Hoher Lindkogel: mad weather, mad views.

An Easter Monday hike! Easter is a very big deal here, it is almost like a second christmas. At work the week before I was almost the only person from our sub unit actually there! Luckily I managed to find two people to occupy me on Easter Monday, I wouldn't have known what to do with my free day otherwise... It is no coincidence that the two people who were still around were an Irishman and an Englishman, in the British Isles we appear to be a lot more relaxed about easter and don't treat it as the kind of holiday where going home to the parents is near-compulsory.

I spent a while wondering which hike to do, and in the end decided to go for the Hoher Lindkogel (ca. 840m), which we have climbed twice before, but never from Bad Voeslau. Partly this was because there had been some definite snowfall the week before and the proper alps were likely to have been a bit deep in the white stuff, and partly because I didn't want to get up early knowing I would be dancing the lindy hop till late the night before. This hike was an attempt at a third time lucky good view from the top of the Hoher Lindkogel, on our two previous trips Fionn and I had been unable to see even the top of the summit viewing tower from the base of it...

The hike started in bright warm sunshine, and we sweated quickly on up to the viewing tower overlooking Bad Voeslau at around 450m up. We were treated to a good view of the Vienna basin, combined with a pretty strong wind. There was a fair bit of haze and cloud on the horizon, which soon resolved itself as the edges of isolated snow/hail clouds. These would be a constant feature of the day, either near or far, but never icing on our heads for very long. For ten minutes we would sweat, not wanting to take off our coats due to the inevitable snow shower we knew would come. Just as the warmth finally defeated us and we took off our coats, the sun would be swallowed, the wind and snow would start, and the whole cycle would start again....

When we reached the top, we were mercifully sitting in a clear patch and could enjoy the panoramic views out over the Vienna basin, the Wienerwald, and the ranks of the alpine foothills to the south of us. The isolated snow clouds out on the plain were really spectacular, the slowly falling snow making incredible wispy tendrils dropping down from the dark bodies of the clouds themselves. Over the course of only a few minutes these clouds could be seen to track across the plain, leaving sunny patches in their wake.

After an Apfelstrudel, we headed on down, first through a steep sided, mossy gorge (in which we were caught in a magical but brief snowstorm that turned everything white just for a few minutes) then through the Baerlauch-scented woods and into Baden. In the end we had done over 22 km, a pretty tiring first long hike of the year. Check out the rest of my photos of mountains and snow clouds at this link!

Bis bald,

Der Tom

Not a bad place to be imprisoned

At the beginning of March I finally got round to going to the famous Danube/ Wachau region village of Duernstein, having previously only floated past it on a boat from Melk to Krems. Well, in fact I gratefully took up the invitation of my hiking buddies, without whom I wouldn't go half the places I do! Duernstein is a beautiful village in the incredibly picturesque Wachau region, where the Danube flows through the harder metamorphic rocks of the Bohemian Massif. This leads to a narrower river with steeper cliffs to either side, complete with tor-like rock pillars peeking from between the trees. A covering of sandy, wind-blown glacial loess fills the valleys and allows for huge ranks of vineyard terraces. The whole area is overflowing with history, geology and wine!

Duernstein is particularly famous, for its medieval architecture and walls, for its striking blue church (that looks to me a bit like a 50s sci-fi rocketship) and for its ruined castle perched among the rock pillars above the village. Although we no longer know for sure whether it was in the village, in the much rebuilt castle (Burg) above, or somewhere else nearby, the name Duernstein has passed into history and legend as the place where Richard the Lionheart was imprisoned from December 1192 to March 1193, while trying to travel back from the Crusades. His ransom paid for many things, including the founding of a mint, the founding of a city, and upgrades to several castles...

Our hike took us switchbacking up the steep rocky cliffs next to the river, almost immediately giving us fantastic views of the rock formations across the valley, the castle, the Danube, and Duernstein itself. Zigzagging further between trees and rock formations, we passed the odd geological curiosity, like a beautiful ductile shear zone and some lovely small folds. Not everyone was as excited as me, of course.

The views of amazing rock formations remained for the whole of the hike, sometimes near, sometimes far, and occasionally adorned with the odd climber soaking in the early spring sunshine. This place looks amazing to climb in, and I really should come back and give that a go someday! The final highlight of the walk was the arrival at the castle proper, sitting almost impossibly atop a bit of rocky high ground. I have to say that castle builders seem to have much more of a flair for dramatic locations here in central europe! The castle has of course been worked and reworked over many centuries, including being invaded by marauding swedes (yes, swedes!) during the 30 years war...

We headed down the educational Richard the Lionheart tourist path back to the Danube, where there was time for a quick sunset stroll before the bus back to Krems. A selection of my photos can, as ever, be found by clicking a link. All in all, I wouldn't mind spending a few months imprisoned round here, at least if I got a window!

Bis bald,

der Tom

Research Seminar in the Snow

A while ago now I went to a research seminar where all the members of my department and some external collaborators met up to talk about science. This may sound interesting or boring depending on your views about the science in question, but there was an extra perk: the venue for this meeting was a 300 year old wooden alpine farmhouse in a snowy valley and well known ski resort, Saalbach-Hinterglemm.

