We had the mountains to ourselves today, which was wonderful. The only sounds were the snow crunching below our snowshoes, planes flying overhead, and the occasional birdsong. The sun was shining, the snow was glistening, and the mountains were towering above us, looking awesome… perfect!
We left the car park above Navis (1529 metres) and set off up a snow covered road that wound through the forest to Peer Alm, a restaurant that I’d read was open from Wednesday to Sunday. We didn’t really need our snowshoes at this point, but I decided to get some practice in… plus I couldn’t be bothered carrying them!
Having passed the Peer Alm hut (1663 metres), we turned uphill on a track which had only been accessed via some sort of snowmobile with caterpillar tracks. I was glad of my snowshoes now because it was quite icy, although they still weren’t really required. I enjoyed watching Peer Alm disappear below us and seeing the tracks winding into the distance down the valley as we climbed higher up to Zehenter Alm (1878 metres), leaving the forest behind us.
We reached the end of the tracks here and turned off onto the snow covered hillside. The path was hidden below the snow so John kept checking his mapping to make sure we were going the right way. In places the snow was really thick and powdery, whereas in others it had been blown by the wind and was thin and icy.
As we climbed higher, I began to tire. John got sick of me asking ‘what time is it?’, ‘how high are we’ and ‘how much more ascent?’. In my defence, I was worried because we hadn’t got much food with us because we planned to eat at Peer Alm, but progress was slow in the thick snow. John took the lead to ‘break the trail’… hard work where the snow was deep. As we climbed with the sun overhead, we discarded hats and gloves and removed some layers.
We kept crossing a stream running down the mountain. The ice formations were really pretty, as were the snow covered rocks, and the babbling sound of the water bouncing downhill was delightful. It was fabulous seeing our tracks in the snow, surrounded by pristine blankets of white. We kept spotting signs of animals… possibly rabbits, hares, mice and, lower down, the cloven footprints of deer.
Eventually we could see the Grafmartalm hut above us. We decided against going all the way to it because there were some suitable rocks to sit on and eat our snacks and top up on fluids just below. It was lovely soaking up the warm sunshine and enjoying the solitude. I was very surprised that we hadn’t seen anyone since we left Peer Alm, and that we’d been the first to climb to the hut since the snow had fallen.
It took us about 2 and half hours to climb the 4 kilometres to the top, and a fraction of that to get back, following our tracks through the snow. The patterns our snowshoes and poles had made were very regular in places, and very pleasing to the eye.
Back at Peer Alm, we removed our snowshoes, hoping to get some lunch. Unfortunately, they weren’t open, despite what I’d read on their website, so we made our way back down the road to the car, avoiding the drips as the melting snow slid from the tree branches above our heads.
We’re now back at the apartment, showered and changed, and preparing to move to Maria Waldrast to start the snowshoeing trip organised by the Austrian Alpine Club. I’ve enjoyed the last couple of days in the hills so much, I’m really looking forward to more!
Ramblings 
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