Just a few days after I came back from Montana, Wyoming and Colorado, I took off again for the Austrian Alps for a hike with the European Group of Hikers with Diabetes. At all six Germans and three French people met in Mayrhofen in the Zillertal East of Innsbruck. Most of us knew each other from other events either in France or in Germany. Monique and André from Narbonne do a lot of hiking in the Pyrenees and Daniel from Paris joined the MAD conference in Vallouise. Tom from Bonn and Christiane from Bad Driburg took part in many hikes I organised for diabetic people since many years, Günther had climbing experience in Malaysia, and so Martina should feel save together with all these experienced people. Gabi from Heidenheim completed our group. The intention was to hike in altitudes between 2000 and 3000 meters from “Hütte zu Hütte” having and enjoying the nice views to the glaciers and the high mountains which rise up to 3700 meters in this area.
 
The weather was brilliant when we met, but the weather forecast announced a drift from the Northern Sea which should bring a rapid drop down of the temperatures and at the end snow down to 1500 meters. Nevertheless we climbed up to the Edelhütte at 2238 meters where we were greeted by the guardian whether we intend to stay here for several days because of the expected bad weather. And indeed, nobody believed we could continue our intended tour next day. It was explicitly warned not to go if it would be wet and of course not by snow because we had to cross grassy slopes which were so steep that if you would slide you would have no chance.
 
Next morning we woke up with beautiful and warm sunshine. The guardian and I were listening to the newest weather forecast and then we sighed in relief. The sudden drop of the temperature was expected in the late afternoon and so we had a chance to try our eight hours’ hike. We left at 7:30 after a quick breakfast and we should have enough time to get to the next hut in time. Especially because the most dangerous parts of our stretch were already at the beginning. This hike traverses six cirques (or cwm for Nikki!), and logically we had to climb up and down seven steep edges in between them, but at noon time we should have crossed the third one. The rest we could do while it was raining.
 
Slowly but steadily I climbed to the first edge with 2450 meters the highest point of this day. Daniel from Paris created the denotation “Herbert, the metronome!” for my way to keep even bigger groups together so that everybody will get to the summit or enjoy the hike. At the saddle we were enormously astonished of the steep grassy slope precipitating 2000 meters down to the valley. We understood why nobody should be here when it would be wet. In a long wide curve we could see our way on leading a few meters downhill on the steep slope, then traversing the cirque and climbing up to the next edge over huge boulders. The same procedure we had to do six times. To the right side we enjoyed the marvellous view to the glaciers and the high mountains of this area. But I granted a short stop only to my group and went on immediately even if nobody could believe that this excellent weather should change in a few hours only.
 
As anticipated we had crossed the third cirque at about noon time. It was a certain relief for me, because now the dangerous parts were behind us and we could finish the hike even if it would begin to rain. What about snow? I preferred not to think of it. Nevertheless we did a first break for eating and drinking which really deserved this name. Daniel even unpacked a bottle of French wine he was carrying secretly in his bag. There is no French meal. Not even in the mountains, without a sip of wine. We celebrated our first common day in the warm sun enjoying the views downhill into the deep valley and to the mountains on the other side. Everybody got out his sun-cream for the necessary protection of his skin against the inevitable radiation high in the mountains. But half an hour later I tried to wake up everybody from his dreams and to get ready.
“Oh no, there will be no drop of the temperature today. We can still rest another hour until we should go on!”
“There is no chance! Look to the North! There you already can see a front of clouds, which will be here in a few hours.”
It took some minutes until everybody was ready to go on, even looking in disbelief.
 
The play of descending into the cirque, crossing it over huge boulders and climbing up to the next edge continued. Very often it was secured by iron cables like a via ferrata. Especially the climb over the huge boulders where we had to jump from one to the next was exhausting. We had already crossed the fifth cirque and climbed up to the edge separating it from the next one when the sun disappeared behind thick clouds. Martina always was the second in the row immediately behind me. I was trying to look for the easiest way over the boulders. I avoided high and long jumps from one to the next in order to save her as much energy as possible. In this way she felt save and we could keep a good pace. Someone good a low blood-sugar, but I advised him just to eat and not to stop for testing. It is not of any interest whether he has 49 mg/dl or 53 mg/dl. The last edge was just a smooth shoulder and we already could see our destination of this day, the “Kasseler Hütte”, on the other side of the cirque in an altitude of 2150 meters. In this moment I felt the first drop in my face. Looking into the faces of my companions I couldn’t see disbelief as before, they all shoed signs of relief that we were already so close to the hut where we could find shelter before it would become too bad. It was just another short traverse of a field of boulders high above the valley, before we had to descend into the valley for crossing the river and climbing uphill again towards the hut. But this last part of our long way we became wet and when we arrived at the hut it was raining heavily.
 
But it was warm and comfortable and enjoying our well-deserved beer we didn’t take care that rain has changed into snow.
 
The weather-forecast was terrible for the next five to six days. It didn’t anticipate any hope for another change. So it was no question to break off the intended tour and to try our good luck on the other side of the Alps. If the weather is bad on the Northern side there is very often foehn in the Dolomites. And indeed, when we arrived at Canazei at the foot of the Marmolada we just had one cold day with snow and then the weather became better from day to day and we could do interesting hikes. We even could climb the Piz Boë, with 3256 meters even higher than Hyalite Peak.
 
Next year André and Monique will organize a similar multi-day hike in the Pyrenees, where we will get to know quite another type of mountains.
 
A few days ago I met my friend Georg from the Alpine Club Würzburg who is responsible for the Edelhütte. He told me that since September 4th there is more than one meter of snow near the Edelhütte and that probably the season may be over for this year. Obviously we were the last hikers this year doing this long traverse over the seven edges and through the six cirques.