Austria Day 1

Sunday 9 July 2017 - Zell am See to Krefelder Hut (2293 metres)

16 km
600 metres ascent
6 hours
25000 steps

We left Pension Milan after a good breakfast, waving off a party of bikers, and parting with €156.

The 9 am start saw us looking up to a cloudy horizon that cleared into a hot, sunny day, albeit very humid.

Starting on a path shared with cyclists beside a road, we headed towards Kaprun but left the road at the first opportunity, heading along paths 12 and 30 to skirt above Kaprun. It was hot and sticky on the scenic woodland paths.

Our original plan was to walk to Schaufelberg and get a bus from there to Maiskogelalm (as the Maiskogelbahn cable car no longer operates), then take the high level path to Krefelder Hut. But I felt more comfortable, given high humidity and the risk of lightning, taking a lower route.

So we found ourselves in a café beside Klammersee for elevenses. Excellent!

Soon after that, at noon, we passed a path (711) signed 5 hours to Krefelder. Just up the road a gondola was hoisting people over 1000 metres up the hill. We took it.

That left us up to 2000 metres for lunch at the intermediate gondola station. Krefelder Hut was nearby, albeit 200 metres up a hill. In the other direction the Alexander Enzinger Weg, path 5a, provided an enticing option. We took it. After dragging us up very pleasantly for 200 metres it reached a junction near a hillock at 2203 metres. From there a lovely belvedere path took us all the way to Krefelder Hut.

En route we passed numerous familiar flora - rock jasmine, alpine avens, alpine snowbells, least primrose, moss campion, spring gentians, edelweiss,  etc etc.

This is a very friendly hut with excellent food and entertaining clientele (apart from the chap who thought I was Sue's dad!).

Rain has come and gone, but I don't think there's been any hail to match the size of some of the heaps of half inch nuggets that we passed on the path.

We've had a sociable evening and have now (9.30) adjourned to our rooms. We were expecting a dormitory, but we actually have a double room and a twin room. The view from our double room as I write is the bottom image. The others were taken during the day and at Krefelder Hut.

All in all, a brilliant first day's walk.