go up steep hills. Once a day on weekends they send the old time steam train up, and it takes 1.5 hours for a climb of 1200 metres! We saw it, and it was a pretty noisy thing. The engine was placed at the back of the train, possibly more to save the passengers from the immense gouts of steam/smoke it was pumping out than anything else... I know there must be a lot of kids that are pretty sure that train is the coolest thing ever though!

 
Once over the lip of the plateau at 1800 m or so it became clear that the sky might have been blue and the sun beaming, but the weather was still not ideal. The wind was about the strongest I have ever experienced on a mountain, and when walking across it you really did have to walk diagonally leaning into it, and it could hold you up! Thankfully, the wind was not evenly distributed over the mountain so we soldiered on to the top, to be greeted with incredible views, reaching even to a faint Vienna in the distance over 60 kilometres away!

Heading down a much steeper and rockier section, we finally reached the bottom of the mountain having done 1500 m up, 1300 m down, and nigh on 20 km horizontal distance! Getting up for work the next day was NOT easy, I can tell you.

Here's some visual highlights!

Der Tom