.. exploring beautiful places at home, in the Alps or far away
For today the weather forecast actually said a bit of rain and a lot of clouds.. but then it turned out to be the perfect autumn day! From the Kemptener Hütte we walked up and along the ridge of Kreuzeck and Rauheck. The view was really beautiful, we saw a lot of ibexes and next to the Eissee many marmots!
It is already seven years ago since we walked the Heilbronner Weg for the last time! Seven years ago it was on a warm and sunny summer day. Today was filled with a mixture of clouds and sun. About one hour walking from the Rappenseehütte the path went up quite steep and there were some fixed ropes. Because of the snow the week before and it was the north face there was still a lot of ice! That made the path quite dangerous. We were lucky that we had our crampons with us. With them the crossing of the ice was secure. But many other people just went in hiking shoes on the slippery path. After a while we reached the ridge! From there the view in all directions is amazing! Now the path continues for long time on that ridge, always a bit up and down until we reached the Schwarzmilzferner. Seven years ago this small glacier was still a lot bigger than today! We took a break, thought about going up to the Mädelegabel summit, decided not to, because we were already quite tired. Instead we watched a lot of ibexes relaxing in the sunshine 🙂 Very beautiful! After that we passed a lake and reached the Kemptener Hütte shortly afterwards. Food was as always really good and soon after we fell asleep 😉
It is autumn again! October can be really beautiful in the Alps! The colors and the light are unique. And when the weather forecast predicted three days of sunshine we just had to take a few days off from work and took the next train to Oberstdorf.
In the morning we took the bus to Birgsau and from there we walked to the Rappenseehütte. Our plan was to sleep one night on the Rappenseehütte, go the Heilbronner Höhenweg the next day, sleep on the Kemptener Hütte and go back down to Oberstdorf on the third day, depending on the weather forecast..
We had blue sky and lots of sunshine the whole day and still we did not meet many other people. We arrived at the hut at about lunch time, so we decided to go for another walk in the afternoon. Actually we wanted to go up to Biberkopf, a very prominent summit in the area, but it was already too late for that. So we went in the direction of Biberkopf and after about one hour we reached the Hochrappenkopf. We stayed only for a few minutes, because the wind was strong and cold. From there we continued to Rappenseekopf. The Rappenseekopf is a beautiful summit. Right opposite you can see the Hohes Licht summit and down the lake with the Rappenseehütte. We stayed for a while and enjoyed the day. Then we hiked back down to the hut where we enjoyed pasta and apfelstrudel 🙂 Not long after eating we slipped into our sleeping bag and slept really well until breakfast 🙂
It was a quite hot afternoon. At about 3pm the weather forecast was still great for the rest of the day. So I spontaneously decided that a little movement can't hurt today 🙂 So I packed a small bag and started to hike from Oberstdorf to the Gaissalpe.
The sun was quite hot but in the forrest it was acceptable. When I arrived at the Gaissalpe I still felt quite good and so I decided to continue walking to the Gaissalpsee. One serpentine followed another but after a while I finally arrived at the lake. The sun was reflected by the turquoise surface of the lake and glinted under the blue sky. Here I made a longer break and enjoyed the landscape.
After the break I felt quite good again and so I decided to go on to the summit of the Rubihorn. The rest of the ascent was luckily in an area without sun. When I finally arrived at the summit I was the only one up there.
I had a clear look down to Oberstdorf and to the north. I just love this place 🙂 For the way down I chose the descent to the Seealpe. It is maybe a little steeper at the beginning but I just didn't want to go all the same way back. At about 10pm I safely arrived back at Oberstdorf.
My conclusion of this day: Sometimes spontaneous decisions are the best 🙂
Today we decided to do a hike that is not too difficult because our muscles were still aching from yesterday. So we walked from Oberstdorf to Gerstruben and from there we continued to the Dietersbachalp. Now the ascent to the Älpelesattel starts. It is about 1780 m high. To reach this point we had to walk through lots of grass, scrubs and trees. It was not so nice, because it was really hot today and there was almost no fresh air between all the plants. Having reached the highest point we took a long break and enjoyed the view to the famous summit of the Höfats. We also saw some people climbing up there! Because of the steep grass paths it is dangerous to go up there. From the Älpelesattel we go back down to the Käseralpe. There we enjoy a drink before continuing to the Oytalhaus. From here we take the scooter back to Oberstdorf which is a lot of fun. All in all a path with beautiful views, but I would prefer to walk it in the autumn when the plants are not so big anymore.
