Schneeberg from Weichtalhaus, with goats

Autumn is my favourite time of year in Austria, and one of the biggest reasons is that it is the perfect season for hiking. Although you can't predict the best days, Autumn always delivers some perfect hiking weather: not too hot, not too cold, with the added magic of low lying mists, mellow afternoon light, and the icing on the cake: the turning leaves. I knew I wanted to the make the most of the best hiking season, and so planned this demanding hike, 1500 metres of climb up the steep south side of the Schneeberg (never before climbed by me!), and then down the rocky Fadensteig. Luckily I found two companions willing to take on the challenge, and (far too) bright and early we got off the bus at Weichtalhaus to begin the ascent.

The first part of the climb was winding switchbacks through leafy forest. Sticking to a slow and steady pace that would pay dividends throughout the hike, we made it up half the total ascent exactly on time, emerging into the bright morning sunshine for a brief rest stop at a hut. The views got better and better as we climbed higher, giving us a hazy panorama over the looming Rax plateau, including my first ever look into the dramatically steep-walled 'grosse' Hoellental from a cross-valley vantage point. The trees gave way to bushes and long grass as we took lunch with the already impressive view in front of us and the final ascent at our backs.

The wind atop the Schneeberg was much fiercer than lower down, howling around us as we zigged, zagged and zigged again up the steep grass and rock slope. We arrived at the summit at just the right time (the 'true', 2076m summit of the Schneeberg, another first for me!). The peak was at that moment situated in a large gap in the cloud cover, the ceiling of which was just slightly below the height of the peak. The tops of the far off cloud banks were just visible, even while the receding ranks of hills remained visible below the cloud layer. The most exciting moment was when, turning southwards into the full force of the wind, I spotted a cloud that was getting ready to engulf the summit. Standing there at exactly the same level as the advancing cloud glowing backlit from the sun was an amazing feeling, as if this huge but delicately patterned wall was bearing down on us and all we had to do was to reach out...

Distracted by the beauty of nature, I almost missed the two hiking goats that appeared on the summit moments after us! While their humans took summit photos, the two goats stood unconcerned on the broad path, kitted out with balanced matching saddle bags and handsome bells. The hiking pack-goats and their human companions followed us on our descent, accompanying us with their musical tinkling. After they overtook us and left the path, we threaded our way down the Fadensteig, the yellowing afternoon light lending the flanks of the Schneeberg extra texture and colour. After the Steig we were weary, and took full advantage of the existence of a precarious-looking but functional chairlift to shave the final 300m descent off our journey, thus making it to the bus stop just in time for our ride home.

One of the hikes of the year, no doubt! If you want to experience glowing cloud walls and hiking goats at larger size, don't hesitate to click onwards to the full gallery!

Bis bald,

der Tom.

Glasgow trip part 2: the isle of Arran!

As I mentioned in my last post, the weather on my recent trip to Scotland was fantastic. My hosts, well versed in the art of caring and feeding for a geologist (and themselves not averse to a bit of fresh air of course!) kindly organised a trip to the island of Arran for me. I was very excited at the prospect for many reasons. Firstly, islands just have an intrinsic coolness factor because they are islands. Secondly, I honestly am not sure when the last time was before this recent trip that I actually saw the sea from ground level. Thirdly, Arran is famous as somewhat of a mecca for British geology students and I had always considered it a mark of slight shame that I had never even touched its shores.

Part of the coolness of islands is that you can use boats to get to them! I have always lived far enough from the sea or other big stretches of water that ferries hold a definite excitement. They combine being big cool machines with the prospect of a journey across the waves AND there's usually a cool view to boot! True to form I thoroughly enjoyed the ferry trip over to Arran, staying out for the whole trip despite the rather strong winds and gazing at the approaching island. You can get a pretty good idea of the geology of the whole place from that distance too, would be a good point to have the first stop of a field trip.

Arran is so famous because it contains in its 30km length a swathe of geology reaching from 500 million years ago to the recent past, encompassing sedimentary, igneous and metamorphic geology of great variety in one easily accessible area. Of course, we only had time to wander over a tiny bit of it, and in any case some of the other people didn't seem to think that we were ONLY there to look at the rocks. Weirdos. In any case, we settled on walking round the shore from our landing point of Brodick, making our goal a prominent castle (of the more stately-home kind) around the bay.

It was absolutely gorgeous sunny weather, and my main impression was of all the different colours on display. The rocks (Permian New Red sandstones) were wonderfully varying hues of red, weathering to a red-tinged sandy beach next to Brodick itself. Seen across the deep blue-green of the sea in sunlight were the much whiter sands more typical of the west coast of Scotland, studded with bright greens from the seaweed and grasses in the sand dunes, and loomed over by the dark greens, purples, browns and greys of the mountains (well in the UK we would say mountains) above.

We walked all the way round the bay, reached the castle and then headed back, stopping to a local bakery to eat a delicious macaroni and cheese pie(!!!). This tasty tasty food nearly scuppered my plan to be awake for the trip home, but I overcame the sleepiness and was able to once again admire the incredible panorama on our trip back to the mainland. Enjoy the bumper pack of photos available at this magic link!

Bis bald,

der Tom.