Long weekend in the Lechtal Alps

This year, we went on another ZOD mountain tour with colleagues, just like the trip last year to the Alpspitze. This time, however, our tour took us to the Lechtal Alps for three days. We set off early in the morning by train and arrived in Imst-Pitztal around noon. There we changed to a bus and drove about 40 minutes to the small village of “Boden,” from where we wanted to start our ascent to the Hanauer Hut.

The sky was overcast, and therefore not too warm, which suited us well for the ascent. The first section of the trail led along a forest road, then later became somewhat steeper along a narrower path. Relatively soon, we could see the Hanauer Hut high above us.

We had two options for getting there: a normal footpath or the Hanauer Klettersteig, a via ferrata. It is divided into several sections with varying degrees of difficulty up to D. The experience of our group ranged from seasoned via ferrata climbers to people who had only done this type of climb once or twice before. Accordingly, the decision was not an easy one, but in the end we started on the difficult section and kept open the option of switching to an easier part via the emergency exit at the rope bridge.

The climb started off with a tricky traverse. Since there were no pegs there, you had to be careful to find your own footholds or stand on friction, which is not always easy, especially for beginners. The D-spot turned out to be a bit unfavorable for smaller people in particular, but was otherwise OK. Nevertheless, we decided at the rope bridge to switch to the easier emergency exit section with the less experienced climbers.

This section was quite a bit different, significantly less steep and with much easier footholds and handholds. As a little highlight, there was a bench and a summit book set up in the wall not far from the exit. We took a short break there and enjoyed the view before covering the last few meters back to the hut.

For our hike to the Steinseehütte we chose a trail across both the Guflseejoch and Guflgrasjoch and a length of roughly 10km. That gave us plenty time to indulge in breakfast, before setting off. We got started around 09:00, while it was still fairly cool outside. That was great for the first steep ascent, which led us by the “Unterer Parzinnsee” and from there further up towards the Guflseejoch.

About halfway up we suddenly first saw one ibex, then a whole bunch of them. We stopped for a moment, watching them graze and just hanging out, before we tackled the remainder of the first ascent. From the Guflseejoch, from which we had a really wonderful view down onto the Guflsee. The petrol blue lake is situated beautifully in the valley, surrounded by meadows with blooming wild flowers. We had a short rest and debated wether we should add the peak of the Kogelseespitze to our To-Do List for the day, but decided not to. We'd rather get to the hut early and have an opportunity to take a swim in the Steinsee near the hut.

Once we had walked down past the lake, we first heard the high pitched whistle of a marmot, then saw it running across the field in front of us. The path now leads down into a valley, then around a mountainside before climbing up again towards the Guflgrasjoch. The first bit is through grassland, then gravel fields until it reaches the saddle. By that time it had gotten pretty warm and the sun was beating down, so we were glad when we got to start descending again on the other side. We did get cooked pretty well on our way down, especially once we came closer the hut and the trail led us between dense groves mountain pine.

Once we arrived at the hut, we first had a cold drink and rested for a bit in the shade before taking another short hike up to the Steinsee. There we took a swim in the nice, cold and clear water of the mountain lake.