Planned tours

2011 I hiked more than ever but it looks like I might easily top this in 2012. Thanks to some lucky circumstances I was able to take 17 days of vacation into 2012. My current plan to get rid of them is to take 40 at the end of the year and leave cold Germany in November for New Zealand to walk the southern half of the Te Araroa.

Unlike last year, holidays create a lot of 4-day weekends this year. I don’t have any specific plans yet. But from the top of my head I would like to do at least one multi-day trip to Hoher Tauern and one to Karwendel. And I would like to finally ascend Half Dome.

Additionally, I registered for a marathon in April (Dreiburgenland Marathon) and I’m thinking about adding two more (Karlsruhe & Munich).

Gear

Currently I’m pretty happy with my gear. I might upgrade my Laser Competition if I do the Te Araroa. So no urgent plans to go shopping and I will keep my resolution from 2011: get rid of at least one old piece of equipment, before buying a new piece.

Monday I did a little research. According to the DAV the tour was 10-11h, other sources mentioned between 8 and 10 hours. Sunrise was 6:58, sunset 17:00, but the last cable car from the summit left 16:45 already. I wasn’t sure how much time I would need. Usually I’m faster than the fastest time given for a hike but to be on the safe side I decided to start at 6:00.

My alarm rang 4:30. My pack stood ready in the hallway and after a quick breakfast and a very important coffee I left around 5:00. Not surprisingly the roads were empty and I made good time to Garmisch, where I parked at the Ski jump stadium.

I was putting on my boots when another car right next to me and a young woman got out. We chatted for a minute, both surprised that somebody else was here that early, before I started walking at 6:18.

The morning air was still freezing cold and I wore just a soft-shell and a shirt. To warm up I started running to the entrance of Partnach Klamm (Partnach Gorge). I slowed down once I reached the entrance of the gorge. Usually you have to pay to pass through, but nobody cared that early. The roaring water sounded a lot louder in the darkness and with no other people around than just a week ago. But I didn’t spend a lot of time to enjoy it and kept on walking.

Time passed quickly when I was walking along the Partnach. The first time I checked my watch was when I passed a sign saying “8h to Zugspitze”. It was 7:50 which meant I was on time to easily make it up before the last cable car. Five minutes later I passed Bockhütte, where I stopped for a cup of tea and a muesli bar.

I could see the sun shining on the peaks ahead but it was still dark around me. But the path was excellent and I continued to make good time. I spotted some prayer flags shaking in the wind ahead of me before I saw Reintalangerhütte. I had hoped to get a coffee there but the hut was closed, so I again stopped for only five minutes for another tea and a energy bar.

So far I had already climbed five hundred meters but the incline had been minimal. When I reached the Oberer Anger at the Reintal the trail turned to the North-West towards Brunntalkopf. The morning cold had kept me cool but the climb changed this quickly.

I thought I heard some kids voices behind me, but when I turned around I saw a flock of chamois running cross the valley. They were surprisingly quick even though their movements looked a bit comical, like they were kids running for the first time.

After another 30 minutes I finally made it out of the shade and into the sun. I wasn’t really cold thanks to the climb but it was still nice to take off the softshell and enjoy the sunshine. For the first time I had view out of the valley and over some of the surrounding peaks. The air was perfectly clear and promised some awesome views from the summit.

I decided it was time for a break, but when I sat down and checked my progress on the map I noticed that I was just a few minutes away from Knorrhütte. So I got up again and made it there in less than 10 minutes. It wasn’t even 11:00 but I was hungry and had a long lunch break on the bench in front of the hut.

Soon later I encountered the first few patches of snow which quickly turned into a solid snow cover. But the snow was mostly frozen solid and the tracks easy to follow. A sign at the last hut said that all the markers had been removed but I still spotted dozens of poles ahead of me and had no problems following the trail.

Another 2 1/2 hours later I reached the Zugspitz Platt where I heard screams of people sledding down the snow covered slopes.

The trail turned right and went over a snow field up towards the summit. The snow here was already pretty deep and I was already tired. Slowly I made my way up, sinking in every few steps. At the upper end of the snow field the trail turned right, here some steel cables were fixed to the rock as a hand rail.

The trail was a little exposed and the final bit over a thin ridge had some exciting views down to both sides. But there were the only parts of the hike were experience was necessary.

Clouds moved in and the wind picked up just minutes before I reached the summit. Here I was met by hundreds of tourists, a few (2? 3?) restaurants, and way too much noise. It was 13:40 and I needed only 7h 20m including many breaks.

After the mandatory summit shots I found a mostly quiete place to eat. I just made it to the cable car at 14:00 back down to Eibsee and from there I took the cog railroad to Garmisch, just in time to see the clouds enclose Zugspitze.

The Pennine Way National Trail, 268 miles of chasing the Pennine Mountain tops along the rugged backbone of England, from the Peak District through the Yorkshire Dales and over Hadrian’s Wall to the Cheviots. Amongst the finest upland walking in England.

We didn’t start right on the Pennine Way but took the bus to Barnard Castle instead, because the only thing that is worse than English weather is her majesty’s public transport system. The walk itself was nice. Very well marked and easy to follow. The only thing I didn’t like was the fact that we were mostly walking through farmland and it never really felt like getting away from civilization. Given the location this is hardly a surprise but worth mentioning.

Yesterday we went walking along Hadrian’s Wall with great weather. We passed Sycamore Gap (aka the Robin Hood Tree), Vercovicium and a few very nice cliffs that surely have a name, too, but I can’t find it. Afterwards we enjoyed a nice burger in The Twice Brewed Inn just a few hundred meters away from Hadrian’s Wall.

View 2011-08-19 11:05 in a larger map

Weather around Munich looked pretty good but when I turned south towards Austria, I could already see dark clouds hanging over the Inn valley. Traffic was light at first until I left the autobahn in Kufstein and followed smaller roads to St. Johann and Kitzbühel. It seemed like an organized group of cars with with trailers and a yellow license plates was out to slow me down again and again.

