Day 9 to Geraerhütte

Normally, we would have hiked over the exciting “Friesenbergscharte” but the strong winter damaged a bridge and it hasn’t been rebuilt yet. So instead of doing this route we left the “Tuxer-Joch-Haus” (not recommendable!) pretty early to ascent the “Frauenwand” and circle around the 3.500m high “Olperer” (which is next to the famous Tuxer glacier) from another direction. You could see the skiing lifts and slopes – its funny that we’re hiking where others go skiing (or vice versa?). Today, two more hikers from the Netherlands joined our group, nice guys as well. We crossed quite a few snow fields but the snow was already pretty slushy so I only had to put on my Spikes only once on an icy part. After some morning fog it became a wonderful sunny day with blue sky and we saw cute groundhogs (like almost every day), some alpine goats and even a family of guinea-fowls. One feels so little when hiking in those huge alpine areas and even the farest view leads to other peaks instead of cities, roads, or anything else than nature. It was really a beautiful day which ended at the nice and old “Geraerhütte“, where we 8 were the only guests for the night and enjoyed a well deserved selfmade Schnaps.

Highlight of the day

Arriving after a great hiking day at this cute little hut “Geraerhütte” (2.324m), having drinks on the terrace in the sun, delicious food and a nice chat with the hut owners.

• 10.1 km
• 5 hr and 30 min (no break)
• 780 m up / 754 m down
• Highest point: 2.446 m
• Lowest point: 2.145 m