Sky High in the Stubai

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August 11th 2023

Published: August 17th 2023

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Backpackermatt

Jewel of Nature

The Grünausee, backed by the Wilder Frieger (3419m) and its apron of glaciers

One glance out the window of my dorm room at the Dresdner Hütte, 2308m above sea level in the Stubai Alps, was all it took to confirm the good news: the miserable weather of the previous three days had finally come to an end! Ten minutes later I was the first one downstairs at the breakfast buffet, and an hour later I was on my way - hopeful that the clear weather would hold, but unwilling to trust that it would do so for more than a couple of hours. Despite the lack of rain I had decided to put my wet weather gear on over the top of my regular hiking clothes to combat the cold, with the temperature hovering not far above zero. True to form though, within about ten minutes of starting the climb to the day's pass, I had to stop to de-robe before I overheated.

Although I had only completed four of the nine daily sections of the Stubaier Hoehenweg - delineated by the eight Alpine Club huts scattered along the route - I had already covered just over half the total distance. For the next three days the nature of the trail would change,

Rugged up and Ready for action

Hitting the trail for my fifth day on the Stubaier Höhenweg

with the huts being located much closer together than the preceding days. Distance-wise none of the stages would exceed 6km, and even with a steep climb up and over a pass to contend with, the duration of each day's walk would be no more than 3-4 hours. Some people would no doubt choose to tackle two stages in a single day and skip the Sulzenauhütte (to which I was now headed), but part of the attraction of this trip for me had been the mountain huts themselves, so that in this case the destinations were almost as important as the journey. Plus, given the propensity for bad weather, I would much rather have the option of arriving at a hut by midday and then chilling out in comfort for the rest of the day, than have to head back out into potentially dire weather to tackle a second high pass for the day.

With this in mind, I followed the usual red & white paint splashes up out of the valley - with the Dresdner Hütte growing smaller by the minute, but the mountains on the other side of the valley growing ever more prominent - before arriving in

Stone City

The labyrinth of stone cairns atop the Peiljoch (2627m)

a bizarre stone city of sorts, as the pass of the Peiljoch (2672m) was littered with dozens of stone cairns. I pity the poor hiker who crosses that pass in bad weather with little to no visibility who manages to pick out a cairn through the haze, only to slowly realise that they are surrounded by cairns... none of which would be of any use as a navigational aid, which is the purpose for which they are intended on mountain trails. In any case, once I'd managed to navigate my way through the labyrinth of stone cairns, a whole new (and somewhat unexpected) view suddenly opened up on the eastern side: with the Stubai's two highest peaks, the Zuckerhütl (3505m) and Wilder Pfaff (3457m) rising up above the vast expanse of the Sulzenau Ferner and Fernerstübe glaciers, which in turn fed their meltwaters into the milky Sulzenausee, complete with a couple of floating icebergs.

After dropping down the eastern side of the pass I reached the lateral moraine of the long-retreated Sulzenau Ferner glacier, which resembled a dam wall made out of rocks and soil with its steep sides rising up to a narrow crest that ran for more

Glacial Basin

The Sulzenausee, below the Sulzenau Ferner and Fernerstübe glaciers

than a hundred metres, with almost no discernible variation in height along its length. After skirting the side of the valley for some time - with views over the vividly-coloured Blaue Lacke (no translation required) - all that was left was a half-hour walk down-valley, during which the clouds that had been lingering down in the lower valleys all morning suddenly rose up to fill the upper Sulzenautal. And all at once, the mountains disappeared once more.

After lunch the clouds had cleared again, so I set out on the short walk up to the Blaue Lacke, before deciding to press on up the eastern flank of the valley to get a closer look at the Sulzenausee. Unfortunately the weather had more tricks to play, and as I climbed up the side of the valley the snow that had started falling shortly after leaving the first lake got progressively heavier; while a frigid wind blowing down off the glaciers was also gaining intensity. No sooner had I caught my first glimpse of the glacial lake than I was forced to admit defeat, turning tail and returning back down the valley with the freezing wind at my back, before warming

Shimmering Blue

More stone cairns beside the Blaue Lacke

myself back up with a bowl of hot soup inside the Sulzenauhütte.

