Friday Photo Favorite: The Höllentalklamm

The Höllentalklamm [2]: Across the joch and through the klamm

Last week we shared the first part of our day trip to Garmisch.  Our destination: the Höllentalklamm (gorge).

The map is a little chaotic, but at this point we had finally made it from bus, to train, to another train, to a gondola, to another gondola... and arrived at the Osterfelderkopf panorama viewing area (end of the upper yellow arrow).

Now we really start walking.  We're going to hike left-to-right across the Hupfleitenjoch ("joch" = pass), the name outlined in yellow just under the Osterfelderkopf.  Then we reach the last yelow box on the right, the Höllentalangerhütte ("hütte" = hut -- it's the upper border of the gorge).  We'll walk down through the Höllentalklamm (labeled on map) to the bottom yellow box (Höllentaleingangshütte, the gorge's lower border).

From here, we'll descend the rest of the way to the town of Hammersbach. At it's train station we'll board the Zugspitzbahn back to Garmisch, retracing our train & bus spaghetti schedule back to Munich.

In the above photo, we've left the panorama viewpoint and Frau A is leading the way on the trail.

Pictured below, we could see the Hupfleitenjoch ("pass") snake its way through the peaks. 

At this point, the Osterfelderkopf (the mountain we're on, taking up the left side of the photo above) is shielding our view of the Zugspitze.  As we emerge through that gap ahead on the trail, we should be able to see it...

Sure enough, 40 minutes later we make it around the bend and can see the tallest mountain in Germany (below).  If you look carefully at the bottom of the photo, you will see the trail (with a couple of other hikers) continuing on the left side, and a small white hut on the right side lying about 300m/1000ft below. 

The next photo shows the trail better.  It snakes its way along the face of the mountain, and will wrap around and disappear left again before heading back right to the hut.  It took 45 minutes to get there from here. 

Finally, we reached the hut... and discovered that it is NOT the Höllentalangerhütte that we expected.  And it was boarded up.  We figured out that we still had another 45 minutes of hiking past this before the gorge starts!

When we finally made it to the right hut, we paused and indulged in a cold apfelschorle and snacks we brought. 

Upon leaving the hut, the trail became hedged in by walls of rock and we started to see hints of the natural forces that created the gorge, like this late-summer waterfall (it's probably much stronger in the Spring)... 

...also as we descended, the water became more powerful and the trail hugged tightly to/over it.

Eventually we came to the last point of direct sunlight (for a while)!  You can barely see the top of the gorge, and the trail now becomes steps that descend rapidly along the rock face, traing to keep up with the churning water.

The tiny colored flecks at the deepest part of the photo below are a band of other hikers!

Below is a photo taken a few moments later -- showing better the trail's steps and fellow hikers ahead.
The water on the right just drops off completely to the next small pool below, and is quite noisy now.

At certain points the gorge would open up again, letting in light.  This was my chance to photograph Frau A on the stairs -- you can see the rushing water, eroding boulders, and mini waterfalls better looking back up the path.

Eventually, the gorge gets so narrow that there is no room for a path anymore -- so they carved tunnels through the rock!  Below, some hikers are entering a tunnel on the left, while others have emerged down below.

This is what the inside of the tunnels looked like.  The wires are running electricity for lights.
Some were dry like this, but others were dripping water (and slippery) and quite cold.

Some points in the tunnels had "lookout windows" that provided a view to the water again (but dark)! 

In one place the path had to change sides, so a small bridge was built to connect tunnels on either side.

Finally, after 2.7km length and 300m descent, you emerge at the bottom and see the other "hütte".

After 30 more minutes walking through a forest path, you reach the town of Hammersbach.  On the way to the train station we paused to photograph a small Bavarian church with an interesting bench outside: 

It took a while to get there (and we could have taken a more direct route), but it was worth it.  The Höllentalklamm is fascinating.  For the next time, we're thinking about hiking some trails even closer to the big Zugsptize...

Valentine's Weekend Part II - World Cup Skiing

We've been trying to make the most of living in Germany by trying new activities and sampling different aspects of the culture, not just the beer. 

After kicking off Valentine's weekend with a surprisingly fun Cuban - Bavarian fusion concert, Herr J took me down to Garmisch (Garmisch-Partenkirchen) on Sunday for the Women's Downhill event of the World Cup of Alpine Skiing. 

Despite a few previous ski trips with friends in Colorado (in which I stuck to the green slopes and more enjoyed the hot tub and après ski activities than the skiing), I only learned to ski last year. And I'm hooked. But, I'll never be a fast or aggressive skiier...I'm just happy to enjoy the skiing and the gorgeous views. 

But this was a great new experience - I think I'd even watch it on TV now! 