But I still made it to Matrei in a little bit over two hours, turned west into the Virgen valley. Another few minutes along a tiny mountain road until I finally reached the Bodenalm parking lot where I started walking.

Clouds were hanging low, humidity was high, and I was wondering if it was a good idea to come here. Luckily I thought the answer was “yes” and I started walking.

Right from the start the trail climbed up the mountainside. The climb alone would have made me sweat but what felt like 100% humidity made it even worse. So I slowed down a bit and took plenty of pictures for the first 45 minutes.

Just when I was about to get going, I saw the Nilljochhütte a few hundred meters ahead of me and for the first time since I started walking a few rays of sunlight shining thought the clouds.

The sun quickly disappeared again but I walked to the hut anyway. It was about time for my second breakfast, so I stopped and enjoyed a pretty good espresso on the terrace while I studied my map. I couldn’t decide whether to take the direct route up or do a little detour east. The waitress told me that I would probably not have a great view – could have guessed that myself – but if the clouds would open up the longer route was worth it. So I gave it a try.

After a short climb the trail turned east and going was easy. So far the signage along the trail was excellent but I somehow managed to miss a sign anyway. Instead of turned North and climbing up I kept walking until I hit Gotschaunalm, a small wooden hut in a meadow, surrounded by multiple benches.

It was only an hour since my last stop but when I saw another guest eat a delicious looking Krapfen I quickly changed my mind and got one, too.

Ten minutes later I walked back and found the sign to turn uphill easily. I still don’t know how I missed it going the other way. Through many short switchbacks the trail climbed uphill, but the clouds never opened up.

The wind had picked up a bit and going up wasn’t as bad as the first bit to Nilljochhütte. I enjoyed walking and quickly climbed about 600 meters to reach the level of Bonn-Matreier-Hütte.

Going the long way was definitely worth it because along the way I spotted Edelweiß and a few minutes later a single marmot running over a field of rocks and then staring at me from the distance.

After I had crossed this rock field it was just a short climb and perhaps 500 meters to Bonn-Matreier-Hütte.

It was 14:30, so I stopped for a Radler, checked in and dropped off some of my gear in the room before I left to Säulkopf 45 minutes later. My original plan was to do Säulkopf (3209m) and Raulkopf (3070m) but I didn’t have enough time for both.

I returned along the way I came from for a few hundred meters, but instead of turning East and heading back down I continued North. The trail crossed a field of rocks and seemed to disappear just ahead of me. It didn’t but from here on the path was hard to spot weaving uphill along the rocky mountainside. From the hut it was roughly 450 meters uphill to reach the peak, the first 400m were easy. Looking at the map I had already noted that the trail turned from a dashed line into a dotted one, so I wasn’t surprised to see some climbing ahead of me. It wasn’t too difficult, I guess 45 degrees over large slaps of wet rock, but I was still glad to have a metal rope to hold on to.

A few minutes later the metal summit cross appeared ahead of me. In the howling wind I quickly put on a dry shirt and the wind shirt. But it didn’t help much. It was freezing cold (literally, I passed many patches of snow) and the view wasn’t worth staying so I descended

After a few steps I stepped on a flat, skate board shaped rock and didn’t notice that it was just sitting on top of the other rocks. It was steep, so not surprisingly, the rock started behaving like a skate board, too. Still surprised about the ride I fell on my butt perhaps a meter further down. This could have been extremely painful but my reflexes were good enough, so I walked away with a scare only.

More careful I continued downhill and quickly reached the hill overlooking the hut where I found a small stone bench. Just in time the clouds opened up and allowed me to enjoy 15 minutes of sunshine before heading back to the hut.

A quick, hot shower later I went back to to enjoy dinner. This was the first DAV hut where I was ever offered a four course meal, so I had to take the opportunity. Food was good, a big mixed salad, mushroom soup, Schnitzel and a coffee cream desert. I was already tired and the full stomach made me even sleepier, so I returned to my room around 20:30, read a bit and fell asleep around 21:00. Only to be woken up again around 23:00 by loud music.

Earlier I had already seen a group of around 10 workers getting drunk and this was a DAV hut so I expected silence after 22:00. After 10 minutes the noise didn’t stop so I went down and found out that the DAV had allowed huts to move Hüttenruhe to 0:00. Fuck you! At least for me this means I won’t stay at Bonn-Matreier-Hütte if I can avoid it.

I did manage to get some sleep, woke up around 7:00, packed, had a quick breakfast (not nearly as yummy as the dinner) and started walking.

My original plan was to follow the Venediger Höhenweg to Eisseehütte and from there down into the valley back to my car. But in addition to the low clouds and lack of view I had enjoyed the day before it was constantly raining right from the time I started walking.

After a few minutes I passed a group of mountain goats, watching me from the distance.

But this was pretty much the high point of the day. Rain stopped sometimes for a few minutes but walking wasn’t any fun, so I decided to take a shorter route down to my car.

The trail descended quickly, passed a farm where a few bored looking cows stared into the fog while I walked by.

A bit later the trail entered the woods and continued in many switchbacks down to the parking lot, where the first hikers of the day just arrived and starting walking.

Weather didn’t improve so I decided to call it a day and return home. For the first hour traffic was great and I quickly reached Kufstein, just in time to meet with all the other Germans on their way back home. Even with the rotten Sunday it was still a very nice weekend and I expect to return to Hoher Tauern, but I will surely not stay in Bonn-Matreier-Hütte.

View 2011-08-06 10:11 in a larger map

The first tour was was the second time I hiked to Krottenkopf and like last time combined with a stay at Weilheimer Hütte. Unlike last time, we approached it from Farchant and descended to Eschenlohe. Mostly great weather, great food at the hut and a funny group made this an enjoyable weekend trip.

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The second hike was a short day trip to Seekarkreuz starting in Fleck. It was planned as a hike for a bunch of Googlers but due to the mixed weather all but one chickened out. Weather was good. It did rain earlier so we had walk some muddy trails but nothing too difficult. On the way down we stopped at

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I used two sausages each from the 3 brands on the left, cut one in roughly 2cm long pieces and the other in 1cm thick, diagonally cut pieces because I wasn’t sure how well the dehydration will work.