The following morning I was up early and ready to hit the trail before 8am, only to turn around less than five minutes in when the sea of cloud that had been confined to the lower portion of the valley suddenly spread up-valley and obscured everything. I simply couldn't face another day of walking through clouds and missing out on the scenery that I had come all this way to see. So I returned to the hut and waited... then waited some more... and then continued to wait, as the sea of cloud stubbornly refused to clear. Around 9:30am the side-valley to which I would be headed finally appeared cloud-free, and having already finished another three chapters of my book (Rick Ridgeway's excellent 'Life Lived Wild') I wasn't prepared to sit around waiting any longer.

My patience was ultimately rewarded, though by now a freezing wind had started blowing so that it was bitterly cold, and my fingers suffered every time I had to remove my right glove to take a photo with my phone. But at least there were views worthy of photographing, as I

Stunning Views

Taking a last lingering look at the Grünausee from the Niederl (2672m)

headed up a peculiar green valley littered with numerous glacial moraines, that could only have been formed by a glacier advancing and then retreating numerous times. Eventually I topped a rise to be greeted by the startling sight of the Grünausee ('Green Lake') shimmering an almost unbelievable emerald colour at the base of a glacial cirque, with impressive peaks towering above it to provide a fitting backdrop - it was one of the most spectacular sights I have ever seen, and the chance to gaze at it unobstructed for the next hour or so as I climbed toward the next pass fully justified my decision to delay my departure from the hut.

After passing another small tarn the trail suddenly steepened, with a series of switchbacks leading to a section of fixed cable that took no time at all to deposit me atop the pass (Niederl, 2627m), where I was confronted with two wildly contrasting panoramas: back to the west sat the Grünausee backed by a wall of mountains; while ahead to the east lay a wall of cloud! Noticing that the onward route continued to make use of fixed cables - which could be seen disappearing into the

Cloud Piercer

Shapely peak rising up from the pass of the Niederl

bank of cloud - I decided to linger for the second time that day in the hope the conditions would improve. If they did it was only marginal. But after waiting for another half-hour I was starting to feel the cold again, so I ventured forth in the company of a family with two young girls - both of whom were clearly enjoying their time in the mountains, and had no hesitation whatsoever in scrambling up and down the mountainside clinging on to the fixed cables!

Half-an-hour later I had arrived at the Nürnberger Hütte - each hut being named after the 'section' of the DAV (German Alpine Club) or ÖAV (Austrian Alpine Club) that built and maintains it, apart from the Franz-Senn Hütte which is named after a famous Austrian 'mountain priest' - where a pair of beautiful brunettes (presumably sisters) were on hand to welcome me and take my food order. When I discovered that the Bergsteigeressen for the day was lasagna, I knew I was going to enjoy my stay. It was only as I was preparing to go for an afternoon hike that I realised my fold-up daypack was still hanging up in the drying

Under Sunny Skies

The Nürnberger Hütte (2278m) perched above the Langental

room at the Sulzenauhütte - a result of my getting caught in a snowstorm the day before - which, on top of the loss of my sun hat (which had been blown away on the top of Hoher Burgstall) on the first day, was a bitter pill to swallow.

