Ken Baldry's Alpine PagesRound the Stübaital - Innsbrück to the Regensburger Hut |
I got up at 0520 and had a huge plate of müsli which I had prepared the night before and had set like concrete. Avis drove me to Victoria and I got a train to Gatwick in plenty of time. The flight, despite being Dan-Air, was on time and I was actually walking out of the airport (577m) at 1135, local time (or 1035, BST). It was quite warm. You walk along the Furstenweg towards Innsbruck city & take the first on the right to the river.
Then walk East to the footbridge over the Inn and the motorway and cross it. Double back West, take the second on the left, then right and soon, the hole under the railway appears, which brings one out by the prison. (It is often tricky to get out of towns, hence the detail). The path I intended to take had been closed by the prison authorities, so I walked up the road to Götzens (868m, where brother Geof had skied with the school).I went up a path system which starts left of the prominent church, during which I had some drizzle. This brought me out on the main road up to the Axamer Lizum eventually and I walked up this. It was sunnier in the evening but I still did not see the Kalkkögel at their best. One thousand meters of ascent from the airport in four hours and bloody blisters under the plasters, despite taping them up beforehand. I stayed in the old 1976 Olympic Village hotel (Hotel Olympia) at 1550m, run by the pretty, but formidable Claudia. There was a storm in the evening and the electricity was knocked out, forcing us to talk to each other. No hardship - I talked to a Dutch family. |
The Axamer Lizum, with the monastery-like Olympic barracks, now the hotel, on the left. This was taken on the way back, when the weather was better & the Kalkkogel behind looked their best. |
Day Two - To Neustift via the Hoadl
The slow, grinding slog up to the Hoadl Jochl at 2340m made me wonder why I do this thing but, apart from the steep drop to Neustift when too tired, the rest of the day went much better, assisted by somewhat overcast weather so that I did not get too hot. From the pass, the path goes round the back of the Kalkkogel, losing about 200 metres of height in the process. Then, above the Adolf Pilcher Hut, it climbs on a route not marked on my old map over some snowfields to the Schlicker See Jochl at 2525 metres. The map suggests that the path drops round the Burgstall but, after losing some height, it climbs gently then drops to the Starkenberger Hut at 2229m, visited in 1976. After a beer, the drop down endless tight zig-zags to Neustift at 993m. Many late flowers and good views. I now know what the Stubaital looks like and it is very pretty. Nearly 8.5 hours.
I staggered into the Hotel Angelika after determining that the Volderauer (where I had stayed before) had closed. It was quite cheap, 510 sch for half board, despite being quite posh. For walks around Neustift, take this link.
Up the OberBergTal. Hoadl right, Stübai left. |
The route over |
It took half an hour to walk to Milders, so it was a good thing I did not try it yesterday. The old path has disappeared under a jeep road and, while it provides two hours of straightforward but boring walking up to the Milderaun Alm 1676m for a welcome beer. Making its way across moorland, the path becomes interesting, mostly up and sometimes down until a steep and rough drop opposite a forbidding looking cliff called the Ring. There was a path zig-zagging up it but not visible from below. At the top, the sign said 3 hours to the Neue Regensburger Hütte but, fortunately this was excessive. It took 1.25 hours to the hut at 2286m for a total of nearly 8 hours from Neustift. I chatted to some Germans, including a young couple with a dog, where I discovered the weakness of my vocabulary when trying to describe Charter 88 in German. I crashed out into a place in the matratzen lager unwashed at 1830.
Middle part of the route, showing drop at The Ring |
Wilde Frieger & Zuckerhutl from the path |
Contact: Ken Baldry, 17 Gerrard Road, Islington, London N1 8AY +44(0)20 7359 6294 or e-mail him URL: http://www.art-science.com/Ken/Alpine/Stubai/stubai2.html
Last revised 1/6/2012 ©1998-2012 Ken Baldry. All rights reserved.