Observation 1: Not surprisingly, there is a lot of fat in sausages. Even the ones which look like mostly meat contain a lot. So after 30 minutes I removed everything from the dehydrator and put paper towel under the pieces to soak up the fat

Observation 2: It takes a long time to properly dry sausages. At first I ran the dehydrator at 70ºC for 6 hours, the sausages shrank a little but the meat bits still looked pretty juicy to me and felt soft. After another 6 hours the result were crunchy sausage bit.

Observation 3: Drying sausage is one of the few things were size doesn’t matter. Both cuts looked, felt and tasted the same.

Observation 4: You can dry Sauerkraut, too. I guess this is a German thing, but I had to try it. As you can see from the image below, I had some room in the dehydrator so I added Sauerkraut for the first drying run of 6 hours. The result was eatable, better than a lot of other trail food I have tried.

Dried bits of all three brands tasted great, crunchy and still meaty, my personal favorite were the dried A&P Schinkenknacker. Add some instant mashed potatoes and some dried Sauerkraut and you have a pretty yummy instant meal on the trail.

My second experiment took was less innovative. I bought slices of salmon and turkey ham.

I dried both at 70ºC for 6 hours. When I checked after 2-3 hours I noticed that the salmon stuck to the metal grill of the dehydrator, so again I removed it all and put a layer of baking paper in (yes, the pictures below are staged because I forgot to take pictures at first).

Both the salmon (picture on the left) and the ham (on the right) turned out pretty good. The salmon tasted a little too salty and I will check the salmon and make sure that it’s not seasoned the next time. At first the ham was extremely dry, like crisps. But after a day it had drawn some moisture from the air and hat the normal jerky consistency.

Improvements for next time: unseasoned salmon and reduce time for ham to 4-5 hours.

I’m always looking for additional ideas to try, so please let me know if you have any suggestions on what to dehydrate…

The weather this weekend wasn’t great but still good enough for the course to take place.

Saturday morning 9:00 a small group of 5 met at Almhof Roswitha to receive a very short briefing before we walked roughly 500 meters to the nearby practice slope. One of us already had some experience and just needed to refresh his skills. Michael, our instructor, picked my wing to talk us through the setup and therefore I got the dubious honor to run down the hill first. I needed two or three tries to get the wing above me and make it down the hill.

I slowly got better but it took nearly two hours of continuos practice until I finally took off and flew for a few meters. We continued the practice until 13:30 and at the end everybody was able to fly for the task 20 or 30 meters and land safely. The only casualty was a cattle fence that slowed down one landing.

Sunday we met earlier. At first there was no wind at all but we practiced some no-wind starts which mostly went pretty well. The only notable exception was yours truly. I failed to slow down the wing enough so it overshot me, pulled me down face forward and I rolled over one shoulder. It must have looked epic because I heard a number of concerned comments.

Anyway, I survived and made a few more successful trips down the hill. We got a few short periods of good wind but there were long periods without any wind. According to Michael, everybody had surpassed the learning goal for the day so nobody was too unhappy when we called it a day once it started raining.

I had a great weekend and I’m thinking about adding another course soon..

The new titanium spork weights 21 grams according to my scale compared to 9 grams for the plastic version (according to lightmyfireusa.com the weights are 8 grams and 17 grams for titanium) and feels rock solid.

I’m pretty sure it will last me for more than 3 hikes.

I picked the “Innsbrucker Klettersteig” from Hafelekarspitze to Kemacherspitze then on the Langer Sattel and from there back down to the cablecar station.

Only the first 2 hours were recommended in my guide because it gets more difficult later on. I haven’t done a Klettersteig in 2 years and wasn’t sure how to handle these difficulties so I decided to follow the recommendations. The nice thing about this tour was that the most difficult parts were at the beginning. But even these bits were not exceptionally difficult, roughly 3 grades below what I can climb indoors and only a bit more difficult than what I had climbed up to Buchstein “free solo”.

Weather was good. Sunshine, just a few clouds but a lot of wind. I was happy that I brought my windshirt.

The Klettersteig was pretty busy, there were two groups of 2 and 3 people ahead of me but fortunately they were moving fast and I never had to wait for them to get out of one of the roped pieces.

Even the supposedly difficult part wasn’t very challenging. If you are able to climb 50 meters on a ladder you should be able to get by without any major problems, all difficult sections were defused by metal steps.

The Klettersteig runs along the ridge from Hafelekarspitze to Kemacherspitze and roughly two-thirds of it are fitted with metal ropes. I didn’t really keep track, but I would guess that I actually attached myself to the metal only half the time. Many places are not difficult and if I had seen them without the protection I wouldn’t have worried anyway.

The view down both sides off the ridge was great, the air was clear and I could look far, to the left over the Inn valey to the “Südkette” and to the right to Karwendel. Even though I stopped frequently to take pictures I still moved quickly along the ridge and reached Kemacherspitze.

Under the summit cross I had my first real break. Lying on a warm rock I enjoyed the sunshine for 15 minutes before I got up to finish the last bit.

It took another 20 minutes to get down to Langer Sattle where I took off my climbing harness after a little over 2 hours.

From Langer Sattle the trail went down parallel to the ridge back to the lower cable-car station. After perhaps 5 minutes I was surprised by an alpine ibex standing less than five meters to my left. Unlike all other ibex I had seen before this one slowly got up, turned around to face me and just looked at me. I slowly took out my camera and took a few pictures. I was surprised that the ibex wasn’t scared of me at all.

I slowly continued along the trail and all he did was turn his head to keep looking at me and scratched his back. This animal surely deserved the price for coolest alpine animal I have every met.

After 5 minutes I guess he was sure that I was no threat so he turned around and sat down again ignoring me.

I continued to the station, where I enjoyed a nice meal in the sun before I took the next cable car down to my car. Overall the Innsbrucker Klettersteig is a a lot of fun and should be doable for anybody with a little bit of climbing or Klettersteig experience.

