Everywhere Virtually

A few days after hiking up the Traunstein and with aching muscles there is no better therapy than relaxing in the warm waters of the lake that sits at the foot of the mountain.

Normally the lake can be cold due to the Alpine water flowing into it from the catchment area around but with a week long heatwave with temperatures as high has 38 degrees celsius the water was unusually warm at 24c.

I didn’t take much footage last Sunday on the climb up the Traunstein but I did have a handful of clips that capture the good weather and easy going mood of the whole day.

On Sunday I finally got to climb the Traunstein. It is a significant mountain in Upper Austria because of its location as the last highest mountain before the Danube flood plain. It is also visually prominent from as far away as Linz and because of it’s shape in comparison to its neighbours.

I have no connection to the video below other than it highlights some of the key points along the route and does it in a dramatic style which I naturally approve of

Some friends who are keen sportspeople and used to hiking invited me along. They said we could reach the summit in 3 hours. Now knowing my unfit self and how long it takes to scale Ben Nevis or Snowdon I knew this was overly optimistic. It was also busy. Sunday was going to be a hot (34c) and sunny day. Sure enough we arrived at 7am and the car park was full.

The route we would take would be the Naturfreunsteig which was slated as “Difficult”. That to me means steep with some scrambling involved. So we reach the beginning of the trail and Michael who is the husband of my girfriend’s friend said his goodbyes and took the easier trail. I then posed for a photo beside our trail and was ready for the off. Right from the beginning you climb up metal rungs. Within 5 or 6 steps I’m already at the height of an average house. I look back and think “woah!”. This really focuses the mind. I think this is a deliberate trick to weed out the scared, people with vertigo or poor fitness. You could in theory turn around at this point but I suppressed my urge to just back out and thought I would go with the flow.

A few metres on it turned into regular trail and all was well with the world. The views were continually stunning and just got better as we ascended. Two things about this route you have to be aware of. It is made of limestone. It is of a harder consistency than lets say the white cliffs of Dover, nevertheless it is crumbly and there are stones everywhere. It is also sharp (think coral reef). It was the seabed at one point in time and so this makes it hard on the hands. A pair for fingerless gloves will really save the palms.

So onwards we went making steady progress in the shade. Temperature was probably around the mid 20′s. I was really getting into the ascent and was chilled out now and comfortable with the height. I thought of all the people I know who would be frozen rigid to the spot if they were standing where I was. It is not arrogance on my part I just wondered why it didn’t phase me as much. I still had a healthy respect of where I was at and always had 3 points of contact with Terra Firma.

Then came the interesting middle bit. Bear in mind I had no clue what was in store for me on this route. All I knew is the weather would be good and I had the right equipment. So first up was the long ladder. I have no problem with ladders but this one had an 800m drop beside it. So my strategy was to focus on the rungs and placement of my feet and make sure each move was sure and steady. That said I still posed for the camera. Next up was the “interesting” bit.

Imagine a sheer rock face with a 900m drop below. Then imagine little metal steps sticking out of it and a steel rope to hang onto. I didn’t give it too much thought. I just looked at the steps and rope and made steady upward progress. This was not the time for too many photos. This was serious business right here and I had 100% attention on the task in hand.

A guy in his 60′s or 70′s was coming the other way and as is the tradition in Austria nobody waits for anything. He just carried on past me. With both of us hanging onto the same steel cable he traversed around me with his feet flat against the rock face as you would whilst absailing.

As we pressed on the sun was moving around to our side of the mountain and what was a pleasant 25c rose to the low 30′s. This made it a bit harder. As you climb the air is also getting ever so slightly thinner. The trees thinned out to nothing and there was nothing but bare rock and scree. We now had a clear line of sight to the next objective which was affectionately known as the “bad corner”. I’d done the bad steps and the bad ladder, how bad could a corner be? We climbed through a rock arch which made for great photos. From here on we climbed up a few more vertical faces and over some ridges before arriving at the corner.

Some German hikers were sitting on a scree slope as some small rocks tumbled down from above. An Austrian said to them in English (don’t know why) that it probably wasn’t the safest place to sit. We started the ascent into the corner and it soon became steep, in fact vertical is the word. By this point I was loving the whole experience. I was well hydrated, there were amazing views and the top was not far away. Once we got past this point we it was just a formality of walking through the pine scrub, peaty grass and nettles to the top.

Michi’s husband was waiting at the Naturfruendsteig Hutte with a beer. It is amazing how good food and drink tastes after a hike like this.

