Before I start writing about this adventurous blog today, I want to tell you that I am just a hiker, not experienced with alpine hiking. This means that I have not done rock climbing or climbing of any sort before. Enough of my disclaimers now. Wait, I forgot to give credits to my friends who took some photos, they know who I am referring to. ;)
This time our hike was on Ehrwald, Austria. When we reached this beautiful city, we were welcomed by amazing mountains. Like one of my friends said, it was like walking in the hall full of wallpapers.
For overnight we stayed at Gaestehause Haag, just 25 minutes away from the Ehrwald train station by walk. https://www.booking.com/hotel/at/gastehaus-haag.de.html The hut was very amazing with wonderful hosts and very clean and organized apartment. To top it, the mountains were always there to welcome us before going to sleep and when we opened our eyes in the morning. This was one of the best places for overnight stay one could ever wish for.
On the next day, we had planned to do the round tour of CoburgerHuette. https://www.komoot.com/smarttour/319315#og# Even though the hike was mentioned to be difficult, we thought that it would be walking up and down the slope. However, I had missed the description of “alpine experience required”. Without knowing what lie ahead of us, we three (me beginner hiker, a friend of mine who is good hiker and another friend who just started to hike) set out on our journey, excited and completely unaware of what lie ahead.
When we reached our first upward hike, it looked scary as it was really steep with gravels. I am not afraid to walk on mud or anything else, but for gravels, I always fear of slipping despite of good shoes. But for the beginning, it was just big rocks so I was a bit skeptical but not afraid.
I thought “Ok, this is a start may be the slope will get easier”. Without any contingency plan all of us moved forward. Trust me, it didn’t get better but the small gravely upslope that I feared came. It was really late to return back for me as the path as shown in the image above is easier to climb but hard to go down. Skeptic, all of us decided to move forward.
Then came the big rocks came. Unless you come across different things in your life, you never know what you are afraid of. I never thought that I would be afraid to climb them. But, I was struggling to move ahead. I was taking one step at a time. Keeping one foot firm and then only moving another foot. There were some places where I felt “Oh no, this step is too big for me, I cannot do it”. However, the good hiker friend of mine tried to keep me calm and motivated me to move forward.
The another friend of mine who was very beginner was also struggling. One of the good things that I felt in this hike was that the people that were hiking there were so very helpful. I don’t know how many times I asked the hand of the strangers to help me get to the rope as we had to do rope climbing. They were amazing people who never said no and were always willing to help us. So, getting back to the story of my beginner hiker friend. A couple who had a cute dog with them decided to help her and they were really leading her and helping her out. We will never forget them. Without them it would have been very hard to move forward.
I cannot describe in words how much happiness we felt when we reached the top and passed that slope. Furthermore, the view from the top was breathtaking. The Zugspitze was smiling at us and it felt like it was saying “Good job, girls!”.
Moreover, there was another lake after passing the top point and before reaching CoburgerHuette. It is called Seebensee. All the hard climbing up work was worth it.
After this adventure one would think, enough adventure already right. But the mountains had more for us. To reach Coburger Huette from Seebensee, the path was completely uphill and was filled with snow. Lets say there was no path whatsoever.
We decided not to give up and still continue thinking that there is another way back and we don’t have to climb down this snowy path. Like when we were climbing up the rocks, rather than thinking about reaching the top, we just thought about one step at a time. The path was slippery but we had good shoes. We kept our steps on the steps of the climbers before us. So, finally after struggling again with the snow, we reached the top. “Yay another victory”, one would think. Again, the view from the top was remarkable. The Coburger Huette is at 1920m from see level. The image below is from the mid way to CoburgerHuette looking back at Seebensee.
When we reached up we, couldn’t see any other path down. We asked the people working at Coburger Huette and they said that the path that we wanted to take is knee deep in snow, and it is impossible to go through that path. Also, there was another pond at the top which is called Drachensee. However, the thought of coming back the same way was so scary for me that I forgot to take the completely frozen Drachensee.
However, coming down the snowing path was less scary than I thought. I fell few times but when I realized that I could held onto the soft snow after I fall, it was a kind of relief. However, it was a bit more difficult to come down than going up the slope. My friends just slid away and they had good fun. However, I am scaredly cat and that for me looked scary as well. So, again I thought not of coming down but one step at a time.
At one point I was strugging too much and falling down after every step. An old couple saw me, who were going up and taught me how to get down. But easier said than done. However, there were two boys who were going down the snowy slope and they saw me struggling. Like all the hikers we have met, they were also helpful. One of them volunteered to make a path for me and everything was easy after that.
Another question of the day was, do we also have to go through the same rocky path down, which for me was impossible. So, we asked a group of people if there is any another way down Ehrwald Almbahn. They told us to follow the road and we will reach our destination.
After that, everything was a piece of cake as compared to what we have hiked that day. From rock climbing and rope climbing to snow climbing. I am still wondering how I did this hike. However, I am proud of all three of us. The Zugspitze was again smiling at us and was saying, “You did it, I am proud of all of you!”.