View 2011-06-05 10:09 in a larger map

[1]: Via Ferrata (wikipedia)

A via ferrata (Italian for “road with irons”. Plural vie ferrate. In German, Klettersteig) is a mountain route which is equipped with fixed cables, stemples, ladders, and bridges. The use of these allows otherwise isolated routes to be joined to create longer routes which are accessible to people with a wide range of climbing abilities. Walkers and climbers can follow vie ferrate without needing to use their own ropes and belays, and without the risks associated with unprotected scrambling and climbing. They are found in a number of European countries, including Italy, Germany, England, Scotland, Wales, France, Austria, Slovenia, Romania, Switzerland, Spain, Sweden, Norway, and Poland (famous Orla Perć); and a few places in the United States, Canada, Malaysia and Singapore. The first via ferratas were built in the Dolomite mountain region of Italy during the First World War, to aid the movement of the Italian mountain infantry.

During the night the storm had picked up. A few times I woke up by the hut shaking in the storm. I could here the wind and the squeaking noise of the wood through my earplugs. Sometimes I was able to fall asleep, but it never lasted for long. A new gust of wind tattled the hut and woke my up again.

I don’t know how much I slept, but it sure wasn’t enough.

So when it was time to get up I had a hard time motivating myself. Still in the sleeping bag I set up the stove and cooked myself a coffee. After some caffeine that day looked a lot better, I got up and 15 minutes later I was ready to leave.

When I had called in to challenge control two days earlier to notify them that I had safely reached Braemar I was told that weather was supposed to turn bad that day and they suggested that I skip the summit of Mount Keen. And for the first time it seemed I was to suffer the predicted bad weather.

From the hut the trail to Mount Keen turned east and downhill at first. A strong wind was blowing from the south-west and for the first hour or so I was protected a bit by the hills to my right. But when I reached the bottom of the trail up to Mount Keen the wind picked up and was blowing like crazy from the west. I was walking directly south and more then once a gust pushed me a step to the left.

The steep trail was covered with rocks and getting up already took some concentration. The wind made it even worse and after a cruel hour I finally reached the summit.

There I realized that I was actually protected from the full force of the wind by Mount Keen. Now wind from the south hit me directly in the face and it was nearly impossible to just stand in the wind. According to my thermometer it was 4°C but with the added wind chill it felt a lot colder.

Downhill at least the trail improved but I think this was one of the few times where walking down took nearly as much effort as getting up, every step pushing against the wind.

After another hour I was low enough that the surrounding hills provided a little cover and walking became enjoyable again.

I passed Glenmark, a nice small hut along the way, and sat down for the first real break of the day. Leaning back on the bench, protected from the wind by the wall of the hut, felt great. I stopped for roughly 30 minutes and enjoyed a Snickers before I continued walking.

A few hundred meters later I passed Queen’s Well, a crown-shaped monument was built over a natural spring.

The trail followed parallel to Water of Mark down Glen Mark to Auchronie. Roughly an hour and a few showers later I reached the hamlet but I just passed through. After a few hundred meters on a proper road I continued on a small trail up into the hills. To my right I passed the Hill of Rowan with an interesting Monument on top (wikipedia!).

The last two kilometers down to Tarfside passed slowly and I was happy to see that a big area along the Water of Tarf was a free campsite. There was one large group with two huge dome tents and few other smaller groups. I picked a spot as far away from all of them as possible and started pitching my tent.

A few minutes after I was done another hiker arrived at the campsite, looked around and came towards me, the only tent without a car parked right next to it. He said hello but wasn’t very chatty and I have to admit I forgot his name.

Yet another shower made me return to my tent, I took out my kindle and enjoyed a relaxed evening reading before I fell asleep to the sound of drops hitting my tent.

Tarfside to Marykirk

Not much changed over night and I woke up to even more rain. I couldn’t motivate myself to get up until 8:30 but when the rain finally slowed down I quickly packed all gear and started walking.

The day was the least enjoyable so far. I had seen worse weather, but after ten kilometers walking along the road my knees started to hurt. Additionally, I had finally left the hills behind me and was walking through village after village without any interesting views.

If I had pushed it, I think I could have reached St. Cyrus that evening but I was already way ahead of my schedule and the hurting knees didn’t help either. So I started looking for a place for the night. I had hoped to stay a B&B but couldn’t find one. In North Water Bridge I asked a local working in the garden. He couldn’t help me either but told me about a hotel in Marykirk. They still had rooms and I was happy to get a hot shower and a real bed.

Marykirk to St. Cyrus

The next day started with a full Scottish breakfast but went downhill quickly. It seems the Scottish weather wanted to make sure that I don’t have too fond memories. Like the day before it was windy but additionally it was raining hard. Not like hard rain in Germany. Imagine your shower at home going full-throttle. Thanks to the wind the drops were coming down so fast that I could feel them hitting my jacket through all the layers I was wearing.

But it seems this wasn’t bad enough to prevent a Scottish women I met outside Marykirk from walking here dogs. She seemed to enjoy it, I was happy that I was only a few kilometers away from St. Cyrus and reached it less then two hours later.

In St. Cyrus I passed the bus stop. Actually, I walk right past it before I turned around to look for the way to the cliffs. The next bus to Montrose was due in 5 minutes. The choice of seeing the cliffs in pouring rain and then waiting an hour for the next bus or not seeing the cliffs was easy.

In Montrose I quickly found the Park Hotel where challenge control was waiting and greeted my heartily. After a hot coffee I changed into some dry clothes and felt a lot better.

I skipped the first possible train to Glasgow, because I would have had to leave 5 minutes later. Instead I stayed about an hour, listened to a lot of challenge stories and took the next one.

A few hours later I reached Glasgow, took the bus back to the airport where I picked up Ute’s car and returned to Durham.

After a surprisingly good night’s sleep I woke up motivated to move on. But my motivation quickly evaporated when I heard the pouring rain outside the hostel window. But there was nothing I could do because I didn’t want to stay in the hostel another day. So I packed my gear, had a quick breakfast and left.

But my streak of extremely good luck regarding the weather did not stop. The heavy rain from earlier had turned into a light drizzle when I left and stopped completely about the time I left Braemar.

