This week's hike featured an uncommon piece of technology, the automobile! Although I try to hike via public transport as much as possible, there are some places it's just not really possible to hike from/to without a car, and I am grateful I also have hiking friends who own this piece of equipment. This hike was up onto a mountain I had never ever been to before, which for an Alp less than 1.5 hours drive from Vienna is quite unusual, and very exciting! The Schneealpe is a large 1700m limestone plateau with some 1900m peaks, situated just a bit west of the Rax plateau. It isn't as popular as the Rax or Schneeberg due to it not being situated directly on a trainline. It is also famed for fierce winds across its flat summit plateau, its highest point is called the Windberg (you guys can translate that for yourseves I hope).
Of course, this year is a charmed hiking year and no such freezing wind was in evidence. We climbed rapidly up to the plateau, passing beautiful bright yellow autumn trees and big sheer limestone cliffs, which showed off some lovely folding in the slanting November sunlight. After the exhausting but short ascent, we reached the plateau itself. There was a quite reasonable amount of snow already, but the sun was so strong that only t-shirts were required. The tiger-striping of partially melted snow added dramatic contrast to the already dramatic landscape, and we headed eagerly across the plain to our destination.
Slipping and sliding a bit on the snowfields we soon reached the peak of the Windberg at 1900m. Because the Schneealpe is set away from the other nearby massifs and the Windberg projects on its own, the summit offers stunning views off in every direction. Far below the fog/low cloud that filled the valleys was visible all around, lending a decidedly mysterious air to the more distant peaks. Closer, the cliffs and pinnacles of the neighbouring Rax plateau were thrown into sharp relief by the bright sun in the absolutely clear mountain air.
We chose to take a long and winding route home, which took us along a fantastic teetering ridge walk down to a pass between two valleys, then along the rapidly darkening valley and back to the car about 15 minutes after sundown. An absolutely amazing walk! Partly because of the weather, but also because the Schneealpe is really a fantastic mountain! I hope to go there again, although I am aware the weather may not always be the same...
Pictures at the link as usual!
bis bald,
der Tom
