Frau Hitt: Push Through or Lose

Since Mikuláš wasn't going to stay in Germany for much longer, I wanted to do a more challenging hike to top off the adventures we had together. Thus, I suggested one from our backlog, going from Scharnitz to Innsbruck across the mountains. I've never hiked there before, only taking a cable car to Hafelekarspitze (2334 m), so I had only a rough estimate of the difficulty based on my fuzzy memory and the data on the map. Still, this was an old goal of mine and the occasion was worth the risk, so I bit the bullet and went ahead with the idea.

The two of us arrived in Scharnitz at 8:30 after waking up at 3:30, being already sleepy without even starting the hike. I envisioned this would be the case, so I went to Yorma's in advance and bought a cola bottle with a high dosage of caffeine and sugar to fuel me at least for the beginning of the hike.

Easy beginning

The walk through Scharnitz all the way to Gleirsch Klamm was easy and uneventful, the spring was taking over the land, so I kept getting distracted by the flowers starting to bloom. Closer to the gorge we came across many scenic points, stopping to take some photos every time. Around that point we saw a sign saying "Möslalm täglich geöffnet", which gave me a bit of hope that we would be able to get a drink and visit the restroom, as that building was the last one before the steepest section of the climb.

When we arrived at the gorge though the realization hit me. My shoes are not up to the task of walking on the slippery paths on the side of the speedy mountain stream that carved its way through the rocky hill, so it was time to put on the shoe spikes. We continued through all the way to Gleirschschlucht-Blick and onwards across the river, where we discovered a frog sitting quite high up the hill. As we continued on, we saw a lot of frogs nesting and taking care of laid eggs, jumping out of the way or at our feet as we walked by. Treading carefully trying not to disturb or hurt the frogs, we went ahead to Jagdhütte Gleirschtal, where we started to get a good look at the ascent that was ahead of us.

The trouble is right around the corner

Passing by the obviously closed Möslalm (1262 m) we made a quick snack break near the gate. We also saw a charging station for e-bikes, which was a nice touch to such a remote location. There, I saw a huge ant nest swarming with tiny bugs hard at work, all on the sunny side. Seeing them gave me hope that the nature higher up would have also transitioned to spring by now. Nevertheless, my hopes were immediately ruined as the path straight ahead was covered by a thick 50 cm layer of snow, getting thicker with each gained meter of altitude.

We kept going from one patch of uncovered moss under a tree to another, getting snow out of our shoes every time, until eventually we reached the actual bottom of the mountain. There, the hard part of the hike began. The snow at that point was more than a meter deep, we kept either slipping down or getting stuck. At 1700 m (according to mapy.cz) my shoes had puddles of snow water inside them, forcing us to walk faster to not freeze our legs off. At 1800 m sections of the snow started getting covered in ice, making slipping down even more likely. Considering the steep incline and abundance of cliffs with high drop-offs, this wasn't a fate I wanted to happen, so I slowed down even more, leaving Mikuláš far ahead of me. At 1850 m we decided to horizontally cross to the other path, as this one kept getting more dangerous and difficult to tread, and the other path had a slightly easier section.

Hitting rock bottom

The real difficulty began at 1950-2000 m above sea level. This section on the map is marked as "Section requiring via ferrata equipment" which we didn't have, and it showed. While my friend was doing better than me, slowly making progress towards the top and waiting for me, while trying not to freeze himself, I was desparately slipping down all the time, grasping at the ice and snow with both my arms and feet to not slide too far back, destroying my whole progress and tiring me even faster. Every few successful meters up I had to stop to catch a breath, as my vision started narrowing from the lack of relaxation and oxygen. The total 700 m vertical climb took about an insane 2.5 hours, but at the end we both managed to get to Frau Hitt (2270 m) which marked the highest point of the route.

It was already getting dark, but there was an easily visible Höttinger-Alm (1487 m) which we set as our next destination. At that point I was feeling nauseous because of all the strain I put on myself, but being at the top of the mountain, there was no other way but down. The next problem I faced was that the way down was either too steep and slippery, because the sun was melting the thin layer of snow on the rocky southern side of the mountain range, or covered in too deep of a snow layer to go down fast without getting my already cold and hardly mobile feet even more cold and wet because of a new portion of snow water.

Dashing back down

Mikuláš went down to a more level spot on the hill, having an easier time traversing the rough terrain, but I was already so scared from slipping down on the way up that I didn't want to take my chances and took way too much time. Getting closer to the Alm, we saw a herd of mountain goats just a few meters ahead of us, which made for another great memory, since I've never seen these goats from such a close distance. We waited and filmed them while they passed us, climbing higher on the rocks, continuing to the hut and reaching it just as the sun hid behind the horizon, covering the whole valley in evenfall darkness.

We put on our head lamps, stretched a bit, and checked the train schedule. To our disappointment, the last RB to Garmisch was going to leave Innsbruck at roughly 20:40, meaning we had about 90 minutes to go all the way down to the station. The route ahead of us was 6.3 km long and 915 m high, but having no other choice, we headed down, trying not to trip or over-exhaust our knees. The panoramic view of the city beneath us showed a great number of churches and old buildings, taking some focus away from the rush and tiredness, so we managed to get to the city center some time ahead of schedule, giving us a chance to walk across the old town while taking in the architecture. Most of the dwellers were already at home preparing to go to bed, so we had no trouble navigating the area and enjoying the mostly empty streets that showed us their secrets and hidden treasures like small statues and frescoes. At the station we headed straight into the train and even had about 5-10 minutes to buy a ticket and discuss the highlights of the trip.

All in all, it was one of the best hikes I've had so far, leaving lasting memories of troubles and triumphs along the way, and I highly suggest it to skilled hikers that want to take on the challenge in late summer, when the snow has fully melted. Also, I want to give a separate thank you to Mikuláš, who put up with my slowness and whining, while helping me and cheering me up along the whole way. This would have been impossible for me had he not been there.

P.S. There's a blog post going through how I make the routes for the website that you can read.