On my way to Balmoral Estate I passed Braemar castle. The castle itself was closed but I went in anyway, looked around, woke up a pheasant that was sleeping in the middle of the castle green and moved on.

I continued along the road until I reached Invercauld Bridge where I entered Ballochbuie Forest on of the largest remaining Caledonian Forests.

Walking through the forest was quiet and enjoyable. Weather had improved greatly. By now the sun was shining and it was time to walk in shorts again. It felt like I had the forest all to myself. I met perhaps five people the whole morning, all forest workers driving past me in their trucks. This changed when I reached Invergelder and entered Balmoral Estate.

Hordes of tourists were walking around the estate and most of them were quite confused to see a backpack-carrying, shorts-wearing hiking passing through. I was (and still am) not the world’s biggest fan of Monarchy and did see little reason to spend much time looking at the Queens wardrobe or royal carriages, so I quickly passed through the estate with just a quick stop at the cafe for a coffee and a sandwich.

When I left the estate through the main entrance I noticed that by coming through the woods and climbing over a gate I saved the 7£ entrance fee. I continued on the south side of the Dee, through Easter Balmoral and past the Distillery.

I followed the tiny road to Ballater. At first I really enjoyed walking along the road at first, but after a few kilometers my knees started to hurt. The wind had picked up and even though the sun was shining it was getting cold. I stopped at the first sheltered spot I found

After a snickers to recharge my batteries and a few minutes idling leaned at one of these ubiquitous stone walls along the road I felt ready to continue. I still had a few kilometers to go to get to Ballater but the time passed quickly and before my knees had time to complain again I reached Bridge of Muick where I turned south and followed a trail up into the hills to Mount Keen.

After roughly three more kilometers up into the hills I reached a junction between a few trails a little south of Craig Vallich. This was the spot I had picked out on the map to pitch my tent. I found a small wooden hut and decided to sleep in there instead. According to my map there should have been two ponds but one of them had tried up and the other didn’t look too good either. I was glad that I was carrying the filter. Even after I had filtered the water it still looked like Earl Grey tea but it tasted OK.

I returned to the hut, cooked dinner and took some more pictures from Craig Vallich. The wind had picked up even more, the whole hut was squeaking in the wind so I was happy that I could sleep in the hut. But thanks to my earplugs and being dead tired I fell asleep almost immediately.

to be continued

MyTracks (free)

MyTracks does one thing and does it very well. It’s great to record GPS tracks. You can upload the tracks to Google Maps or use them otherwise.

I haven’t seen an Android phone with acceptable battery live for ‘real’ outdoor use but there are a few things you can do to improve the situation: Change the logging frequency to once every 10 seconds and turn on Airplane mode. With this I was able to use my Nexus S for nearly two days, for example for my hike around Wildbad Kreuth and up the Schinder where I used it 3h45m the first day and 12h the second day.

Gaia GPS (6,92 €)

Gaia GPS is a GPS tracker and map viewer.

The map viewer functionality is great, you can download maps for offline use and one of the supported map providers is CloudMade. The CloudMade isn’t perfect but given the low price it’s pretty good.

The GPS recorder functionality is a joke. For an app that targets hikers that battery use on the Nexus S is not acceptable. Recording with screen turned off and Airplane mode on it went from 100% charged to <10% in 4h.

Overall: Use Gaia GPS for the offline map functionality and MyTracks to record tracks.

Bonus content, you don’t need these apps but they are surely nice to have.

GPSTest (free)

GPSTest is a basic utility application, the functionality is as basic as the icon, but it’s the only application I have found so far which is able to reset the GPS state if syncing takes ages. I had some issues with my Nexus One last year and GPSTest fixed them for me.

Peak Finder (1,81 €)

PeakFinder uses GPS and compass to show you a panorama of peaks around you with their names. Nice gimmick.

When I got up the next morning, Morris was already awake and having breakfast, but I caught up and we both finished packing within a minute.

We started walking and I was happy to walk with him, he had a few interesting stories to tell and in addition to that it fixed a small issue for me: the route through Glen Feshie was my foul weather alternative and when I scanned and printed my maps I did not notice that I was missing perhaps five kilometers because I wasn’t careful enough.

Weather was again above average, cloudy but mostly dry. We trotted along the Feshie following an easy track. From the left River Eidart joined. Here the trail turned left and at first we were looking for an easy spot to cross until we noticed the bridge a little further up the Eidart.

After this short detour walking was easy again. We soon reached the watershed between the Feshie and the Geldie Burn. We followed along the Geldie Burn towards White Bridge and just a little bit later we reached Linn of Dee.

After a long break we continued over the tarmac road to Mar Lodge, were we hoped to get some proper food. Since I left Ft. Augustus I was looking forward to a proper meal. But we were ahead of the pack and nobody in Mar Lodge was expecting challengers. A girl working for the National Trust for Scotland with a cute east-european accent offered us some coffee but then we continued walking towards Braemar.

By then I was already pretty tired and walking on the tarmac started to hurt my feet. Without noticing much of my surroundings I trotted behind Morris. After what felt like ages we finally reached Braemar, where we said our good-byes. Morris planned to stay at the campsite, I had booked a night in the hostel.

It was 16:00 and the reception was closed until 17:00. But fortunately I had access to the kitchen and made me some hot chocolate.

At 17:00 the reception did not open, because they had some issues with their computer system – I think the LCD was broken, but I didn’t really pay attention what was going on there. After another 15 minutes waiting I finally checked in.

After a quick shower I left the hostel to get some non-freeze-dried food for a change. Another challenger had earlier recommended the Hungry Highlander which had supposedly huge portion of Fish&Chips. But I was looking for a proper meal, and even though it was raining I decided to check out some other places first and fall only back to the Hungry Highlander if I can’t find anything else.

Coming from the hostel the first place I passed was a bistro called The Gathering Place in the basement of a Bank of Scotland building. The menu looked interesting and I decided to give them a try. It was 10 minutes to 18:00 so they weren’t open according to a sign on the door. But the door was unlocked so I went in.

