The reunion of the German-Austrian-Swiss (DACH) chapter in Vienna in early September 2024 ended with a delightful hike climbing beautiful Kahlenberg to hike through vineyards and ultimately go to a fabulous high-end “Heuriger“ – Figls – to sit together and chat about our experiences. Despite the sweltering 35o C, the hike was a leisurely 12.5 km, and offered lovely views of the Danube and the Vienna skyline. At our request, the DACH reunion was to be followed by a week’s hiking to the mountains and lakes around Bad Aussee and the Dachstein glacier and alpine meadows at Ramsau (in Styria province in southern Austria). Ramsau is Austria’s premier ski destination which has become a popular summer hiking favorite. Six intrepid hikers from Washington were joined by an equal number from Austria to hike the mountain trails. Were we in for a surprise.
Roland Mitchelitsch, the brains and the brawn behind the hiking trip had personally hiked the trails with a few friends in May to check out the trails and design the program to perfection. But even he could not control the weather. The day before we flew out of Washington he messaged us “Bring your rain gear”, so we did. As soon as we left Vienna the raindrops started, followed by torrential rains during our three days in Bad Aussee and unprecedented catastrophic snowfall in the Ramsau-Dachstein area.
At Bad Aussee we stayed at the JUFA Youth Hostel (more than 40 years since I last stayed in one but this was in much better condition). We were able to complete the hikes planned for the first three days in Bad Aussee – a walk around Bad Aussee lake, a climb up to the Tressensteinwarte tower at Trisselwand, the hilltop overlooking the town to enjoy the breathtaking view of Altausseer See, and a walk to Loser – but the fourth day was a washout. We replaced the hike with visits to the Lotus (car) Museum, the Hallstatt-Salzwelten, the oldest salt mine in the world where, in addition to learning about salt mining, we walked through 2 kms of tunnels to the chambers where priceless artwork was hidden from the Nazis, and the Kaiser Villa (Franz Josef’s palace and hunting lodge, where he spent summers with his Empress Sisi). The walls of the villa were overcrowded with trophies from his hunts. Incredibly, he averaged three kills a day during his stay at the villa, although hunting by local farmers was illegal in those forests. Pity the wildlife under his long reign.
We then drove to Ramsau, crossing a high pass where it was already snowing. With Roland’s help, and the creative local guides, Heinz and Helmut, the Ramsau segment was redesigned into a winter hiking trip. We had to acquire additional winter gear to keep ourselves dry and warm but our group was not to be deterred by the weather.
The gondola to the Dachstein glacier was still functioning on the first day so we made it to the top but gale conditions with wind gusts exceeding 200 km/h prevented us from enjoying the view. We scrambled down 80 meters of metal steps under whiteout conditions, holding onto the railing to prevent being blown over, to shelter in the ice cave and see the ice statues and multicolored striations inside the glacier. Crawling out the snow-covered exit and clambering back through deep snow to the stairwell, we were relieved to take the moving skiers’ track uphill that brought us back to the coffee shop. The gondola was still functioning and brought us halfway down the mountain. We had a choice, to drive back or slog through a snow-covered forest trail back to town. Guess what we chose to do!
Catastrophic snowfall the next day dumped more than 2 meters of snow on the mountains and half a meter in the valley, forcing the gondola to shut down. Even that did not intimidate the 11 determined hikers. Our guide kept repeating “There is no such thing as bad weather; there is only bad equipment.” He arranged snowshoes for all of us and off we went. This was the1818 Society’s first snowshoe hike. This was followed, of course, by the inevitable visit to the waterfalls and two more days of hiking on the lower trails in half a meter of snow. With this much snow, Ellen, Ruth and Yoshiko could not resist the temptation and promptly flopped on the snow to create snow angels. Who says retirees can’t have fun? And with three different saunas to choose from and a pool in the Ramsau Hotel we felt completely rejuvenated and famished by dinner time. Thanks to the tempting cuisine and Austrian pastries there was no chance of losing any weight on this trip.
By the time our adventures came to an end, floods had inundated roads and railways in large parts of Austria as the rivers, including the Danube, overflowed its banks, severely curtailing overland transport. The return to Vienna involved detours, multiple connections, and more adventures but we all made it back in one piece. A memorable experience by any standards.
KEYWORDS Austria, hiking, rain, Ramsau, snow
