Travel with Manfred

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Copyright © 1998 by Manfred P.. All rights reserved.

Sep 4-6, 1998

White Surprise

To the Top of Grossvenediger

by

Manfred P.

Keywords: Austria, the Alps, Hohe Tauern National Park, Grossvenediger, Großvenediger, tourist, travel trip report, travel log, travelogue.

I had this dream a few years back to climb Mount Kilimanjaro, the white giant in Tanzania. With 5895 meters (about 18,000 ft) it is a good 3-day challenge. Just like some of my other dreams it never materialized. Not so far anyway. The day might come though. This dream has shifted to climbing a 6,000+ m mountain in South America within the next 9 months. In order to get ready for this dream I need to get in shape and gain some experience. What’s better than trying to collect some know-how on similar climbs in my neck of the woods?

Austria offers plenty of opportunity to get a feel for glaciers, crevasses, cold temperatures, and mountain climbs. The only thing it cannot offer is high altitude and thin air. Austria’s highest peak is just under 4,000 m (about 12,000 feet). I quickly found friends with similar ambitions. My friends took over all the organization and the logistical work. They planned 3 trips into the Alps. Most of us have new gear, new boots, etc. Hence we started with a 1-day baby tour to the Traunstein peak. I had done this last year with my brother and twice before that. It’s a 1,000 m ascent, but a pretty small mountain with only 1,650 meters. It proved that we could hike for a few hours and the boots fit.

With the Traunstein as a warm up, we wanted to tackle the Großvenediger peak a week later. I had seen the Großvenediger group from the northern viewpoint a couple of months back. On my trip to Krimmler Waterfalls we had great view of these majestic mountains from the Gerlos Pass. They looked just great. 5 peaks next to each other, all quite symmetric, and all covered in virgin white snow. I was impressed.

Friday noontime we started. I was stressed out in the morning with the last minute preparations. Shopping for food, organizing and renting climbing gear and similar tasks. Finally at 1 p.m. seven of us sat in a minivan and we were on the road. Cham, Monika, Samir, Sonja, Sony, Tamara and I, all filled with expectations. The day was beautiful, filled with sunshine and warmth. Via Salzburg and Felbern tunnel we drove to East Tirol (Osttirol), not so far from the border with Italy. Once we reached the well-known village of Matrei, we headed westbound into a scenic valley until we reached the far end of the valley and the village of Hinterbichl.

Hinterbichl is a beautiful place. Tiny, with Austrian charm, living off well-managed tourism, far from the world in geographical terms, but most likely also far from the world in spirit. Hinterbichl and the whole region north of it are part of a unique alpine national park named "Nationalpark Hohe Tauern". The Hohe Tauern National Park, the largest national park in Central Europe, covers large areas of the Alps, many peaks higher than 3,000 m (9,000 ft), 180 sq.km (70 sq.miles) of glaciers, valleys, rivers, waterfalls and all the scenery in between.

It was 5 or 6 p.m. when we reached Hinterbichl. Here in the parking lot, at 1,400 m, we met up with another 9 people. From the parking lot it is a 2.5-hour walk to the first mountain refuge. We were lazy, instead of walking we took a taxi that had special permission to use the forest road that leads to the mountain refuge. In half-hour we were there, at the Johannishütte, the first mountain refuge. It is at an altitude of approximately 2,100m. Around us were cows, green fields, and mountains. We couldn’t see any of the mountains. The clouds were low taking away all the visibility. One could only guess that we were in a valley. To the left and to the right it went uphill. Soon it was dark and the moon eerily shined a bit through the clouds and the mist. Soon it started to rain.

As it got dark and wet we went inside into the warm cabin. Now the complete team was assembled. With 19 people we made up more than half of the people and had most of the dinning area to ourselves. Many of the people in our group were members of the Austrian Alpine Club, and a handful of them experienced alpinists. They serve hot meals here, even cake for dessert. I thought that going onto a tour means that one has to rough it. Not so here. It felt like a comfortable hotel. Good food a la carte, individual rooms for those who want it and bunk beds and mattresses for the rest. At 10 p.m. electricity is turned off and it’s official bedtime. Since the cabin was full, a few of us slept on mattresses in the dinning area.

