Konstanzer Hütte
Austria walking July 2024 Day 2 Kaltenberg Hutte to Konstanzer Hütte
On paper the distances look small but note the altitude loss and gain to understand better the extent of the challenge.
Our fellow walkers are predominantly German and we know this because they all like to tell us! They are all very pleasant though and the feeling of commaradary already feels high. The thing is that there is bugger all else to do once you’ve made it to the first Hütte than to hike to the next one so there is already a base connection inherent with everyone in the room.
At breakfast we meet Marcia who is traveling alone and another guy whose name we don’t know. He doesn’t say much but we understood that he too was following the same route, or at least the same stops, as us.
Today there was only one route to the next Hütte and that involved a steep climb over a mountain pass that would have been visible through the window were it not shrouded in moody cloud. There was a a lot of angst about how much snow there would be on the ground and how visible the painted way markers would be on the other side. But, with slightly clearing skies and a minimum of a six hour hike, there was little option but to get going.
My scale of difficulty knowledge was still in its infancy but I already knew that 1600’ ascent at 2 miles was going to be pushing the leg muscles in all of the unfamiliar places!
Last night’s hut soon dropped from view as we clambered up the slope (zoom in on the picture to see it)
Then we were in the clouds and chomping through compacted snow. We had cleverly let a number of people go ahead of us to leave a clear trail of boot prints in the surface that had been swept clean by last night’s rain.
Still, progress was slow, particularly for me. John’s mantra of ‘it’s not a race’ felt to me like a forlorn hope as, whenever I raised my head to see where he was, he seemed to be racing ahead up the scree or round a rocky outcrop. I was wishing that I had prepped better, had better boots and knew how far the pass was ahead to better manage my waning strength! A one point I heard John shouting “I’m just trying to keep up with the group ahead so I can see where to go”. Great! I thought but that doesn’t help me much if I can’t see you!
With my heart racing at over 150bpm I finally got the top and with that the skies cleared and all was well. The valley below was breathtakingly beautiful and I was beginning to understand what it was all about.
Following that, a new challenge came with a long steep decent of 2000’ over around one and a half miles along uneven muddy paths made extremely slippery by the recent rain and sections which were effectively rivers of sludgy mud.
The views were stunning but I struggled to find the beauty in everything as I slid and stumbled down the slopes. Falling twice but only hurting my pride, we eventually arrived at the second Hütte and a well earned beer!
The sign posts for the trails are all measured in anticipated time rather than distance. Today’s trek was supposed to have taken six and a half hours but we had managed to take nearly eight! The consequence of this was that when we found our room (number 13! Should have known…), it contained two double bunks and clearly, the two other people that would be sharing the room had already made their stake. That’s right, the Germans had already got their towels on the bottom bunks!!!
It was all going to be ok though because this Hütte has showers which would be perfect for sore limbs and my grumbling knee. Once I’d got back down to the basement from our second floor rooms, got into the shower cubicle and undressed it was with great shock (literally) that I realised that there was no hot water! Still, at least it woke me up.
Returning to the room, John said that he had established that a 2 euro coin was needed for the machine that I had mistook for a soap dispenser to get 2 mins of hot water. By this stage though I couldn’t be bothered and we had the beer instead. Pretty good.
The canteen was similar to Hütte number one with a lot of familiar faces in it including a large group of German guys on a hiking holiday celebrating one of their birthdays. We thought nothing of this at the time but this group would be influencing our experience the following night.
The food too was similar to the first night with soup first and then pork for main. Wholesome and hearty and what we needed after a long days hike.
Ready for bed we returned to the room where John had persuaded one of the Germans to give up his bottom bunk. We settled down in the ever so creaky beds me again conscious that every slight move was giving John the washing machine experience. Apart from the complete lack of comfort, the first thing that I noticed was an unwelcome dip in the thin timber that formed the base below the mattress where the board thickness had proved inadequate. Although very narrow anyway, the result was within seconds of assuming a position at the side of the bed, I ended up in the middle, in a dip. The next thing I noticed was the continuous loud drone of an extract fan positioned just outside of the window. Unhappily, this was at a tone that seemed to find a highly irritating resonance with my ongoing tinnitus. Then, in spite of the roof light being open, it was very very warm. A lot of things were conspiring to deliver a poor night of sleep but, nevertheless, I was so exhausted that sleep did come quickly… for about an hour and then the final piece of the insomnia puzzle was delivered at around midnight when the room started shaking to the noise of loud snoring from the German who had got the top bunk opposite me. It was a long long restless night thereafter.