Darmstädter Hütte immer wieder gerne!

Our second day was forcasted to be sunny, so we walked into town and used our St Anton Sommerkarten to go up the gondola towards the Valluga peak. It was still a little cold and cloudy at the top of the first gondola, so we decided to go up the other side of the valley on the Rendelbahn and hike around for a bit... after buying hats to keep us warm on top of the mountain! 

 At the top of Rendelbahn, we hiked down the access road through herds of grazing cows and a smattering of other hikers. The clouds lifted as we walked up the Moosthal valley. It was just as beautiful as the last time I was there.

 The valley gets narrower, ending in a steep zig-zag up a dam. It was part of the electrification project. At the top, there's a glacier blue lake that feeds the turbine that we had hiked by at Verwallsee. Yes, they tunneled through the mountain to a turbine on the other side of the Verwall mountain range. For us, it was the perfect rest stop before another hour hike up to the "Hütte".

 A final climb takes you around the back side of Darmstädter Hütte. Where at the top of the lake you first see at the stone building from below, the final road approach comes from the backside of the hut so that you see it against the mountains that you just hiked under.

Andi, the Hüttenwirt, greets everyone as they come in. Within a few seconds, we were comfortably seated on one of the wooden benches, mountain views in every direction. M ordered another round of Knödel, while I said that Familie Kolp had sent us and had the best Kaiserschmarrn in Austria. It could be the hiking, it could be the mountain view... but seriously. Best. Kaiserschmarrn. Ever. With a side of applesauce.

 Before we could head down the mountain, we paused for an espresso... which Andi followed up by bringing us little glasses of Zirbenschnapps. Our hosts in St Anton introduced us to pine schnapps when we first arrived. I don't drink schnapps at home, but in Austria, it's a delicious part of the culture (when I told Edeltraud that in the USA "schnapps" = peppermint, she thought it was gross). In any case, we were feeling great as we headed out into the sunshine and took the trail back down towards the lake.

 Somewhere just below the dam, we realized that if we hurried we might make the Vallugabahn (the other side of the valley) before it closed down for the day. We had already run along the creek out of sheer joy, so what was a little more jogging?  A helpful couple of hikers said that we might just make it... but it was still a few miles back.

We didn't run by cows. M was nervous because even the girls had horns... 

We didn't end up making the 'Bahn, but we did have a great run down the sunny mountain! All told, we covered about 18 miles on foot that day. Point me towards Darmstädter Hütte again and I'd do it all over again for another Kaiserschmarrn... Maybe next summer!