Blog Posts in Category: Bavaria

Aggenstein

Alastair BegleyBavaria, Walking Short Link

I was certainly not happy with my 5:30 alarm after a late night the previous night due to watching sunset from the Jochberg after work, however we knew that the best of the weather was in the morning and due to heading to the Allgäu we had a longer than usual drive. We had decided to continue to make the most of being allowed into Austria, as while the start, finish and peak were all in Germany, the last part of the ascent was firmly in Austria, and more importantly so was the pre summit Hütte. The start of the walk was beautiful, and fairly relaxing as the lift station was not at the bottom of the steep ascent, so we enjoyed the warm up walking through the alpine meadows filled with spring flowers. However we were soon in the woods, and slogging up the ascent, which after the previous nights fast ascent of Jochberg certainly felt harder than it should have. We enjoyed some food at a brief clearing before heading up the steep slopes towards the Bad Kissinger Hütte. We stopped for a well earned drink at the. Read the full article…

Jochberg Sunset

Alastair BegleyBavaria, Landscape Short Link

James and I decided to make the most of the longer evenings by heading over to the Jochberg for a sunset hike. Being only a short walk and only 90 mins from home it was an obvious choice, with the sun setting so far north at the moment, I was hoping for some lovely evening light/alpenglow over the Karwendel, however sadly this was not to be! The walk up was very straightforwards, and we certainly made good time up it as we were at the summit less than an hour after leaving the car. Here it looked like it was shaping up to be a great sunset, and we enjoyed dinner and a beer while we waited. Unfortunately cloud build up on the horizon towards the sunset, which meant that we didn’t actually get a sunset, nonetheless the soft evening light was pleasant up to the point the sun went behind the clouds, and it was lovely to be out in the sun for an evening. Once the sun went behind the cloud we decided to leave, as we had an early start the next morning to beat the thunderstorms. Read the full article…

Hinteres Hörnle

Alastair BegleyBavaria, Walking Short Link

The weather forecast for this weekend changed every day last week, one day it was sunny, the next raining, then sunny again, but it generally settled on not very good, but possibly dry. We elected to stay as far north as possible in the hope that the edge of the mountains had the better weather, and based on the views this seemed like a good decision. We decided to head back to Hinteres Hörnle, which I skied earlier this year with Helen. On our walk up it became apparent that we could not do our planned descent due to closures due to logging, however as it turned out this meant we did a far nicer loop. The ascent was fairly steep up in the woods, however it was fascinating seeing the incredibly bright green spring leaves, especially with the contrast against the evergreen trees. As we emerged above the treeline it was clear that we had made a good decision to stay north, as there was lots of cloud about, and it was very hazy. We made good time up to the summit, briefly enjoyed the view and then quickly. Read the full article…

Ammersee Sunset

Alastair BegleyBavaria, Landscape Short Link

After a morning of heavy rain it was forecast to clear up in the evening, I spent most of the day debating if I should stay locally to Munich, or head down the the mountains for sunset. In the end I decided to stay locally to Munich due to the early alarm call for walking the next day, and it certainly wasn’t a terrible decision! I headed to Eching am Ammersee on the north shore of Ammersee, which is renowned for the boat houses in front of the alpine views. It was certainly a fairly nice way to spend an evening, sitting watching the sunset with dinner and a beer, while taking a few photos at the same time. I will certainly be back in the future given that it is 45mins from my front door, and next time I won’t leave just before the sky ignites!

Über die drei Kampen

Alastair BegleyBavaria, Walking Short Link

After the effort of the snow up high the previous day we were keen to have a slightly easier day, a few weeks previously from the Hirschberg I had noticed a ridge which looked excellent, and more importantly with a high point of only 1600m. It was a fairly long walk in in the woods from Lenggries to the Hirschtalsattel, however the woods provided us with some shelter from the sun.

Friederspitz and Frieder

Alastair BegleyBavaria, Walking Short Link

Having not been in the mountains for a while, combined with a week with a mixture of fresh snow and rain in the mountains, before it suddenly warmed up for the weekend, it was hard to know how high we could go without the snow being very hard work. We took a chance and headed to Frieder as we knew the view from the top with the clear air that we were expecting would be brilliant. On the drive towards the mountains in the morning it was quite clear that the air was indeed very clear, and a good sign of the views we were going to have. From the car park we gained 400m easily up a forrest track, and then another 500m easily up a winding path to just below the Frieder-Alm. Here we met the snow, and our progress slowed down significantly. Thankfully another team had gone up in front of us, so we mostly had food prints to follow, however this did not make progress easy. The difficult progress was more than made up for by the stunning views in every direction. We could see well. Read the full article…

Hirschberg

Alastair BegleyBavaria, Winter Walking Short Link

With winter stubbornly refusing to depart from Bavaria, Louise and I decided to head to the Hirschberg as it looked a great circuit, and not to long of a day. The initial ascent was pretty brutal, straight up the ski piste, which certainly got the blood flowing. Thankfully we were soon above the ski area and ascended up in the woods. Despite there being plenty of snow, it was all well trampled which made progress easy. When we emerged from the woods at the Rauheck Alm, it became clear that despite the weather being good we were not going to get outstanding views as the air was so hazy. We took the direct winter ascent up to the Hirschberg Vorgipfel, and then made the short detour out to the main summit of Hirschberg. Despite the haze the view from the top was great, I could see a number of recent walks and a number of walks which I am really keen to do. After enjoying some lunch we started the descent which was pretty straightforward thanks to the snow being the prefect consistency for descending. From the summit of Kratzer. Read the full article…

Roßstein and Hochplatte

Alastair BegleyBavaria, Winter Walking Short Link

Due to the fresh snow we knew that route choice was key for the last day while Becky was here, however we also wanted to do a route with some interest and a reasonable amount of time above the tree line. We decided to head up Roßstein, descend to the Tegernseer Hütte, drop down to the north, climb back up to Hochplatte and then take the easy descent back down to the car. We set off on a sunny and relatively warm morning and made good progress on the relatively snow free ascent up to the Sonneberg Alm. The sun was really warm despite it being early, but the views were wonderful. From the alm the route up the Roßstein looked improbable, but unsurprisingly it was fine as it snaked its way up a hidden line of weakness. We made it to the summit without putting our spikes on, however after enjoying some lunch and the view we put our spikes on for the descent to the Tegernseer Hütte and down to the north, as the start of the descent was more exposed and the descent from the Hütte was. Read the full article…