Tegelberg (and a check off my bucket list!)

 Since I discovered their existence, I've been wanting to stay overnight in a mountain hut. It's been on my bucket list since I first visited Austria. So when we decided to go to Füßen, we scheduled it for 3 nights and planned on spending the middle ones on the mountain, weather permitting. And did it permit! As we stepped off the mountain at the top of the Tegelbergbahn gondola, we realized we had discovered a magical place.

Within our first two hours on the peak, we had eaten at Tegelberghaus and summited our first peak. Jon walked out on the ridge and found out that some Steinbock (alpine ibex, European mountain goats) are possessive of their rocks. He came nose to nose with one who wouldn't give up the high ground!

 

After reserving our beds at Tegelberghaus, we took an afternoon hike out to Ahornspitze. A fellow hiker at the peak pointed out the various mountains around us, and the long valley that he had hiked up that morning. Directly to our west was a many spired ridge. The lower spires, our guide explained, were so well-known to climbers and dangerous that a chapel had been built at the base to house the book of fallen mountaineers. The peak of the ridge was double-headed, the Gabelschrofensattel, which appeared reachable by a zig-zagging trail up its face. Jon pointed to it and said, "I want to go there." So we fueled up that night on Gulasch and Kaiserschmarrn, tucked ourselves into our bunkbeds, and set early alarms for the morning...

Alpengluhe on the cable car dock, seen from my bunk under the eves

The forecast called for thunderstorms starting around 11am, so Jon and I grabbed our sandwiches from the cooler and lit out for the mountain shortly after the sun came up. The trails were empty except for dozens of pinecone-textured salamanders that appeared to be sunbathing in the morning stillness. Our pace took us past the Ahornspitze trail faster than we had gone the day before, and we were quickly navigating new paths. Downed trees, fallen bridges, and snowfields had to be jumped or circumnavigated. The loose scree around the snowfields made us nervously speculate how long it would take to slide to the valley foor a few thousand feet below... still, we were happy to have any route around the soft, slippery, quickly-melting snow!

 The last part of our hike pitched us steeply up the switchbacks we had seen the day before from Ahornspitze. As if to mock the breathlessness of our trudging, a herd of Steinbock grazing on an even steeper section of the hill skipped lightly around the corner as we approached. Even the knee-tall kids made light of the boulders and bluffs! We bipeds finally made it to the top of the Sattel, catching our breaths and eating our sandwiches between the two peaks while glancing between the steep valley we had traversed and the one beyond, which ended at the Zugspitze, Germany's highest peak. It was beautiful!

Our trail on the left, from half way up the switchbacks

Our return trip passed us through the same lovely alpine pasture we had crossed on the way up. No longer in a rush to reach our destination, we paused to take in the peacefulness of the place. With the snow staying so late into the spring, there were not yet herds in the mountain pastures. If not for the chatter of the streams we splashed in, it could have been a panorama, a frozen snapshot of reality.

the high alpine pasture, not yet with cows

Our final few miles took us past several of our bunkmates from the Berghutte the night before. They were surprised to see us already on our return trip! Finally, we were back at Tegelberghaus just as they opened, ready for second breakfast (or first lunch?) and a ride back to our hostel for showers and a bit of rest...