Elevation: 1146m
Descend: 1064m
Distance: 9KM
Duration: 7-8hrs
We woke up early in the Berliner, grabbed our stuff and stuffed our faces with a nice breakfast. Tom and I were hoping Stef had changed his mind, but his appetite was still gone, and he had set his sights on going to Ginzling. We would meet tomorrow again at Ginzling.
My knee still hurt throughout day 3, and also this morning. When I got my breakfast at the hut, I asked a waitress if she would have something for me or some tips to get rid of the pain. She gave me Leuko Tape! to help support my knee. I didn’t know how to apply it, but after a quick check on YouTube I was able to tape my knee in such a way the pain was almost gone completely while climbing and descending! Fuck yeah! I was good to go! 🙏
Still, to be smart and safe I decided to first walk up to the Schwarzsee to see how it goes. If it was bad, I’d have to go back. If not; we’d carry on. Stef and Tom & I parted ways that morning. We agreed to contact each other throughout the day by SMS or phone (reception is really bad a lot of the times). Stef started walking down to the Breitlahner Hütte and Tom and I were onto the Greizer Hutte.
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To my surprise this walk was very easy for the most part! In contrast to day 2, this part actually has more of a ‘path’ which walked more easily than having to traverse loose rocks, steep hills and such. It could also be that I’m now used to it, as day 2 was quite a shock. What also motivated me was that we already traversed the highest point. It gave me strength. Tom and I passed Milka-commercial-like areas with cows, nice green pastures and water flowing down in small rivers from the mountains. The way up was very gentle, with lots of parts where it was not so steep. So there was enough time to recover between steep parts without stopping. This part was so far the most beautiful!
Once we reached Schwarzsee, which is very nice as well, I noticed my knee was ok. The tape was doing it’s work, and the path upward provided a good warmup. We decided to carry on! Too bad Stef wasn’t with us, he would have liked this hike and it might have motivated him to continue.
Reaching the summit (Nordliche Mörchnerscharte 2800m) provided some more challenge as there was snow and a steep path up. Luckily there are steel cables to grab onto. Once we reached the summit, we were treated with a view of our next endeavor including a teeny tiny green roof in the far distance. After checking with some other hikers; “Yes that is Greizer Hutte”. Hot damn! We still have a long way to go. To prepare for the next part Tom and I cooked noodles and I had my espresso-fix. The views were amazing, so we also shot a shit-ton of photos.
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When we were almost done eating we heard a low-rumbling sound. As if the mountain was moving! We saw a big chunk of glacier ice break off including boulders and rocks. The sound is indescribable! It was both beautiful and daunting. We had to go down there…? Luckily the glaciers and snowy parts were on the right side and our path was on the left.
In the distance you could see the zig-zags way up to the Greizer. I felt some stress. How the f*** are we getting there!? You can’t even see the bottom of the valley..! I tried to ignore the thought, focused on the beauty of the mountains and trusted we would have plenty time to get to Greizer. Having a tent in our packs gave us some peace of mind as it always provided a emergency option. Not that I would carry one ever again on this trail…
The start of the descent was quite a challenge. I slipped in the snow once, but was lucky enough to slide onto a slab of rock. Once we were able to hold onto cables again all was good. Some spikes under your shoes would be a good addition for these short snow/icy-parts. The start was done, now we traversed a zig-zag road down with a lot of loose rocks. Quite dangerous for us and our fellow hikers. This proved to be true when Tom and I wanted to stuff our jackets in our packs so we stopped on a not-so-handy spot in the snake-path going down. We suddenly heard “LOOK OUT! ROCK!!!”. We looked up to see a big stone, we think the size of our heads combined, tumbling it’s way down straight towards us. We thought of covering down under our backpacks, but luckily the rock stopped above us somewhere. That was quite a rush. We quickly put on our backpacks again and started moving. We agreed not to stop for a while as we had a bunch of climbers above us.
The loose rocks eventually gave way to more green. Again a beautiful transition. The zig-zag continued for multiple hours down. Eventually we reached the ‘Klettersteig’ (ladder). We didn’t know this was quite literally the case: there was an actual ladder secured to the cliff. Just before we got there rain started pouring down on us. It was awesome actually, as it brought some extra challenge.
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Once we reached the valley floor (phew) directly after the ladder, we had to cross the big stream by jumping over rocks. I thought to be smart, and took a minor detour resulting in my shoes scooping liters of water which resulted in wet feet for the remainder of the hike. My tip: keep to the path and most logical route ;). Lesson learned.
After a short break we moved on to head towards the ‘snake-road’ up to the Greizer Hütte. Again we ran into some cows including nice views of the snow-tipped-mountain tops and the greener than green valley. We would go down this valley the next day. During our way up to the Greizer Hütte, the sun started to shine again. Although it became very damp and hot, the walk was very nice. We traversed waterfalls over wonky bridges, and there was a lot of green. Since this part was quite steep, it proved to be challenging and we had to rest from time to time.
Reaching the Greizer Hütte we were greeted by a lot of goats who hung around the hut and some smiling hikers. We immediately moved on to the terrace and ordered “…zwei Cola und zwei Weizen, bitte!”.
We made it! And we earned it!
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From the hut we had a nice view of what we’ve achieved that day. Looking up the summit we descended, and seeing the zig-zag road I still can’t believe we walked there. It’s a lot and I felt proud to have done it though. Even with my bad knee.
That evening we had some nice beers, connected with hikers from Belgium we also met earlier in the Berliner Hütte, had dinner and tried to play a kids-quiz game in German. At the end of the evening we had to pay for the drinks, dinner and breakfast (in advance) but we came up short… Oops… Luckily we were able to drop off some money in Ginzling at the Naturparkhaus the next day (there is an ATM there).
Day 4 Stef’s part Berliner Hütte – Alpengasthaus Breitlahner
While Tom and I were moving to Greizer Hütte, Stef went down to Alpengasthaus Breitlahner. On his trip he had a run in with a cow! and shot some nice photos from the valley scenery. Whatever path you take here, it’s beautiful.
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Practical stuff
- There is little to no reception at Greizer Hütte, the only point you might get a connection is just outside the front-door. Don’t move to much!
- Spikes might come in handy.
- Carry enough money! Also check how much everything costs.
- Just before reaching the summit, fill up your bottles (if you do that). We did and proved to be a good choice as the way down you won’t come across a lot of streams.
- For if something might happen and you cannot continue the trail you can check out the map for ‘ways out’ of the mountains down to the valley (valley trails).