Over dinner that evening I met a couple of young sisters from Berlin. They were doing a four-day section of the Stubaier Hoehenweg (in the opposite direction to me) as their first ever multi-day hike; and I was surprised to learn that they were having trouble understanding people in Austria (who also speak German) due to the different dialects and accents compared to those of the north. When the three Austrian guys at our table (who admittedly were already a few beers deep) joined in our conversation to ask me where I was from, I got the feeling the girls could understand the guys' English better than their German! Since the girls were headed to the Sulzenauhütte the next day, I mentioned that if they found a grey daypack hanging up in the drying room there, they had my permission to keep it. Meanwhile the most boisterous of the Austrian

Feeling the Pull of Gravity

Waterfall below the trail, on the climb to the Simmingjochl

men wasn't quite so chipper the next morning when it emerged that someone else had left with his hiking boots! When I suggested that perhaps he could attempt to summit the Wilder Frieger (3419m) in his hut slippers - with crampons strapped to the bottom for the icy sections - it was only his friends who were laughing.

After three days of clouds and rain followed by two days that could best be described as 'mixed', day seven of my hike finally brought a long-awaited return to sunny weather. By 8am I was out the door, and by 10am I was already down to shorts and t-shirt and applying sunblock for the first time since day one. With no one ahead of me on the trail, it felt like I had the whole of the Stubai Alps to myself, as I crossed the Langentalbach and then climbed steadily up the opposite side of the valley in the shadow of the mountains. A short scramble with fixed cables then brought me to an idyllic little 'fairy meadow (appropriately named 'Paradies') located halfway up the climb to the Simmingjochl. Somehow amongst all of the surrounding verticality was a dead-flat expanse of

Paradise by any other name

The gorgeous 'Fairy Meadow' of Paradies

grass larger than a football field, with a stream winding lazily through it in a series of s-bends.

The effect that place had on me was almost magical. Rarely have I come across a scene so spell-bindingly beautiful that it has moved me to tears, but this was one such place. After missing out on so much of the scenery that I had passed through over the past week, it felt almost surreal to be gifted such a perfect moment. Three days earlier 'Gloomy Swamp' would have probably been a more accurate description, but I truly could not have wished for a better day in which to see it. So mesmerised was I by the sudden appearance of this soft green landscape amid so much hard grey rock, it took an hour to cover the few hundred metres from one side of the meadow to the other. And then when I finally did lose sight of Paradies, I couldn't help backtracking to take one last, lingering look, in the hope that I might never forget that place.

After finally tearing myself away from Paradies I faced a stiff climb up to the Simmingjochl (2764m), which first involved a

The trail turns vertical

Fixed cable section of the climb to the Simmingjochl

series of switchbacks to negotiate a slope of broken rock, before a lengthy section of fixed cable surmounted a near-vertical cliff face, making use of fracture lines in the rock. Eventually the tiny hut sitting atop the Simmingjochl - formerly used by the border police, though it actually sits about a mile north of the Italian border - came into view, and soon a whole new view appeared on the far side of the pass. Using more fixed cables for the steep descent, it was only five minutes below the pass that the Bremer Hütte came into view, and after enjoying a balcony path that wound along the left-hand wall of the valley I arrived at my highest hut yet (2413m) at 1pm, having managed to stretch the day's walk out to a full five hours.

Over dinner at the Bremer Hütte I met a young Austrian woman named Lisa who was also hiking solo, though she was doing a five-day tour of the neighbouring valley (the Gschnitztal Rundtour). Both of our trails happened to share the next stage - a rollercoaster of a route crossing three high ridges on the way to the Innsbrucker Hütte - so after

Peaceful Perch

The Bremer Hütte (2413m), my highest overnight stop on the Stubaier Höhenweg

I caught up to her only about an hour into the following day's walk we ended up walking together for the rest of the day... which is a rarity indeed for me. But as it turned out we were both glad for the company, as after just the one sunny day the weather had reverted back to its form from the previous days, with a light rain falling for the first couple of hours before we found ourselves walking through smothering cloud for the remainder of the day. It was also the most physically demanding day of my entire route, with close to a thousand metres of elevation gain and loss over a distance of only ten kilometres, consisting of three distinct (and steep) climbs of a few hundred metres each, followed by three equally steep descents. There was no shortage of fixed cables along the way!