They were still busy arranging chairs but they offered me a place next to the bar and something to drink. The espresso was excellent and I was already looking forward to the meal. And they did not disappoint me. As a starter I had the soup of the day, a spicy tomato soup with fresh bread. I followed up with a Prime Flame Grilled Scottish 8oz Ribeye Steak with pepper sauce. I had chatted with the owner while I was waiting and they knew that I was walking the challenge and was really looking forward to this meal.

When she went back into the kitchen I heard her tell the cook that I was extremely hungry and as a result I got a huge portion, great meat, mashed potatoes and additional fries as a side order. I fought very hard and was just able to finish all of it. The only disadvantage of this special treatment was that I was so full that I had to skip the desserts, even though they sounded delicious, too. I finished my beer and made my way back to the hostel, relaxed in the lounge reading on the kindle and then enjoyed a proper bed and a good nights sleep.

to be continued

Like all other mornings I woke up around 7:00, had a quick breakfast and started walking around 8:30.

By the time I got out of my tent, the Akto was already gone and I could see two pairs of other hikers coming from the direction of Melgrave bothy.

The first one passed me while I was still packing and stopped for a short chat. Not surprisingly they were challengers who slept at the bothy.

I just finished rolling up my tent when the second pair walked over the bridge. I attached it to my pack and started walking with them for a few minutes. Again challengers from the bothy. We talked a bit about our destination for the day but I couldn’t tell them mine. I still had not decided between my good or foul weather route. Weather permitting I wanted to take the Lairgh Ghru, otherwise walk through Glen Feshie to Linn of Dee.

Weather forecast was pretty bad and everybody I had talked to agreed, that doing the Lairgh Ghru in bad weather would be a bad idea.

Anyway, I kept walking along a small tarmac road parallel to the river Spey. Weather was overall pretty nice, at first cloudy but it cleared up before lunch time. I enjoyed a nice and warm day and took out my sun glasses for the first time.

At 11:00 I reached the Monaliath Hotel and hoped to get a proper meal for a change but they told me that I would have to wait at least until 12:30, which I wasn’t willing to do.

But fortunately there was a cafe just a few hundred meters down the road (with a bunk house, looked like a very nice place if you ever need to stay in that area). It was just a cafe, so I couldn’t expect a proper meal. But they had a great espresso and a huge, delicious piece of chocolate cake. At first the lady at the counter took a normal sized piece, looked at me and said something like “I guess you are hungry” and gave a piece nearly double the size. Additionally, I picked up a sandwich for later.

After this extensive break I continued walking along the A889, which was pretty busy and the passing cars and especially the vans were more than annoying. At Catlodge, about 2km further down the road, I turned left and traffic got a lot better on the smaller road.

The road ascended slowly and I got a few great views westward over the Spey. After a few more kilometers the road turned and on the Speyside I noticed a monument and two benches. One of them occupied by Morris, the guy with the Akto who camped at Garva bridge, too, taking a nap.

I stopped, too, and enjoyed my sandwich. Again I discussed my walking plans and got the great tip to stay at the Lùibleathan bothy, about seven or eight kilometers away and exactly in the direction I wanted to go anyways.

Morris had already left when I got up and continued walking. On the bridge over the Spey I noticed a weird machine. I couldn’t figure out what it actually does, it’s to small to be a generator (and lacks cables going out). Any hints welcome on what this thingy is…

I reached the junction with A9 and wanted to get away from it as fast as possible. This meant a detour south via Phones. But when I saw the terrain ahead of me I decided it was time for a little cross-country hiking. It was sunny and the hills ahead of me looked not too boggy. The gamble was well worth it. I quickly found a few tiny trails (deer stalker trails?) and overall walking was much better than many of the “real trails” I had seen before. Navigation was easy, too, because I had to go directly east and could aim for a small reservoir.

Back on trail (actually again General Wade’s Military Road) I had to walk for another four kilometers unitl I reached Lùibleathan bothy. There I quickly unpacked and started cooking dinner.

Eating became a little more complicated when I found out that my Spork had self-destroyed, but the food still tasted great.

I had expected to get some company but nobody else showed up, so I had this huge and pretty nice bothy all for myself.

Lùibleathan bothy to Glen Feshie

I spent a nice and quite night in the bothy. The next morning I had the weird pleasure of a few dozen sheep watching me, while I was taking care of some business (just for the record: the picture on the left was taken later, I don’t take my camera everywhere).

The morning was mostly gray but at least it didn’t rain for the first two hours. The trail went north and touched the A9 but I turned away a few hundred meters later towards Ruthven.

Here I stopped to put on the rain gear, because it had started to rain again. When I turned around to start walking again, I noticed Barbara coming up the road.

We walked together for the next two hours but then Barbara turned North towards a BnB she was staying. I continued towards Achleum in Glen Feshie.

The rain had stopped some time ago and the sun came out, so I could walk in shorts and enjoy the really nice Scottish weather.

But this being Scotland the weather changed every five minutes. One moment it was nice and warm and the sun was shining in my face and five minutes later a storm was blowing and it was getting cold because the sun was hidden behind clouds.

Walking through Glen Feshie was beautiful. The meadows with just a few trees in between looked like pictures from a storybook. Soon after I passed Glenfeshie Lodge I passed the bothy on the other side of the Feshie.

There I stopped one more time for a late lunch break. It was only 14:00 and I had plenty of time left, so I cooked a warm lunch for a change.

The bothy was my destination for the day, but weather looked still really good. I couldn’t make my self stop so I packed my gear again and continued walking for another two or three hours along the Feshie.

Just when I started to look for a campsite I walked around a corner and found pretty much the perfect campsite. It was sheltered from the wind and had a small stream running right next to it. I put up my tent just in time for the first shower of the afternoon. The next moment I noticed Morris coming around the same corner and noticed the site. I guess he liked it just as much as I did.

We chatted a bit before we both went back into our tents. I read a bit but was pretty tired, so I fell asleep quickly.

to be continued…

Terra Nova Laser Competition

Again worked great. No issues. The vast majority of tents I saw during the challenge were either Laser Competitions or Aktos. A little sad, I had hoped to see the newer Terra Nova tents in action or something new I hadn’t heard of. But that’s a topic of another post.

