Munich Day Trip - hiking in Kufstein (Austria)

We've previously blogged about our winter sledding day-trip to Kufstein in Austria.  It's close to Munich, has beautiful mountain views, and of course hiking up and sledding down.  Perfect for a Saturday or Sunday.

I will be taking Frau A back this summer too, because it only gets better.  Snow is nice, but now we'll get the classic fir trees and meadow flowers in the Tirolean Alps.  Pictured below, I'm looking back north onto the mountains of the Wilder Kaiser which are actually located in Germany.  The trail has a lot of nice viewpoints like this, looking down into the valley and small village below.  Shorts are fine for hiking here when the weather is good; I take a fleece for when the sun hides or wind comes up at altitude, and water in the backpack until we reach the hut.

Further along the path you get a more extended view of the valley, again the Wilder Kaiser in the distance, and a small river running through the town now.  I think this water eventually connects with the Isar on it's way to Munich.  As the sun burns off the morning haze the peaks get a little sharper in the distance.  Nice view. 

 

This time, before reaching a hut, we go up to a peak called the Pendling Gipfelkreuz (gipfel = peak and kreuz = cross).  Not a really high destination relative to most in the Alps, but feels great to be on top.  The fleece is off at this point - worked up a sweat on the last incline.  Even changed baseball hats!

Not far from the summit is the Pendlinghaus (also known as Kufsteiner Haus, see the yellow sign above the door), another typical hut that offers food and drink to hikers.  The sign in the foreground says "wilkommen" -- welcome.  Now if you look closely at the antenna on the house, you'll see a glider behind it!  The pilot was circling around for over a half-hour and would zoom past the house, so I was able to snap the photo just as he passed my field of view.  On the right, you can see the same valley as the previous photogtraph.  That's the view when you have lunch here.  And you can rent a room for overnight too!  But I didn't eat here, because I wanted to get back to the hut from our winter hike, the Kala Alm.

So I headed back toward the Kala Alm, where we rented the sleds in winter.  It was in the Spring, and some peaks still had their snowcap.  In this direction we are seeing the Tirolean Alps vs. the Wilder Kaiser range in the previous photos.  They are a little larger and more dramatic.

When you arrive at the Kala Alm, it looks basically the same this time, just no snow.  People outside having food and drink, enjoying the weather... but then you notice something.  They can't rent sleds without snow, but they can rent Mountaincarts!  There's a whole row of them on the right below.  (Actually, you can still see some residual snow too, the last remnants of winter up here.)

A mountain cart is like a Big Wheel for grown-ups.  German (Austrian?) engineered, they are not powered (gravity is all you need, and more) but the do have two hand brakes like on a bicycle.  The right brake works the right rear wheel, the left brake the left rear wheel.  Therefore, they're not just for reducing speed, but to help navigate the winding corners of the path down.  When you slightly brake a wheel, it rotates more slowly than the other wheel does, therefore your cart will turn in that direction.  Brake a little with the right, you will will get a little help turning right.  The best riders use this to literally "skid" through the corners.  It is so much fun.

The two photos above are taken from (and link to) a site with more Mountaincart information.  I was too busy having fun to take photos of my own.  However, Frau A and I will be back and try to take some video too! 

Munich Day Trip - sledding in Kufstein (Austria)

We've posted already about example skiing day trips from Munich, but sledding is an option too -- particularly if there are non-skiiers in your group, or perhaps a few knees recovering from the latest ski wipe out, or maybe you just want to try something different.

One of my favorite destinations for sledding is Kufstein in Austria.  Here it is on Google Maps.  It's just across the border from Germany -- and just a little more than an hour in the car.  There is a small lake call Thiersee nearby, not visible at this map level, that is available for winter/summer sports too.

 

There are some destinations where you can take a ski lift up, and then sled down, but that's not very German/Austrian.  Half the fun is the hike up, plus it's good for you and makes the ride down all the more rewarding.  Frau A took this photo of me on the hiking trail, on the way to the Kala Alm (an Alpine hut).  This was about 10 in the morning, with fresh snow and strong sunshine already.  The path alternates between woods like this and open fields.

Here is Frau A in one of the open spaces, the benefit obviously is getting a great panorama of the surrounding peaks.  In total, the snow is probably 2 feet deep, with the top fresh layer being so soft that she steps in almost up to her boot top.  We've been ascending for a good 40 minutes at this point, and she's opened the jacket to cool down!

The ascent takes about 1-1.5 hours total, rising over 400 meters and covering more than 6km.  You can continue past the hut to higher elevations and great views, but this was our goal on that day.  It was so sunny at this point that many people took their jackets off!  We're at the end of the second table, enjoying a snack and some apfelschorle or local beer.

When you're ready, the hut will rent you a sled - three euros if I remember correctly.  The sledding path is actually a road that is not used in winter, so it's just for sledders & hikers.  The great thing is:  now that you've ascended so high, the ride down is almost 10 minutes long!  You can really get going too, and risk takers will wipe out!

    

We didn't take any video (next time!) but here is a YouTube movie from the same sledding path.  Notice how you have to steer around people hiking back up!

It was a great day trip for everyone, and thanks to 30+ friends from Toytown Germany for joining us!