At 6:30 a.m. we got the wake-up call from the waitress. At 7 am we had breakfast and shortly after 8 a.m. we were on the trail heading north and uphill. There was no visibility. It was cold, cloudy and misty. Worse, it was raining. First I tried it with only a shirt. That got wet soon and I was force to put on a raincoat. That now means that it got too hot and I started sweating. Cold wind was blowing and the wet stuff felt uncomfortable.

We started out as a line of 19 people. Like ducklings we followed the lead hiker. Over time of course we broke into multiple groups. I just wanted to get out of the rain as quickly as possible and therefore decided to catch up with the leading group. A mere 2.5 hours later we reached the second alpine refuge, Defreggerhaus. The Defreggerhaus refuge is at 2,850m. Once we reached the refuge, a rather large building, we turned it upside down. Within minutes we had our wet clothing (socks, pants, shirts, jackets, rain coats, caps, hats) hanging in the heated dinning and living room. If 20 people put up all their wet clothing you can image that it fills the whole room. Clothing everywhere. In the center was the wood-burning heater. We gathered around it to get warm again.

Originally the plan was to continue to the top today, but that plan was canceled. There was no visibility outside, just rain and mist. Jointly we had lunch and suddenly a lot of time on our hands. Since we couldn’t hike to the top we had to spend the whole day in the refuge house. We played cards, got all the wet stuff out of the backpack and socialized. Mid-afternoon the rain turned into snowfall. Within an hour everything was white. This was not very encouraging. Doubts started to build if we would be able to attempt the climb to the top tomorrow. Others went out into the snow to explore the neighborhood. I wanted to stay in the dry. I opted for going to bed to do some daydreaming and to rest. By 6 p.m. the snow piled up outside and the windows were snow-covered. We could hear the wind howl and whistle. The whole house was creaking when a big blow hit it.

Upstairs in bed it was cool and I had to hide below 2 to 3 blankets to stay warm. Downstairs it was comfortably warm but sticky. People were smoking, including pipe and cigars. Dinner was nourishing the rumor mill. What would we do tomorrow? How would the weather be? Did anyone make it to the top today? To distract us and to use the knowledge of the available experienced mountaineers we planned the next climb. In two weeks we want to do Austria’s highest peak. After dinner most people played cards or dice. A small group went upstairs to tell jokes and scary stories. At 10 p.m. electricity was turned off again and shortly thereafter we listened to the first people snore.

The next morning we all woke up with excitement and tension. What’s the weather like? The wind was still blowing, but there was at least some visibility. The mist and fog was gone, just a layer of thick clouds above us. One could not see any peak around us but the weather was good enough that the others decided that we would give it a go. Music to my ears. We repacked all our backpacks. We left the big backpacks with the majority of our belongings behind in the refuge. It is just 2.5 hours to the peak and we can travel light. A bar of chocolate, a little bit to drink, a scarf; that was it. We put on most of our clothing. The snow was better than the rain. One doesn’t get as wet. We had a lot of gear. All of us had pickax, crampons, a seat harness, and chest harness. This is the most safety equipment I ever carried. Wearing the harnesses beneath our jackets, crampons in the backpack and pickax strapped to the backpack, we started the climb. When we reached the entrance to the glacier, we split into two groups. The weather still didn’t look very promising with a gusty wind and a little bit of snowfall. 9 decided to give it a chance and go for the peak. The rest returned and did some other hike in lower altitude.

