Sunday morning. It is clear now, but we had showers earlier. The clouds are moving in and out of the high peaks, and the sunrise was orange-red.
Frau Tiefenbacher makes me an early breakfast, so I drink a couple cups of coffee before Lorenz picks me up. We stop at the bakery in Lienz and grab some rolls, then head to his parents' house to meet Jürgen, Petra and Agnes who are debating the weather and deciding if we should climb (a high via ferrata) as planned, or climb (hike lower peaks) instead.
As they debate I drink another coffee and stare at the high peaks outside, disappearing in the mist.
We decide to climb the lower peaks because of the unstable weather.
Jürgen works it out with Veronika, to meet up at the Rangersdorfer Hütte later in the day. Gail, Veronika, Maria, Ralph and Angelika will hike a lower loop, the rest of us will head out now to climb and pick up a couple mid-sized peaks.
We have driven from Tyrol into Carinthia province, and the difference in the trail maintenance is immediately noticeable.
As in: the trail is very hard to find, and when we find it it is basically like following a game trail.
Lorenz and Petra have been having a great year climbing and are in excellent shape, so they head right up the grassy slope, taking the dirt and mud steps up to the loose rock trail, barely marked with faint red and white blazes.
Jürgen, Agnes and I move slower, talking and starting to sweat as the mist moves in and out of the higher peaks. We are going up clumps of grass, then move into a sort of dirt ditch before really hitting signs of a trail, up higher into the rocks. It soon becomes mixed gravel and rock hiking, with faded paint blazes here and there, but the idea is simple: go up.
We come up past the summit of little Ebeneck. At 2283m (7490 ft.) it is a flat little grassy spot on the slope leading up. There is a tipped up rock painted red and white, so it is pretty easy to ignore. We will return past here on our way down, but we don't really stop in either direction.
Lorenz and Petra are on the summit by now, and as I climb I get a phone call. Lorenz wants to know if I want to go on to the next summit.
Sure, why not? But I have to get to this one first.
Onwards we push, up a rocky slope, then across a grassy slope until the trail turns left and heads up to a saddle. We crest the saddle and are basically on a twin summit.
Leitenkopf (2449m or 8034 ft) is kind of strange, in that the summit dips in the middle and there are two crosses, a large one and a smaller one. Both have registers to sign.
I head over to the larger summit cross, which is made of aluminum tubing and has a wind chime in the middle. It makes a nice, deep, resonant sound as the wind comes across the summit. We get photos here, then everyone heads to the second summit while I stay at the first and sign the register, take photos and look around.
I join our group, and we talk.
Jürgen and Agnes are going to stay here, while Petra, Lorenz and I go on to the upper summit. It looks to be 300 meters higher, (but is really only 200) and there is a valley we have to drop into before we can head up.
Petra is right: You never know if you will be back here, so why not go now?
We started down the side of Leitenkopf, going across a slippery wet grassy slope, then zig-zagging down the rocks until we were a couple hundred feet below the summit, and in the saddle between the two peaks. We literally stepped across the lowest point of the notch and started back up the other side, now on the side of Zellinkopf itself.
Lorenz and Petra were really good about slowing down for me, as I am not as young as I think, let alone as I used to be. I was working to keep up. It was pretty steep, and I could feel it in the steps up, but I was winded. Soon however, the climb became really fun and so, psychologically at least, I did not feel so tired.
We got up onto a narrow, almost knife-edged ridge leading upwards to the summit. It was great fun walking the rocks, then picking our way through spaces or skirting the side of some massive rock before getting back on the ridge. The view off both sides was tremendous and open, and looking up you could seethe ridge just slicing the air right up to the summit.
We hit one spot with three fixed ropes, but I have to say they weren't needed as the climbing was solid and easy. All three of us basically skirted right around the ropes, using them for maybe the first big step up (or to rest with in my case!).
Soon we were on the smaller, more defined summit of Zellinkopf, at 2597meters (8520 ft). This summit did not have a cross, but rather a wooden T with the canton (state) shield on it. Again we took photos, looked around, signed the summit register and just enjoyed the day.
Later, Jürgen said it took us 35 minutes to summit, but I thought it was an hour at least.
Coming down was as fun, and I got some good movies and photos of us moving down the ridge, climbing the rocks. Going across the slopes was easy, heading back up onto Leitenkopf again was a bitch, but then we were going across the slope, then down, past little Ebeneck aain and then into the trees.
The going became tougher; it was hot and sweaty with no colling breeze, and it was steep and twisty so we had to take large steps down.
Soon we were back down at Rangersdorfer Hütte, drinking beers and eating soup, talking about the amazing feats of the day.
We were dropped back at the Tiefenbacher Haus, showered, put our laundry into her machine, then we all headed out for pizza and pasta. Everybody laughed as the waitress raised her eyebrows when Gail and I ordered a litre of the house wine. We had a great time laughing and talking, then we said goodbye to Lorenz and Petra who are heading home to München (we will see them Thursday) and to Maria who headed home to Wien. The rest of us made plans for tomorrow (which were all for naught, as you will see) and Agnes said she looked into train tickets online, and could get us the "locals" two-for-one price for Thursday. God bless her. And, as it turns out, she ended up getting us first class for no extra cost! We NEVER go first class on the train. Double god double bless her.
This was a really fine day.
You just cannot find a bad hike or climb around here.
And our friends... none finer.