Climbing in the Wild at Baumgartenjoch

Having fond memories of the Austrian Vorderskopf (1858 m) hike with Annette, I was very excited when Bohdan offered another route in the area. Nowadays, the hiking bus can be taken with the Deutschlandticket, so there is no reason not to travel across the border for some summer fun. And, oh boy, was it fun!

Bohdan gave me two routes to choose from: a 15 hour hike through a few ridges at once, or a shorter backup plan, if the original would be "too long and difficult". I obviously went straight for the backup and started planning the details for the hike.

We left the bus at the Kaiserhütte stop, although one can ride until the Tölzer Hütte stop. The weather was already quite hot, but the morning dew was still giving us some cooling. There were tons of people near the road and parking lots, making me forget the distance and elevation of the route we chose.

The first 6.2 km and 950 elevation meters went by quite fine. I wasn't in my best shape, since I just submitted a scientific conference paper the evening before, but I was hopeful that I'd manage to complete the route.

The view starts being nice quite early, but the neighboring peaks like Vorderskopf (1858 m) or Östliche Karwendelspitze (2538 m) are hidden behind trees and tall grass, so you need to get high up to start taking photos.

Bohdan brought out his pair of sports Meta glasses and took some footage of me hiking. An interesting device for sure, especially in terms of portability, but the video and image quality leaves a lot to be desired. Since you usually carry a phone anyway, using it makes way more sense unless you're looking specifically for hands-free POV shots.

Anyway, speeding past most hikers (except a few sportier ones) we got to the crossroads leading to Tölzer Hütte (1825 m) and took the scenic route. The next section to the hut was quite tedious, with a lot of horizontal tracks taking time away from gaining elevation. The rockier terrain makes up for it though, giving a vast panorama of the surrounding mountains, all the way to Talelespitze (2104 m).

Once we got to the saddle-looking Alpine plain with Tölzer Hütte (1825 m), we saw a band of folk musicians playing their instruments, catching me completely off guard. We stayed a bit listening to the music and I wished this was an easy social hike so I could stay there longer. Alas, we had to go climb our next target - Schafreuter (2102 m).

Before doing that, I took one last glimpse over the edge of the hut fence to check out the Delpsjoch (1945 m) ridge and saw a dog being chased by a herd of cows. At least some entertainment on a tough hike!

Bohdan said it was time for his trail running exercise and ran up Schafreuter (2102 m). I took my time, running out of breath every other minute, burning under the sun (despite the forecasted clouds).

The last section to the peak was quite steep, so I took off my backpack (like most other hikers chilling on the summit) and headed there with no extra weight except my own.

Schafreuter (2102 m) is an amazing mountain to visit. It opens a breathtaking view of all surrounding areas: Walchensee with Herzogstand (1731 m) and Jochberg (1565 m), Sylvensteinsee with Hoher Zwiesler (1376 m) and Demeljoch (1924 m), Mittenwald with Soiernspitze (2257 m) and Hochkarspitze (2481 m) and many more. The neighboring Delpsjoch (1945 m) also looked great from across the valley, so we decided to head there next.

After a quick photoshoot, we descended to the hut, where the concert was already finished, and took the other way up. Bohdan as usual ran to the Delpsjoch (1945 m) summit, while I took my time suffocating from the hot air and lack of sleep.

Once I got to the top and took a breather, Bohdan gave me a choice: either we go down and continue north-east as originally planned, or we take the unmarked ridge with no trail and reach Baumgartenjoch (1939 m).

With my stupid chase of all hike-able peaks I suggested to visit the extra summit taking the ridge there. The track between the peaks wasn't that bad. It was an area of mountain goats and even occasional cows, so you could find some trampled paths in the grass. The slope wasn't crazy steep on one side (on the other it was just a straight drop), so there was no sense of immediate danger.

When we reached Baumgartenjoch (1939 m), the view we saw was largely the same. Bohdan gave me another set of options: either we go back west, traverse the route east across the almost-vertical slope, or we take the slope south-east in hopes of finding a good way down to our original route.

I chose the last option, since I was already tired, and from the top it looked like the least effort. We took the slope and started heading down along the ridge. I kept taking glances over the edge, trying to find a spot to safely descend, but the vertical drop continued all the way along the ridge. As we kept going down, the slope started becoming more and more steep, and before we knew it, we found ourselves having to carefully climb down instead of simply hiking downhill.

Bohdan in his usual manner ran off ahead, leaving my line of sight. Meanwhile, I slipped on some long wet grass and fell down, grabbing random ferns with my hands to slow down. It worked, but I badly hurt my elbow and finger. After breaking another finger near Vordere Kesselschneid (2001 m) and soon after recovering falling off a cliff at Sonnenberg (1622 m) this winter, I try to avoid such incidents, but they keep finding me nonetheless.

