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Journal: |
I had the basic breakfast on offer and chatted with the Finnish
girl while I finished packing outside the Hutte. I thought she
seemed young and it turned out she had just finished Year 11 and
working at the Hutte was her summer job. I hit the trail at
7:45am knowing that I had a longish day ahead of me, Porze
Hutte was supposedly just three hours away, but the next
accommodation option after that, Hochweissstein Haus, was another
8.5 hours further on. On the plus side, the Via Alpina was
going to continue following the Karnischer Hohenweg along the ridge
between Italy and Austria, and would not include any major ascents
or descents. Another plus was that the weather looked OK,
although the Italian student at the Hutte pointed out the direction
from which the weather would come and said it was impossible to know
what would happen later in the day.
The walking was
relatively easy to Porze Hutte and I enjoyed the early sunshine and
views over the Austrian Alps and down to a little village far away
in the valley. It only took me two hours of brisk hiking to
get to Porze Hutte and I stopped in and ordered a Coke for morning
tea but, conscious of the kilometres still in front of me, didn't
hang around for long. From the Hutte, which was at the top of
a valley, the trail climbed back up to the ridge and the rest of the
day was spent hiking along the mostly bare ridge, sometimes right on
top and other times on one side of the other skirting around craggy
peaks. Of course the path wasn't level and I oscillated
between 2200m and 2500m most of the day, with occasional very steep
rocky bits to climb or descend using hands and/or wire cables.
All of the time I had views in most directions and could see which
valleys/peaks were enjoying sunshine and which were being rained on.
The weather began to deteriorate after Porze Hutte with a
thunderstorm coming up from behind, bringing cold rain and wind, but
passing along the other side of the Italian valley to my right.
Later another came up from behind and passed on the Austrian side,
and then another smaller one directly overhead. There wasn't
continuous thunder and lightning associated with any of them, so I
rated the risk low and kept on walking. Frustratingly, I did
need to keep stopping to add or remove waterproof clothing,
depending on the changeable weather, because I quickly got warm at
the times it wasn't raining.
Around 4:30pm I began descending
to the Haus which was also at the head of a valley. Early on,
I saw a fox searching for a birds nest in the undergrowth as the
parent squawked and dive-bombed it. The last hour was tedious
walking as the trail worked its way around the valley side through
sopping wet vegetation on slippery mud and rocks. My boots,
socks and shorts were soaked through. I had a couple of falls,
but nothing serious. After having seen non-one in eight hours
on the trail, it was a bit disappointing to arrive at the Haus and
find it nearly full of hikers. I don't know where they all
came from. Nevertheless, I got a top bunk in a dorm and
managed to get in a two-minute shower before a filling dinner in the
crowded dining room. The Haus has a drying room, but you can
hardly move inside it for wet gear hanging from lines.
Hopefully my stuff dries out and it is rain-free tomorrow.
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