In good weather the views alone are enough to keep me occupied, and the only time I ever get lonely on my travels is when I get bored. But on dreary days such as this when the views are completely obscured I've often thought it would be advantageous to have company to

Companion in the Clouds

Following Lisa on one of the countless fixed aid sections on day eight

keep one's mind occupied, and this certainly proved to be the case with Lisa. Both of us were struggling physically as the challenging nature of the trail took its toll, and with no views to distract our attention it was the conversation and moral support that got us through. Well, that and the prospect of a hot meal once we finally made it to the Innsbrucker Hütte - though we had no idea whether the hut's kitchen would stay open all day, or close between lunch and dinner. I had stuffed myself silly at the breakfast buffet in anticipation of the long-ish day, but was dreading the thought of turning up at the hut only to find that the kitchen would be closed until 6pm!

So you can imagine my relief when we finally wandered in from the cold at 2:15pm - almost six hours after we'd each set out - to discover that the kitchen would be closing at 3pm! After peeling off our wet clothes and hanging them up to dry in the drying room, and then checking into our respective dormitories, we each set about dealing with our number one priority - for Lisa that was

Just in Time for Lunch

Finally arriving at the Innsbrucker Hütte (2369m) after six gruelling hours

a hot shower; for me it was a hot lunch! By the time I'd finished my first ever serving of Käseknödelnsuppe it was almost 3pm and Lisa was still nowhere to be seen, so I ordered two serves of apple strudel with whipped cream and then tried to pretend they were both for me when she arrived downstairs five minutes later! Needless to say, she was most grateful for my gesture.

Rising early the next morning, the Innsbrucker Hütte's mountainous backdrop was finally revealed. Though the valley of the Alfairbach immediately in front of the hut was buried beneath a low cloud sea, the mountains to either side of it stood tall and clear. But best of all, just a minute's walk away a narrow pass offered an even more spectacular view down into the Pinnistal - the valley that I would be descending on my way back to Neustift. For the whole of the first hour the views were unobstructed and amazing, as I first plunged down into the valley via a series of tight switchbacks, before spotting a couple of chamois (a goat-antelope native to the mountains of Europe) racing up the almost-sheer mountainside with a speed

What a difference a day makes

View of the upper Pinnistal from near the Innsbrucker Hütte

and agility that defied belief. Never having seen these supremely-adapted animals negotiating such steep terrain before, I could only envy their confidence and grace on slopes that I would have needed fixed cables (and nerves of steel) to negotiate.

Catching up with Lisa just in time to say goodbye before the path split and we went our separate ways, I then began a rising traverse on the left-hand side of the valley, which led to a belvedere path offering panoramic views of the deep trough of the Pinnistal backed by a wall of imposing rocky peaks - this was alpine walking at its best! After an hour of incredibly scenic views I arrived at the Elferhütte (2006m), positioned directly above the meeting point between the Pinnistal and Stubaital valleys, with a patchwork blanket of clouds draped over the lower Stubai Valley leading back towards Innsbruck. And though I suddenly found myself surrounded by people in the vicinity of the hut - which was accessible by cable car from the valley a thousand metres below - a quiet trail soon led me away from all the hubbub and down the wooded slopes towards Neustift.

Wreathed in clouds, the Stubaital

Parting the Cloud Sea

View over the Elferhütte towards the lower Stubaital on the final day

presented a different profile to that which I'd enjoyed eight days earlier; but from time to time the clouds shifted just enough to allow a glimpse of the Starkenburger Hütte occupying the most scenic of saddles high above the valley, where I'd spent that magical first night on the Stubaier Hoehenweg 80km and countless cloudy days ago. I might have missed a significant proportion of the scenery along the way, but I'd seen more than enough of the Stubai's spectacular landscapes to come away with a sense of awe; combined with an immense appreciation for the comfort and hospitality offered by the network of mountain huts along the way - and especially for those fabulous frauleins that have a way of turning even the most forgettable of days in the mountains into memorable experiences!

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