Although I called Bohdan plenty of times, he was too far to hear me and help out, so I gathered my strength and kept going. A few minutes later he peaked over a steeper section asking if I was coming down, since he made quite a bit of progress and was waiting for me to catch up. He also suggested climbing down backwards with my ass towards the sun, which demanded more endurance, but let me keep my balance and find footing more easily.

After almost 3 hours of climbing down 900 elevation meters, we finally reached the Baumgartenbach stream and took a small rest. By then, I was bruised from falling, scratched from the spiky plants, itchy from ants and nettle, blundered by rocks and pebbles, and even covered in weird plant juices. The only thing I wanted was to get home, but the way back was still very long and I barely had strength to keep going.

The sky was getting dark and the clouds looked rainy, so we hurried up to get on the original trail and head back down. Walking past the Jagdhütte Roßangerl I quickly realized that I'm too tired to hike properly, barely moving along the trail. There was not much time left until the last bus, which got me quite worried. A few locals passed by us in their cars, and we waited in the ditches for them to drive by.

After passing Baumgartensattel (1554 m), we felt the first drops of rain. Soon after, the thunderstorm followed, soaking us in fresh yet cold water. Although I had a waterproof jacket and a backpack cover, everything from my waist down got completely wet.

With a bit over one hour left before the last bus towards Lenggries and 2 hours of hiking ahead, Bohdan told me he wants to make it alone. He suggested that I should take the trail up to Tölzer Hütte (1825 m), while he will trail run downhill to our point of origin near the Kaiserhütte bus stop. Although it was a bitter situation, I said my goodbyes and kept pushing towards the hut, seeing Bohdan disappear into the mist of the thunderstorm.

As I arrived to the hut, all wet and dirty, I was greeted with amused looks from numerous hiking groups inside. I was by far not the only one seeking shelter there, with tons of people hanging their clothes in the drying room at the entrance. After some negotiations, I got a place for the night and tried eating dinner. After everything that happened, it was difficult to push food down my throat, so I decided to multitask and plan for the next day.

I had a dentist appointment near Munich at 9 AM, meaning I'd have to take the 6:45 AM train from Lenggries. It takes 35 minutes to drive to Lenggries and 1.5 hours to hike down in dry weather. All in all, I had to get up at roughly 4 AM to continue my descent. The biggest downside of this plan was the drive to Lenggries. The bus in the valley starts operating at noon, so I had to either hitchhike or grab a taxi. I found some 24/7 Lenggries taxi numbers and went to sleep.

After hours of bed bug torture, bleeding from the scratches, and muscle pain from the climb, the alarm rang and I set off, trying to call the taxi on the way. To my complete surprise, the 24/7 taxi didn't respond at all, the others didn't pick up, and the only operator I reached told me they start operating at 10:00 AM and all the cars are already booked until 13:00. In other words, my only hope was catching a local car going shopping or working in Lenggries or Bad Tölz. This reminded me of my Mount Fujisan (富士山) (3776 m) hike where I also spent the night walking on an empty road towards civilization.

I put on my head lamp and headed downhill in the dark of the night. The way down was as long and annoying as the way up, but the aforementioned long horizontal sections actually played in my favor this time, allowing me to pick up speed. I tried looking around at the views a bit more while going down, but the sky was still too dark to make out any silhouettes or mountain shapes.

After roughly 80 minutes of walking down, I reached the parking lot and saw a car speed past me. Being desperate for any vehicle, I stayed on the road towards Lenggries, until I eventually reached the same car parked on the side of the road. Inside was a local poacher scouting the hillsides with his binoculars, carrying several hunting rifles on the back seats of the SUV. He was not pleased with my presence at all, threatening me to back off and suggesting I wait another 6 hours until the bus comes.

I let him be and kept going, eventually crossing the border back into Germany. Several cars drove by in the opposite direction, but I was hopeful I'll find at least someone to pick me up. After more walking, I heard a car behind me and immediately made myself seen by waving and jumping all over the place.

A local lady working in the Bad Tölz Kanzlei took me with her and dropped me off at the Lenggries train station! We chatted about work, local housing prices, education, weather, hiking and nature. I was trying to keep her in good company while not being too annoying with questions. Afterwards, I made it just in time for the dentist appointment and arrived there all dirty and dead inside.

All in all, I would suggest to NOT do this hike. We had plenty of chances to handle the hike better, but kept making wrong decisions. First, doing Schafreuter (2102 m) and Delpsjoch (1945 m) while tired is already strenuous, we could have easily skipped one of them. Second, walking the ridge towards Baumgartenjoch (1939 m) is not the best idea if you don't know the terrain, we could have gone back to Tölzer Hütte (1825 m) without taking on this ridge. Third, climbing down a 50% incline for three hours is not the most optimal route to take, we could have taken the same ridge back to the huts. Fourth, this whole trip could have been shortened or skipped due to the potential thunderstorm showing up on the weather forecast. Fifth, we could have hitchhiked one of the cars that drove past us, I'm sure they were going towards Lenggries, or at least towards civilization. We made the wrong move every time, and this is what happened. You should learn from my mistakes!