Anyway, the Laser Competation still worked great and I’m a little bit sad that I don’t have a reason to upgrade in the near future.

Summary: Highly recommended!

inov8 X-Talon + GoreBikeWear Socks

My feet hurt on tarmac but I don’t think I can blame this on the boots. Felt great, dried over night and with the GoreTex socks my feet were warm and dry all the time.

My pair is now 18 months old and I hiked at least 600 kilometers in them. By now the profile is disappearing and I have already patched a few holes in the top material. But they worked great for hiking on anything from tarmac, grass, mud and snow. I wore them for snowshoeing and on a via-ferrata and will replace them with another pair soon.

Summary: Highly recommended!

Marmot Super Mica

Light and good enough most of the time. The last day it was raining cats and dogs. The extremely strong wind pushed the drops with such a force that I could feel the impact through 3 layers (Super Mica, Montane windshirt, Odlo baselayer) and some water got through. So good enough for most cases, but I won’t use it again in Scotland.

Summary: Recommended!

Laufbursche HuckePack

After the first real test, I can attest that the HuckePack is really water proof. Even the things I carried in the top pocket were only a little bit wet, and this could be due to rain getting in when I opened the zipper.

The pack is light, comfortable to carry and big enough for all the gear I need and a few days of food. So I won’t have a reason to spend money on a new backpack anytime soon.

Summary: Highly recommended!

Canon G12

Pictures turned out really well (judge for yourself here). Battery life was awesome, I had to change the battery after 9 days and roughly 600-650 pictures.

Summary: Highly recommended!

Hama camera bag

It was convenient to have the camera accessible on the hip belt most of the time, but the bag is pretty heavy with 150g and the rain cover works only in very light rain.

I think I will replace it with a DIY bag with less features but which should be really waterproof.

Summary: Recommended!

Caldera Cone

Like all meth stoves, it took a while to boil my water. But this was no surprised and I’m happy to wait a few minutes if this means that I don’t have to carry a have stove and gas canister.

Summary: Highly recommended!

Exped AirPillow

A little luxury while hiking. Worked great! Very comfortable.

Summary: Highly recommended!

Thermarest NeoAir

The most comfortable mattress I ever owned.

Summary: Highly recommended!

Thermarest Haven

The combination of weight and warmth were great. But I started to miss a zipper. Most nights it was a little too warm for the bag. In a normal bag I would have opened the zipper a little bit, but with the Haven there was no way to regulate that.

Summary: Recommended!

Tilley Hat

I love the hat, it’s comfortable and protects well enough against a little rain and sun. But taking the hat on the TGO challenge was stupid. It was completely useless and I didn’t wear it a single time. Dead weight in a country like Scotland.

Summary: Not recommended (for Scotland)!

Light My Fire Spork

I like my spork. It’s light and works really well. But it broke.

The logical solution: upgrade to the titanium version

Summary: Recommended!

As mentioned earlier, I arrived in Ft. Augustus one day early, because I was crazy enough to walk seventy-something kilometers in two days. Not surprisingly my feet did not enjoy this torture so I used the day I won as a rest day in Ft. Augustus.

After a nearly-full Scottish breakfast (I hate black pudding!) checked out of the Caledonian Hotel and went back to Morag’s Lodge. The hostel was pretty nice for a hostel, 2 laptops were available with free internet access, which I used to write the article about the previous two days.

I shared my room with another TGO challenger named Stan. Later when we were having a coffee another hiker named Barbara (Pearce?) joined us. And from here comes my favorite quote of the whole challenge: “Tent is a four letter word”. She is walking her tenth challenge but always stays in B&Bs and hostels. A little bit cheating but the walking alone is pretty hard on some days.

Well, this is pretty much all I did on my rest day. A pint of beer and a Laphroig in the evening made sure that I would sleep well.

Day four: Ft. Augustus to Garva Bridge

I set my alarm to 7:00 but it wasn’t necessary because both Stan & me were awake before the alarm went off.

During breakfast the sun shone in through one of the dining room windows and it looked like we would get another nice day. We were so wrong…

Stan wanted to meet a few people he hiked with the day before so he rushed out and I left about 15 minutes later around 8:15. By then the sky was completely covered by clouds again and a light rain had started.

Just minutes after I had left Ft. Augustus I passed another hiker I hadn’t met before, Mike ‘The Cowboy’ (his nick in the TGO forum). We chatted for a few minutes but I was clearly faster so I moved on. The trail turned east and uphill following General Wade’s military road. After about 30 more minutes I passed another group I would continue to meet the next few days. Three Scottish guys who walked at a pretty high speed but took frequent smoking break. It was on one of those breaks when I passed them sitting next to the trail.

Another 30 minutes later I recognized Stan’s Osprey backpack ahead of me and caught up with him a few minutes later. This was not long before Blackburn bothy, where we decided to stop. I showed Stan my Caldera Cone in action and brewed a tea for us. A few more challengers passed us and after a nice long break we decided to move on when Emma passed us.

Together we walked up Corrieyairack Pass. It had started to rain and we were quite happy that at least the wind was coming from behind and was pushing us uphill.

It was already way past lunch time when we passed Corrieyairack Pass and we started to look around for a sheltered spot. But we had to keep looking for more than 30 minutes until we found a slightly less windy spot where we stopped for a few minutes. But the wind was still blowing past us and we couldn’t really enjoy the break, so we started walking again after everybody had something to eat.

Fortunately for us, Melgarve bothy was only 45 minutes away. Melgarve bothy is a 5-star bothy, with two extremely comfortable couches. Here we stopped for real and Stan made a few liters of hot water to serve us and the next few hikers who came shortly after us.

For the last few kilometers my right foot had hurt a little and when I took of my shoe I noticed a blister forming under my right big toe. No big deal thanks to the great Compeed blister patches. When we started walking again, I didn’t feel a thing.

Our destination for the day was Garva bridge, roughly six kilometers from the bothy. On the way there we met the Scottish guys again and when we reached the bridge, a single Hilleberg Akto was already pitched.