We stayed up there for an hour before making our way down the “easier” Mairalmsteig. I say easier in that there were no sheer rock faces or ladders but it was hard for me. My legs were objecting at this point and in the blazing sunshine it was energy sapping.

Michi and her Husband were the perfect hosts but I would have been annoyed at my slow pace. Baby steps would be an understatement. My thighs were fluctuating between “jelly legs” & lactic acid freeze. A skinny girl zipped passed me which only reinforced my state of unfitness. She did slip on the next log step and nearly went for a burton down the slope. She took it all in her stride though and jetted off down the trail and out of sight.

Finally after what seemed like an eternity the end was nigh. The trail leading back to the car park was now visible even if by some quirk of perspective it appeared to take an eternity to reach it. One nice surprise that cropped up was the sighting of two Chamois (Goat-Antelope). They were moderately curious of us but at the same time not that interested that they wanted to interrupt dinner time. We spotted another that was creating it’s own personal rock fall.

from this point on we had an hour to walk. My legs were dead now and I had adopted this funny walk that alleviated the discomfort I had in my thighs. Sort of power walker cum stroppy teenager gait. The river bed beside us was bone dry and we were thirsty. Then in the far off distance I could hear running water. A few minutes later we spotted a waterfall and Michi generously scrambled down a rocky embankment to go and fill the water bottles up. Now that really was Alpine water bottled at source. Divine!

Finally we made it back to the car and we all took a swim in the lake to cool off. That was indeed something quite magical.

This blog started out ostensibly as a bike blog. It has morphed and evolved into an occasional travel blog. Why is that? Well due to the lack of work and recession I had to give up my bikes and put it all on hold for a while. Then I started thinking this week. If you don’t have a dream, how can you make a dream come true.

What I was motivated by two years ago does not motivate me now. I wanted adventure and the right bike and all the gear and see far off places on the bike and then I realised that maybe I didn’t. Maybe I latched onto that crowd and was living their dream by proxy. I really have no urge to ride through some uncharted bit of wilderness. Dragging my bike across rivers and through bog. That is not enjoyable to me.

What does fire my synapses is the act of riding a bike, discovering new but accessible places in so much there is at least a fire trail and meeting new people and old friends. I also enjoy riding with my girlfriend onboard. What I have discovered in previous years is faired bikes are not much fun in the hot weather. There is very little airflow around the handlebars. Similarly riding a naked bike in the winter is bone chilling. That said I reckon I have more use these days for a bike in the spring, summer and autumn than the real depths of winter.

So anyway this week I started reading up on naked bikes, but naked bikes with torque. I do love a bike that pulls away in all gears and does so despite having two passengers and luggage. I started looking at a few contenders. Namely the Yamaha XRJ1200, the Honda CB1300 and the Suzuki GSX1400. Yes that is 1400cc’s as in a 1.4 litre engine . That might seem like overkill for a bike but this is not about speed. This is about pulling power.

I’ve been looking for various photos on the internet to feed my imagination and help me decide if this is the next bike for me. Having the CB500 last year was always a gap fill but it opened my mind to other possibilities. It was a better ride in the twisties than the F800GS and it was also better in the hotter weather because it was naked. It did transport myself and my lady to Salzburg from Linz but we felt exposed and vulnerbale on such a small bike. That is why I believe this GSX1400 muscle bike will be the right choice. It is comfortable and beefy enough for two people to travel in comfort.

The only thing left to do now is save up and buy it.

Is this the start of World War 3?

Nope, just an average Saturday lunchtime at 12pm. Personally I think it is a bit unnecessary and it scares the crap out of older folks who remember the air raids as children.

A note to despotic nations with nuclear arsenals. If you ever want to attack Austria without them readying the troops, scrambling their jets and launching counter measures do it at 12pm on a Saturday. Nobody will bat an eyelid and will continue to sip their Verlängerter’s.

Just before I move on to other blog posts I just want to post another video of Place Stanislas in Nancy.

I will be returning from Austria when this light and sound show starts so I hope to catch it. It will run every night from 22h from August 15th to September 18th 2011.

www.rendez-vous.nancy.fr/web/

In complete contrast to the tranquility of Nancy, Linz has been buzzing with Samba, street theatre and a profusion of creative outpourings. The weather has not been kind to the performers this year but this has in no way detracted from their enthusiasm.

With 1 minute of storage space left on my SD card and 1 minute of battery left on my camcorder I managed to catch the last of the Samba as it headed down the Landstrasse towards Taubenmarkt tonight.

Makes me want to rush out and buy a snare drum. Brings back memories of my air cadet carnival days

This square is quite something at night. I wanted to stay in Nancy just to see it again. The last time I was here was the summer of 1995.