Naturally this was not coincidence, and most of the party, professor, postdoc and student alike, were soon off on the slopes. The lecture schedule, a few hours in the morning and a few hours after dinner, was specifically designed to enable as much hurtling down snow covered slopes as possible. I, however, am a very lazy person, and naturally wary of any activity that will make me exhausted, cold, and look like a fool. Well, not always, but sometimes, while in the closing stages of writing of your thesis, you just don't want to do new things, you'd rather go have a lie down...

However, I didn't spend all my time in between lectures lying down or staring forlornly at incomplete papers on my laptop, and on one sunny day in particular I did get out for a stroll. I didn't have any snowshoes, so it was lucky that most of the paths had a good frozen crust on them or I wouldn't have got anywhere. As it was, uncharacteristicly without a map and with unclear, snowy tracks that might just have been skiing trails, I still managed to have a nice time. Definitely blew the cobwebs away, and there were some great views out down the valley and of the ice encrusted back wall. Also sun! Lots of sun!

Enjoy the photos at this handy link, I've been letting them pile up so I have more to share soon, now that I have at least handed in my thesis!

bis bald,

Der Tom

Valentines day in the snow

So I really haven't been doing any hiking in this part of the year. Most of that is being busy, but certainly since the start of January we did finally have a bit of snow round here, which also makes one think twice about going for a walk. It's not been a proper crazy winter like two years ago, but there has been just enough punctuation by white stuff that I at least feel like there will be a difference when Spring rolls around, it will actually feel like we have had a proper year pass!

In the city itself we have only had the odd delightful day where the snow has been relentless enough to properly cover the place and start forming picturesque, wind blown drifts (Vienna is a windy city, which is what its Latin name, Vindobona, pretty much means). What with the traffic and the pretty startling efficiency of the snow-clearing operations - not to mention some inopportune 'warm snaps' - most of the snow in the city has ended up disappearing within 24 hours. But out in the countryside, the deep snow stays around a lot longer with the cooler temperatures, lack of asphalt and absence of snow ploughs.

The photos in today's album were taken on a quickly arranged Valentine's day stroll with Ash. He brought a packet of dates with him, because he is a joker :-)

The route is a very traditional one for me, one of the first walks I did after returining here in 2011, up from Huetteldorf over the hill and down to the end of the 43 tram in Neuwaldegg. The whole route is within the boundaries of Vienna, but nonetheless far enough away from buildings to seem like another world, even without the snow on the ground. It was a beautifully sunny day and I got some shots I'mreally happy with. The icing on the cake was that the fantastic, twisting viewing tower was open despite the wintry weather, affording some excellent, hazy views over the city and surrounding Wienerwald as the sun edged towards the horizon.

Here's the link to the gallery, and here's to more hiking soon!

Bis bald,

der Tom

Time spent outside...

... is never wasted time, goes the saying. This small crop of pictures result from a hastily organized walk in the middle of January during a brief freak warmth blip, sending us up somewhere above 15 degrees for the day.

Not only did we get to stretch our legs and enjoy the warmth and sunlight, we also got to witness a magical phenomenom, iridescent clouds! As far as I can tell / guess, it is clear that iridescent clouds are thin, high up, and composed of ice crystals of similar size (and that size is likely pretty small). All the websites I checked put the optical effect down to 'diffraction', which isn't very helpful. I would love more detail, especially seeing as the colour of the clouds appears connected to their thickness, which looks more like a scattering effect to me. But whatever their cause, they were absolutely magical and very persistent, hanging in the sky for a good few hours during our leisurely stroll.

On the walk we got peckish and stopped into yet another tiny Heuriger up in the hills that we didn't know was there, grabbing some tasty bread, ham and cheese to fortify us while sipping fresh grape juice. Not bad for a hike organized an hour or two before! Click the link for more GLOW CLOUD GOODNESS.

Bis bald,

Der Tom

Christmas in Buckinghamshire

For Christmas this year I decided I would actually spend a proper amount of time in the county of my birth, Buckinghamshire. As the years go by it gets more and more difficult to wrangle together all the old friends one would like, but luckily my family are still easy to locate! Most of this set of photos are from a stroll taken in the indeterminate gap between Christmas and New Year, with a cameo appearance from a walk to a pub designed to lure my old scouting friends out of the woodwork.

The walk took place about 10 minutes drive from the family home, on an afternoon blessed with the most magical of winter weather types, bright sunshine! I love cold, blue-sky winter days. The sun in the UK is even lower to the horizon than in Austria, meaning that the time of slanting, yellow sun is extended for most of the afternoon, painting the landscape and the sky in warm colours. In the shadows the grass retains an almost bluish green, sometimes dusted with a thin layer of frost, and as the afternoon wears on, hints of purple become more prominent in the clouds. One benefit of hanging out in the chilterns so rarely is that now when I return I can appreciate the details of the landscape, rahter than treating it as a default and unremarkable backdrop!

As it was a very short walk, there's a lot more photos than I have words to waffle about it, so do please click through to the gallery! And for the very small number of people who aren't family and read this blog, here's a link to the location in the Chilterns, the small hamlet of Great Hampden.

bis bald,
der Tom

'Last good hiking weekend of the autumn' mark 3...

By the time this hike (officially in November!) came around, it was the third weekend of gorgeous sunny mountain weather in a row. Every time we had rushed out to the hills to make the most of our 'last chance'. This hike represents last chance number three! Gorgeous sunshine at the beginning of November.

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