There was a nice flat area on the east side of the bridge, half of it hidden behind a roughly one meter high mound. Both Stan and Emma didn’t like the spot because they thought it’s too exposed, but I pitched my tent anyways.

After another freeze bag meal I slipped into my sleeping bag, read for some time on the Kindle and fell asleep without any issues with the blowing wind…

to be continued…

I started in Shiel Bridge Friday 8:30 (yes, I know that sign-out is supposed to start at 9:00 but it’s not my fault that the sheet was already there – and I was not the first anyway). Weather was as I expected it to be in Scotland. After two hours I had already experienced all permutations of sun, wind, and rain. Overall it was very pleasant and walking was very easy.

Another hiker asked me when I planned to be in Ft. Augustus and by mistake I said in two days. They looked a little surprised but nobody said it was impossible. So when I realized my mistake I started thinking if I could actually do it.

The final decision to try it fell during my late lunch break, at the Altbeithe youth hostel. I felt great and so I decided to move on. And this was a great idea. The whole afternoon I had only about 15 minutes of rain and a lot of sunshine.

My goal was to reach Cougie and everything looked like I could make it. But when I left the dirt road somewhere south of Affric Lodge to follow the public footpath to Cougie the trail turned bad. Very bad. The trail was still clearly visible but had turned into a bog. Every step I sunk 10-15cm into the mud and I had to walk extremely careful not to slip. This took a lot of energy and the last bits of my motivation disappeared when I passed a very nice spot a little south of Affric Lodge, sheltered by trees and very close to a small river. So around 18:30 I pitched my tent. Later I measured the distance I walked that day I came up with roughly 32km and with another 36km to Ft. Augustus. Hard but not impossible.

After dinner I immediately fell asleep and woke up ten hours later, fresh and ready to go.

Day two

Again I started walking around 8:30. The trail was still horrible but now I was fresh enough to ignore it. The weather was pretty much the opposite of Friday. The first few hours were pretty good, sunshine and only a few very short showers but just when I was about to look for a nice spot for my lunch break, a large cloud front moved in and it started to rain. The rain continued for most of the afternoon. Most of the afternoon I had to walk without any cover over a few hills and I was already pretty tired when I finally reached Glen Morrison.

10km to Ft. Augustus and just one more hill to climb. It was 16:30 and I decided that I needed a break before moving on. So I sat down under a large pine tree and had some chocolate. Five minutes later an older lady showed up and joined me under the tree (she later told me that her first thought was: “Who had dumped all that trash under the tree” – to my defense she said also that she wasn’t wearing her glasses ). After some chatting we got up and started walking again. But after one or two kilometers I was on my own again, because she found a camp site and decided to call it a day. I kept on walking and the old military road over to Ft. Augustus was better than I expected, some grass between the rocks and my feet were very happy about this.

The climb drained most of my remaining energy and to make matters worse, I had to cross a section where forest work had been done and the trail was completely unusable. But the area around it wasn’t any better, so there was no way to get around it. These one or two kilometers cost me nearly an hour and I started thinking about pitching my tent here and making in down to Ft. Augustus early the next morning.

But stubbornness prevailed and I kept walking. After what felt like a million switchbacks I finally reached Ft.Augustus and found the hostel. My next problem was that I was now one day early and had not booked a room. I did not expect this to be a problem but I did not know that there was a rally that day with many old and very nice cars. The hostel was full. But the girl at the reception was very helpful and called all B&Bs in town, but no vacancies. I was lucky when she called the Caladonian Hotel, which had exactly one free room because somebody had had canceled a little earlier, a family room for 70GBP. Yes, expensive and more than I needed, but I wanted to have a real bed.

I was again lucky to find out that the Caladonian Hotel bar is supposedly the best bar in town, even locals come there. I enjoyed a Guinness, a Tradewind and a nice chat before again dropping dead in my bed.

The flight arrived on time in Manchester and I’m one of the first off the plane. I was a little nervous because I had only 35 minutes to reach my connecting train. So I walked quickly through the hallways and passed the few passengers who where still in front of me. It seemed not a lot of people want to come to Manchester, because passport control was a huge room with about half a dozen officers waiting and not a single person standing in line. This means only seconds later I was standing at the baggage claim waiting for my luggage.

While I was waiting, I chatted with one of the customs officers and he told me that was only 5 minutes of quick walking to the train station. My bag showed up 5 minutes later and as promised I was at the platform 10 minutes before my train was supposed to leave. The train was there but the doors remained closed. Weird. I was not the only passenger waiting and nobody seemed overly concerned. I expected the doors to open perhaps 5 minutes before departure but I was wrong. I did not know at that time that there was a second train a little further down at the same platform and the doors for my train were closed to make sure that no passengers for the other train used it.

On the train, just after we stopped at a station, the typical announcement “This train stops at Dewsbury, [and a few other stations I don't remember]“.

A crowd rushes in and settles down. 30 seconds later the next announcement but this time it’s “This train does NOT stop at Dewsbury.” so the same crowd jumps up and rushes out again, looking irritated and confused.

Guess what happens another 30 seconds later? A third announcement, brutally honest “I’m an idiot, this train does stop at Dewsbury!”.

Anyway, I finally made it to Durham and was surprised to see blue sky and only a few clouds. This way the town looks actually pretty nice. Boring but nice.

I’m fortunate to have access to a A3 scanner and a good printer in our office. Late one evening I spent about an hour scanning the relevant parts and then fighting with the printer (didn’t want to print A3). The struggle was worth the effort because this brought the weight down to only 160g and I can get rid of some of the sheets once I leave them.

I was wondering, if there is any commercial service for this? I spent nearly 100 EUR on the original maps and about an hour scanning so I would absolutely be willing to shell out some money. Any hints welcome… (Update: I found out about grough which seems to be the service I was looking for. I will test it after the challenge and post a review)

Right now I’m in the final stage of packing all my gear for the challenge while listening to Runrig on grooveshark.

The Huckepack is at its limits but this will change after a day or two when I will carry less than the 3.5kg of food I will start with.