Dach Gottes
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This place really is heaven on earth!
The day after I finished my week high up in the
mountains, my first full day back in the valley, I came to the conclusion that
it was much to hot for me, it was about 30°C (atleast) in the shadows. That together with the facts that I already missed
being up there and that my brother-in-law really wanted to go up for his first
time on a glacier, made me decide to look for a guide to take us up to a region
that consists out of snow, ice and rocks. So after a visit to the tourists
office and a couple of phonecalls to 'Bergführerburo Matrei' later our plans started to get more concrete.
On monday July 21st we would go up to the "Degreggerhaus" where we would
meet our guide, and the next day we would spend a couple of hours on the
glacier. We would go to the top of 5 different mountains over 3000 meters high.
I had been on the Gross Venediger in 1990, but
the other mountains would be totally new for me.
So that first day started by doing some shopping, so we
had plenty of food for the next two days. It was about 10.45 am when we were
finally underway to our first stop. We started in Hinterbichl and would have to
climb about 1500 m that day. The first part wasn't really interesting at all, it
was hot because we weren't really high and it was almost midday and the path was
actually a road. Once in a while a taxi passed us. We knew that part of the way
taking a taxi was a possibility but thought it a bit rudiculous, 
'cause then we
only had about 2,5 hours to do by foot. Luckily after we passed the
Johannishütte the path became smaller and the heat got more endurable. So in
the next 2 hours we completed the climb and reached (after 5 minutes walking
through the rain) our final destination for that day. There we found our sleeping place
and got something to eat. After that 
we waited for our guide to arrive while
playing some cardgames. When he arrived I was pretty pleased, 'cause I 'knew' him
from Gross Glockner. At that moment I already knew the next day was going to be
a lot of fun. So after making arrangments for the next day and talking some more
about the earlier climb of the Gross Glockner, we went to sleep. It would be a
short night...
Tuesday July 22nd then. After an early breakfast we
started with the climb to the Gross
Venediger (3674 m). I was there before, in the year
1990, but didn't remember much of it anymore. Everything probably looked a lot
different then too. Together with the pictures of this year I'll include some of
13 years ago. The last part to reach the top was over a really small edge! I
thought that was 
pretty cool! Last time I was there, we stood at the top with at
least 40 people. This time it was at first just the 3 of us, just terrific!
The next target was the Rainer Horn (3560 m), this one we
reached after a journey over snow and ice... Luckily Martin was there to make us
some sort of "stairs". I don't think we would have gotten up there
otherwise! But what a beautiful view we had when we got there! After that we also went to
the tops of the Schwarze Wand (3511 m), the Kristallwand (3329 m) and the Hoher
Zaun (3467 m). At one time
one of my legs totally disappeared in the snow (and this time I was staying in
the footsteps, the other time maybe not, I admit ...) and I really couldn't get out
by myself anymore, even pulling me out didn't work. It took some digging to get
me out of that one! Seems my legs are pretty long ...
Then before we knew it, we were back were it all
started... I really regretted that! About 6-7 hours we wandered over that
glacier, just the 3 of us...now we got overwelmed by the crowdiness at the cabine
again. After a drink and some food it was time to start back down, back to the real world, and mostly back
to the heat!
This was a terrific day, which I will probably remember
for the rest of my life! I can't
compare this area with the Gross Glockner,
'cause the two of them are totally different. But both of them won a piece of my
heart, and both of them I still remember as if it was yesterday!
Thanks Martin for this wonderful
experience!
The day after I finished my week high up in the
mountains, my first full day back in the valley, I came to the conclusion that
it was much to hot for me, it was about 30°C (atleast) in the shadows. That together with the facts that I already missed
being up there and that my brother-in-law really wanted to go up for his first
time on a glacier, made me decide to look for a guide to take us up to a region
that consists out of snow, ice and rocks. So after a visit to the tourists
office and a couple of phonecalls to 'Bergführerburo Matrei' later our plans started to get more concrete.
On monday July 21st we would go up to the "Degreggerhaus" where we would
meet our guide, and the next day we would spend a couple of hours on the
glacier. We would go to the top of 5 different mountains over 3000 meters high.
I had been on the Gross Venediger in 1990, but
the other mountains would be totally new for me.