We decided to take an early train down to Garmisch, thinking we would beat the crowd on the train that arrived before the event. While we were there in time to get seats, we forgot that most of the Germans would go down a couple hours early - either to ensure being on time, or to enjoy the festivities before the event start. 

Unlike many events I've attended, this one was amazingly well-planned. They had shuttle buses ready at the train station to take people to the slopes. Let me be clear....they had many buses, enough to actually carry everyone there who had arrived on the train. Event planners in Germany do a great job with huge events, though I guess 200 years of Oktoberfest has taught them many lessons in logistics and crowds!

There were various entertainers and bands along the path to the venue, giving it a very festive atmosphere:

 Percussion Band Using Ski Equipment as Instruments    

 

  

The "bouncers" were a great idea! Very clever to distinguish security and make them fun. At the same time, being on stilts gave them a view above the crowd to see better (and be seen). 

We had some time before the event began, and started the morning with some coffee and baguette pizza, listening to the band. These guys were fascinating...I wish I'd brought the camera with video because it's so hard to describe. They had a pretty good bass player and a very large band. Though I just can't understand how (or why) they turned Sweet Home Alabama into a reggae song. They were fun - playing a range of 80s, Oktoberfest/après ski songs, American classics, and a lot of AC/DC. They weren't bad on AC/DC, but You Shook Me All Night Long just doesn't sound right at medium volume...it needs to be just on the border of too loud!

As with most events in Germany, there was a new model car on display, this time Audi's A1. It would be a great city car, and the interior was colorful and reminded me of a Mini Cooper.

The actual viewing area turned out to be a really great venue. Obviously you can't see the entire downhill course from the stands, so it's shown on big screens as the skiiers progress through the course. The great part about watching the screen is that we see their times and how they compare to the leader at each gate. Then we see them come down through the finish line. So, it's the best of both live and TV viewing!  

Lindsey Vonn (USA), 2nd place 

Stacey Cook (USA)  

Lara Gut (Switzerland)  

Tina Maze (Slovenia)    

Macarena Simari Birkner (Argentina)

(I loved Team Argentina's colorful, whimsical uniforms. They remind me a little of the crazy Japanese pop art style wallpaper on Windows 7!)

The announcers were great - they seamlessly switched between German, English, and French. And the music guy had a pretty odd sense of humor. They tried to match the music to the skiier, but sometimes had to just fall back on national stereotypes that weren't quite right. For Argentina's Macarena Simari-Birkner, obviously they played the Macarena (and asked the crowd to dance along!). For her sister Maria Belen Simari-Birkner, somehow they decided to play the Ketchup Song. I guess it was the next Spanish song that tried to gain the popularity of the Macarena, but it was a stretch! For Lindsey Vonn, they played the Mission Impossible Theme; for one of the Swiss competitors, they played a yodeling song about Heidi.  

Regina Mader (Austria)

Not surprisingly, the winner was an Austrian - Elisabeth Goergl. But we were thrilled to see American Lindsey Voss take the silver, ahead of Germany's favorite Maria Riesch. She had quite a large cheering section and seemed to know the course well (she looked so much more comfortable with it than anyone else).

If you've ever skiied in Austria, then you understand why we expect an Austrian to win. At least based on the 10 year olds who are whizzing down the mountain in perfect, effortless form. By the time they're in their 40s, they're bored with the skiing and are the ones you see skiing down a black backwards, or linking together endless chains of 360°s down the slope. Maybe it's nature, maybe it's nurture...but they're just good.

Unfortunately the Men's Downhill training session was cancelled due to poor conditions. However, we warmed up with Glühwein and then amused ourselves in the Milka pavilion. Milka (known as the chocolate with the purple cow) sponsors a team of European skiiers, including Germany's Maria Riesch. For this event, they had a pavilion with a giant inflatable purple cow, and games. There were 5 stations of winter inspired games. We first decided to play the snowball toss (throw foam balls through a target, with a speedometer showing how fast you threw) after Herr J commented that no one seemed to know how to throw a ball here. That's somewhat true, as European sports involve fancy footwork, not throwing. So, most European boys do not grow up knowing how to throw a baseball. However, by age 5 they blow away the typical American kid with their soccer ball tricks. So, I told him he needed to show how it was done. He was impressive, throwing one 85 km/h. (these are soft foam balls, not baseballs) directly through the target. Once I realized they were giving out chocolate to all participants, I decided I would gladly risk public humiliation if choclate was the reward. I got in 2 or 3, so I guess those high school softball days did have a benefit!

 Fresh melted Milka chocolate!!Of course, we played the other games to get chocolate as well....a video ski simulator, a timed word game matching up words to a yodel, and an old fashioned "video game" where you lead a probe through a winding path and try not to touch the sides.

Plus, it was another lovely day in the mountains!