Ischgl
Austria walking July 2024 Day 5 Friedrichshafener Hütte to Ischgl
John had planned two alternatives for this day:
Take the path over the mountains to the next Hütte on a challenging 6 hour route
Take the path down into the valley and stay in a nearby ski town called Ischgl (infeasibly small number of vowels for my liking)
Thomas, Felix, Marcia and the Dutch guy with three young boys were all taking option 1, albeit by a longer ‘safer’ detour due to landslides and snow on the regular route. Heavy rains and thunderstorms were due to come in during the afternoon at around 4 and so the clock was already ticking.
In truth, John and I had already made our minds up for option 2 with the thrilling prospect of a room each, limitless hot showers and a sauna and steam room included in our room rate.
We wondered what the Germans would make of us but just assumed that it would confirm their preconceptions about Brits being an inferior race of people. ‘ Yes, there were some English blokes that we met on our holiday. They were weak and pale and always took the easy option. Typical!’
We didn’t mind and told each other that there was nothing to prove. FOMO is a powerful force though and I think deep down we both thought that we should have tried…..maybe.
We set off downhill and were soon at the bottom of the valley with a cup of coffee in hand. John was keen to catch a bus to Ischgl where we were staying but I persuaded him that we should walk the 3 miles or so. It was nice to take in a different point of view and take a little more of the morning to get to our destination.
The small town soon came into view. It already seems a bit weird being out of the remoteness of the mountain passes.
The recent past was not so fantastic for the town though as the ski season of Match 2020 seeing it being accused of lax control of the early spread of COVID 19 and it was dubbed as a ‘super spreader’ when lax restrictions meant that plane loads of infected people went back to their home countries to spread the virus. It is thought that this is how the infection first reached Iceland. Even today there are people trying to sue the Austrian government for neglect of their civic duties.
It was so good to have the comfort of a hotel room and it made me reflect on how different it was from the Hüttes that we had slept in so far. The hotel in town was marked with the traps and expectation of modern living with a safe box in the room, wifi, room service, TV, fresh towels and high pressure shower. The Hütte life harks back to an era forgotten with the attitude of basic is good. Never is there a threat of theft when you leave your expensive carbon fibre walking poles in the basement boot room or when you leave you devices charging on your bed in a dorm room whilst you at dinner. ( maybe this is partly due to the narrow demographic band of people that hike the mountains, I don’t know) in a Hütte if you ask ‘is there wifi?’ The answer comes ‘no but you don’t need it just go out on the terrace and take in the view’. If you ask ‘are there showers?’ The answer comes ‘no, but there is a lake outside made from the melting snow so go get clean in that.’
Right now though we were happy to enjoy everything that modern Western society had to offer and after locking all valuables in the safe we used the in house sauna and steam room facilities before going out for dinner.
Nowhere seemed to sell a big slab of pork with dumplings so we had pizza instead.
Another great view from my bedroom