We formed two roped parties. A group of six and a group of three. The best man in the front, me in the back. After we had crossed part of the glacier the path turned and went alongside several large crevasses. We had about half a meter (2ft) of fresh powdered snow. A few people had been here before us today and we just followed in their footsteps. To save energy I put my feet exactly in the same wholes that the people in front of me left behind. It was easy comfortable walking. Once in a while my friends in front of me would disappear down to their belly button on the snow. This happened when their were smaller, snowfilled crevasses. They could always get out by themselves without any assistance. The clouds were still preventing any view. We could look down and see where we came from but above us where just clouds. In the midsection we had to cross 3 crevasses on snowbridges. Nothing to it. Getting closer to the top the strength of the wind increased and we had a real snowstorm. I was glad to have ski goggles. The final section to the peak was a narrow ridge. It was 30 cm (1 ft) wide and we were told that to the left and right it just goes downhill for ages. Visibility was down to 10 m (30 ft). So, the ridge didn’t appear too scary, we only saw that it went downhill for a few meters and then the snowstorm made everything uniformly white. The ridge was only 20m long and on the other side the peak with a 4m cross was waiting for us.

3,674m above sea level (11,000 ft). This is Austria’s third highest peak. We made it.

It all went so fast. The hike up wasn’t physically strenuous to me as we walked very slowly. I wasn’t even out of breath when we reached the top. Now I was out of breath. Not due to exhaustion but due to happiness that we beat the weather after all. We put down our backpacks, shook hands and wished each other "Berg Heil" according to Austrian tradition. Next we had a bit to eat and a sip to drink. The most important part thereafter was to pose for all the pictures. I think we all had a big grin on our faces. After a short 15-minute break we were on the way down again; returning to Defreggerhaus the same way we came up.

This time we went in reverse order; me first, best man last. It was impossible to follow footsteps. We just worked our way down; partly walking, partly gliding with the boots like on skis. We walked a lot faster down than we came up. Once half way back, the snowing stopped and we had visibility all the way to the entry point at the glacier. I took my jacket off and enjoyed the fun. The snowbridges across the crevasses looked a bit scarier now than in the morning because there were additional deep footprints in them that had some dark color to them. Dark meant that the gap behind them was shining through. Instead of stepping on the snowbridges I tried to jump across the crevasses which worked fine. In no time we were again at the glacier entrance. Here we took the rope off and made more photos.

We were glowing with the good feeling of having made it when we entered the Defreggerhaus Alpine refuge. Here in the warm indoors we repacked our backpacks; stowed crampons and pickaxes which we hadn’t used and got ready for the second part of the descent. Below the Defreggerhaus snow changed into rain. It luckily wasn’t raining but we had a bit of drizzle. I was high on positive energy and endorphins by now. That kept me warm. I took off everything down to my shirt despite the fact that snow was all around us. The trail was a mix of 10 to 20 cm (6 in) of snow, running water, puddles, mud and rocks. Three of us now turned the hike into a run. Cham was also so happy about today’s events and his new hiking boots that kept his toes dry and toasty warm that he started with an extra fast pace. We followed and even increased his pace. One thing lead to another and before we knew it we three were running downhill. It felt good. I didn’t feel a thing of the cold. The scenery around us was lovely too. Everything was snow covered and in every valley a stream and waterfalls had formed. The lower elevation had this strange color to it, an unusual mix of mud-brown and green. It was amazing. It didn’t feel Austrian to me. I don’t know what it felt like. All I can say is that this scenery didn’t fit into my perception of Austria. In record time we were at the Johannishütte.

It was 3:30 p.m. Since all of us had a long drive home in front of them the majority decided to take the taxi from the Johannishütte to the parking lot in Hinterbichl. All warmed and psyched up I would have preferred to do it on foot, but one can’t have everything. The whole gang of 19 stopped for dinner in a countryside restaurant where we reminisced about the weekend. By 1 a.m. I finally made it to bed and by 5 a.m. the next business day started, returning me to everyday life.

About 6 roped parties with a total of 50 people made it to the top of Großvenediger that day. 9 of them from our team. On days with better weather the numbers are higher and one can do in one day what we have done in two and a half days. With enough experience and good weather the Großvenediger is a relatively easy mountain. But then again, any peak is relatively easy if you have experience and the weather conditions are fine.

I hope our next undertaking, Großglockner, Austria’s highest peak, will be met with as much success and that within a year I can call myself a proud ascender of a 6,000m (18,000ft) peak.