Gran Paradiso - Day 2

Today we had another climb on our agenda, since we had a few hours left before Jakob, Stefan and Sarah arrive for our Gran Paradiso hike. Matthi, Andi and I drove to Donnas and from there via a very winding road, through vineyards to Albard Bard where we had to leave our car. From there it took as about 40 minutes by foot to the start of our climbing route.





During the ascent we had a great view on the Fort of Bard. The fort was built in the 11th century as a toll barrier and extended in the 13th century due to its strategic importance.



The route had three, very easy pitches, again on gneiss. For Andi it was the first multi pitch route he climbed, but he managed it very well :-).









Our climb (marked in blue)



On the way down we stopped in Donnas to take pictures of the old houses.







From there we drove to Pont where we met Jakob, Stefan and Sarah. From there we started our hike around Grand Paradiso. The first lag was from Pont to Rifugio Città di Chivasso (2604 m), which is located slightly north of Col de Nivolet, and took us about 2 1/2 hours. Our arrival at the rifugio led to quite some confusion. Since a couple with the same last name had reserved just a few days ago, the hut warden was not sure about our reservation anymore and called all surrounding huts to find out whether they knew about a group of six people with the respective last name. However, no one has heard about such a group (which was not a surprise since we planned to stay the forthcoming nights in bivouacs), and the hut warden thought that our reservation is a misunderstanding. When we arrived at the hut he was entirely confused, but fortunately it was no problem to get a room and have hot dinner :-).



On the way up to Rifugio Città di Chivasso





Decayed stone houses could be frequently seen on our hike



View from Rifugio Città di Chivasso

Gran Paradiso - Day 1

Due to bad weather in the Tyrol we started our trip to Gran Paradiso one day earlier than initially planned. We started very early in the morning and picked up Andi. We were very lucky with the traffic and progressed very quickly. Entering the Valley of Aosta it became more
mountainous. The Valley of Aosta is enframed by some of the Alps' most famous mountains / mountain ranges like Mont Blanc, Monte Rosa, Matterhorn and Gran Paradiso. On our drive we could also see many stone houses with roofs of stone tiles which are quite typical for the area. Moreover, we could see many old churches and medieval castles. Around 12 we arrived at our hotel in the center of Aosta.

After a short lunch break we drove to Pontey (near Nus just a few kilometers from Aosta) to climb. The directions we had were very rough and it took as a while to find the climbing area. Pontey offers about a dozen, mostly rather easy routes on gneiss. We had a lot of fun climbing there and enjoyed the afternoon a lot.











In the evening we strolled through the streets of Aosta where we could see many remnants of Aosta's Roman history (e.g., Arch of Augustus, Roman Theatre, Porta Pretoria) and had a nice dinner.

Rosskogel and Weißstein

After severe storms yesterday afternoon the weather cooled down significantly - great conditions for a mountain hike after the heat wave.

We started at 8 in the morning with our bikes from home and rode them to Krimpenbachalm (1922 m). We left our bikes there and I exchanged my biking boots with my hiking boots. From Krimpenbachalm we started the ascent to Rosskogel (2646 m) via Windegg. After a very short break at Rosskogel we moved on to climb Weißstein (2640 m), an easy climb (I-II). On the way back we picked up out bikes at Krimpenbachalm and enjoyed the ride back home (saving us around 1100 m descent by foot :-)).

Krimpenbachalm

Starting from home I rode the bike to Stiglreith (1363) where I met with Werner and Claudia. Although I started quite early I was covered in sweat when I arrived there, since it was again a very hot day. Together we then hiked to Krimpenbachalm (1922). Werner took a lot of pictures on our hike of the wonderful alpine meadows which where just in full, beautiful blossom.

Erlspitze

We started very early in the morning shortly after 5:00 am since the weather was forcasted to be very hot. We drove to Hochzirl by car and from there we rode our mountain bikes towards Solsteinhaus. We left our bikes at the end of the forest road and hiked the last 1 1/2 hours to Solsteinhaus. At Solsteinhaus we had a short break, filled up our water bottles before continuing the hike to Eppziler Scharte where the Via Ferrata to Erlspitze starts. The Via Ferrata was very easy (mostly A and B), except for one short passage with difficulty C. At 9:45 we arrived the summit of Erlspitz where we enjoyed the beautiful scenary. We took the same way down to our bikes and were very happy that we did not have to d0 the long walk down to the car.

Today's route












From Solsteinhaus to Eppzirler Scharte




View from Eppzirler Scharte to Eppzirler Alm (Karwendel)



Pictures taken from the Via Ferrata







At the summit





On the way down