Austria Travel Reports Travel Report 1999
Written by Ronald Last Updated on Thursday, 17 June 2010 20:58
Departure at 06:40h from Elsloo and we arrived at 13:40h .... in Bürs, so we're not in Brand yet. What happened ? In the spring time there was a landslide that demolished the main road from Bürserberg to Brand (landslide nearby Tschapina).
To get access to Brand, a provisions road on the other side of the valley was used to get traffic from and to Brand. Only problem was that this road was just wide enough for one car. So the authorities decided to use convoyed transport: in other words, every hour on the hour there was a convoy of cars going down from Brand to Bürs, and every half hour on the hour a convoy went up the other way around. In both Bürs and Brand were line-up places.
This time-schudele was something we had to keep in mind every time we wanted make a trip outside the Brandnertal, but in the end this never gave us any problems.
We arrived in Brand around 15:00h. Later that evening we had a nice meal at the Grill Tenne. Weather: sunshine all day.
First we went shopping at SparMarkt in Bürs for some groceries. Later that day we made a small tour in the neighbourhood. Weather: sunshine.
For our first tour we decided to go outside Austria :) We went to Liechtenstein and parked our car at a parking lot in Malbun. From here we went upwards to Schönberg (2104m.). First on a well worn out path and provision roads, later on on a small rocky path and finally over grass towards the summit. A great view from the summit! The weather was fine again: sunshine all day!
Our first rainy day, so we decided to stay inside our cottage for some reading. My father went out to take some pictures of the demolished road. In the right picture below, you can see, at the left side of the picture, the cars going upwards in a convoy.
The weather looks better. Although there are clouds, there's also some sunshine. My father and I decided not to go high up in to the mountains, but to stay below 2000m: in the Montafon valley we went up for an alp-hike: Maisäss Montiel and Maisäss Netza (1634m.). Through woods and alps we made a roundtrip, but we lost almost an hour to find the correct path between Montiel and Netza; a landslide washed away the path. The problem was that people only saw a warning sign at Netza that the path was blocked, but not if they came from Montiel .. and we came from Montiel :). Nevertheless a nice tour with some great views!
A day to rest and to go to the SparMarkt again :) Nice hot day, with lots of sunshine.
This day we went into the Bregenzer Wald region to do the Damülser Roundtour. From Damüls first with the Ugabahn (chair elevator), then by foot towards the summit of Hochblanken (2068m.) and further on a nice mountain path over alps towards Ragazerblanken (2051m.). Then via Sünser Joch and Sieben Hügel back to Damüls. A superb day with some nice and not so difficult climbs and walks over alps. Also very nice weather.
Nice weather for doing nothing ... and that's what we did :) In the evening we enjoyed a great meal at Ghf Kreuz in Rankweil.
Another day at the cottage. Sunshine and cloudy, but still nice warm weather.
A brand new tour this day: Kellaspitz (2017m.), a nice climbing route makes this one very nice. We drove into Grosses Walsertal towards a small village called Marul. We parked our car at Parzelle Ahorn at 1190m and from here we went on by foot towards Stafelfeder Alpe (1472m.). Then on alps towards Bettlerstapfen, a small ridge between Kellazpitz and Guggernülli. From here the actual adventurous climb starts: over the partly small but always rocky ridge we climbed towards the summit, at some points using steel ropes and steel steps. At the summit we had a superb view of the Rote Wand. Weather: not so hot, sunshine and cloudy. Later on that day some rain.
A hot day again, with a lot of sunshine.
Another tour day, but a special one: EuropaTreppe 4000, a stair with 4000 steps. In about 1 hour and 15 minutes we climbed this stair. This stair is situated in Partenen. Weather: Around 30 degrees Celsius :)
Stayed at the cottage all day enjoying the hot weather.
We planned on climbing Rote Wand, but we delayed that because of the unstable weather. The weather was not too bad, but in the afternoon it started to rain. And because climbing Rote Wand demanded stable weather conditions (because of the duration and difficulties of the tour) we decided to see if the next day would be better .... In the evening we had a great meal at the Dorfschenke in Brand.
Too bad! Weather still not stable enough. This day it was cloudy and rainy all day ... maybe tomorrow ?
Finally! The weather is nice and stable. My father and I decided to climb Rote Wand (2704m.) today! Afterwards we looked back at a tour that turned out to be our most adventurous tour so far: superb climb, great small ridge, even nicer view from the summit :) What more could we want ?
After the great weather the day before, this was a rainy day again. Still, it was not too cold and in the afternoon there was some sunshine after all. We had another nice diner at the Dorfschenke in the evening.
Another special day today. 11/08/99 would be the day the moon would settle between the sun and the earth for a while: a solar eclipse. Now, wouldn't it be great to view that from a summit ? Yes, it would!! ... Because the weather wasn't great, rainy and cloudy all day, we might not be able to see the eclipse, but well, why not give it a try ? We decided to climb Mottakopf (2176m) in the Brandnertal. The solar eclipse should be at around 12:30h, so we planned our trip so that we would reach the summit around that time.
And so we did ...
And around that time the world changed ... clouds opened up and a strange light was visible, it wasn't dark or light, it was something in between ... have a look at the photographs, these say more then a 1000 words!
Luckily the world didn't end and after a while everything was normal again ... A beautiful experience!
Another rainy day and now even cooler weather (around 20 degrees Celsius maximum).
Hm .. it keeps on raining .. too bad.
Our last tour this year: Geiss Spitze (2334m.) in the Montafon area. A very nice roundtrip in a superb region. We took the Golmerbahn cablecar towards Grüneck and from there we went on by foot steep upwards over ski-slopes towards Golmer Joch (2124m.). From here it was an easy walk up and down over the ridge towards Hätaberger Joch (2154m.). Then the climb towards the summit of Geiss Spitze: not too difficult, but partly steep over a small ridge. Nice! From the summit a long descent followed: first towards Lindauer Hütte and then back to the parking lot at the cable car via the Gauertal (valley). Long tour, but worth every minute and a great closure of a superb holiday.
Went back home again.
That's it!
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