Getting up a real mountain, the Hochiss

The starting point at about 1.830 meters above sea.

A few weeks ago I visited the Rofan, a climbing paradise within sight from my balcony. Beforehand I decided to hike up as high as possible. The Hochiss, 2299 meters above sea, quickly got the destination of choice. As lazy as I am, I took a cable car up to cut short, but enough walking distance was left.

The first part of the Path. The Goal wasn't visible. Not yet.

It was a visually impressive start, and not too demanding on my stamina at all: Heading into a small valley, passing by some tourists in sneakers and getting up the first stone stairs. After that, the way split in two: The better built one on the nearest overcrowded peak (the one on the above picture), the second one towards some other peaks,  the highest of them the Hochiss.

About a third of the way lying behind.

On the way, the views kept getting better and better. The path itself was in a good shape. The weather was sunny, but not to hot. The upcoming clouds looked mostly harmless. Only those snowfields weren't easy to cross: One wrong step  and down you go. Not a deadly thing, but climbing back up a mountainside is never a nice thing to do. But at least, the goal was in sight now.

The Hochiss on the left. Just a few snowfields to pass through.

So always be careful were you place your feet. But don't panic. Just one step after another, always towards your goal: Enjoying the whole trip. Not just that little kick when you arrive at your destination. Not that the last thing is a bad experience.

Some basic climbing skills got necessary.

Back to the trip. Near the mountain base it all got steeper and stonier. Some basic climbing skills required, nothing too hard to do, but still: If you are unsure about yourself, better turn around at that point. Better safe back down in the valley, than being carried or flown into a hospital. I headed up, with sweat running down my face.

Near the peak.

Then there came the point when there was no up anymore: The summit cross got bigger and bigger. The top was reached, and I think it was the first time in my life (at least outside of an airplane) that my head was over  2.300 meters above sea (yeah, I still remember the peak is 2.299 but to the math and add my 1,90 meters to it...). It was time for a lunch break, enjoying the view and take some pictures. The last thing was a waste of time, never play around with your camera settings in such a situation...

One viewing picture from the top only, tried something with my camera and failed horribly.

The way back down is a different story, on a different path, told in the next planned post on my site. Hope you enjoyed the read until now.

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