Dodging Bruno The Bear in the Austrian Alps

Country: Austria (and Germany)
Place: The Wilder Kaiser Mountain range and Salzburg
Visited in: 2006

Watching the bubbles in my St. Johann beer gently rise to the surface, the flooded line of our train journey between Munich and Salzburg the night before was long forgotten. We were joking about booking the rescue helicopter for the following day, but I was feeling confident that all 6 of us would make it to the end of our hiking trip without major incidents.

The following morning we would embark on a 4-day hut-to-hut hike in The Wilder Kaiser in Austria from St. Johann to Kufstein. But for the moment we were enjoying a beer in a small beer garden in St. Johann and I doubt any of us realized just how exhausting it was going to be.

St. Johann

We had taken different routes from England and Germany to St. Johann in Austria. My partner and I flew from London to Munich, took the train from Munich to Salzburg where we stayed for one night at the Hotel Bayrischer Hof (see review under Salzburg). In Salzburg we met up with some of the other hikers and we all took a couple of local buses to St. Johann.

St. Johann is small, but has everything you need after a day of skiing or walking including bars, restaurants, supermarkets and various other shops.

We stayed at Sportpension Noichl (www.noichl.at) which is owned by the very friendly Family Mimm. Our room was quite big and very nicely furnished including a sparkling clean bathroom. Gisela Mimm made us a fantastic Austrian breakfast, while Günther Mimm offered advice on which routes to take in the Wilder Kaiser.

St. Johann to Gaudeamushütte

We headed out on our first day of walking in scorching heat. Within 15 minutes of walking most of us were dripping in sweat and I soon realized that my 10kg backpack was far too heavy for the type of hiking we would be doing. We were crawling up very punishing inclines that seemed to be never-ending, and I began to wonder if the rescue helicopter joke from the previous night would remain a joke.

After a couple of hours of hard work, we did start to enjoy the fantastic views and even got to cool off for a few seconds as we walked through the opening of the Diebsöfen caves. The Schleier waterfalls also provided stunning views and even better an open air shower where we could cool off for a bit.

After about 6 hours of walking we reached the Gaudeamushütte (1,270m/4,167ft) after one final ascent. We all dropped our packs right by the first table outside and sat down for an ice-cold drink.

We would be sleeping in the lager, which is a room full of mattresses lined up next to each other. I didn’t expect any problems sleeping after the exhausting day we had had.

After a quick wash in ice-cold water (no showers and no hot water), we spent most of the afternoon and evening outside enjoying the Austrian summer. Germany was playing Sweden in the World Cup and it was also the evening of the solstice fires, so quite a few local people had made their way to the Gaudeamushütte.

The people running the place were very friendly and we enjoyed a fantastic barbecue as we were waiting for the fires to be lit. When it grew dark we watched one fire after the other get lit at the top of the various mountains. As if this sight was not spectacular enough we were also witnesses to a thunderstorm approaching at such a speed I started to worry about the people who had climbed the mountains to light the fires. It did all end in a few hours of quite heavy rain, but we heard no reports of any of the climbers getting caught out in the storm.

As it turned out we did not sleep that much that night as we were sharing a room with a snoring baby.

Gaudeamushütte to Bärnstatt Gasthof am Hintersteiner See

We started walking relatively early the next day. I didn’t have any problems getting up as I had spent most of the previous night getting more and more annoyed at the snoring baby. Even if I had felt a bit sleepy, the ice-cold water in the bathroom would have woken me up.

As we were walking away from Gaudeamushütte we walked past some of the many fires that had been lit on the ground. Smoke was still rising from them and the many cows around the fires wisely stayed at a safe distance.

We started the walk with a gentle decline which was a nice change from the previous day’s shock start. With the gentle sound of cowbells we were lulled into a false sense of security, which was abruptly broken when we reached what at first seemed like a vertical climb.

After the initial shock we soon realised that the climb was far more gentle than we thought and we enjoyed a good 5 hours of easy hiking even if we were still sweating from the heat.

The views on route to Bärnstatt Gasthof were fantastic, and we caught sight of Hintersteiner See sooner than we thought we would have. But we were celebrating the ease of the hike too soon. The last 90 minutes of the hike was such a steep decline that I was almost begging for an incline instead. My toes were constantly pushed up against the end of my boots, and I had to zig-zag my way down the trail to ease the pain, which of course only made the journey even longer.

We eventually came down to Bärnstatt Gasthof and after a quick drink we were pleased to be able to enjoy a proper shower.
The rooms and service at Bärnstatt Gasthof were ok, but not quite up to the standard and friendliness of the Sportpension Noichl.

Later in the afternoon we went down to Hintersteiner See, where most of us went for a swim. Initially I was not going to go in the lake, as I do not enjoy freezing water. Eventually I made the mistake of going for a swim after all, and apart from the top 20 cm, the water really was freezing cold. Not an experience I would recommend to anyone but winter bathers!

Bärnstatt Gasthof to Hans-Berger-Haus

On the third day of walking I had finally had enough of my 10-year-old backpack. The pack itself weighed about 2 kilos which is not ideal when you are trying to keep the weight of your pack down. So I decided to leave my backpack behind and fitted everything into a much lighter daypack I had brought along. The daypack felt so much lighter which was very welcoming as we would have to climb back up the same number of meters we had descended the previous day.

In terms of views the route to the Hans-Berger-Haus turned out to be the most spectacular. It also turned out to be the longest hike time wise. We walked almost 9 hours including 2 long stops for refreshments.

At the very beginning of the walk we spoke to an Austrian who was out looking for Bruno the bear. Bruno the bear was originally let loose in Italy as part of a scheme to reintroduce bears in the Alps. Unfortunately Bruno wasn’t told about not crossing international borders and had wandered into Germany in early May. Since then it had been playing cat and mouse with those who wanted to capture it and those who wanted to kill it in the mountains of Austria, Germany and Italy. Throughout our hike jokes were flying between those of us who wanted to see it and those of us who wanted to avoid it. But we had not realized that we might have been quite close to Bruno. The Austrian we spoke to was trying to keep it in Austria as he claimed the German Bavarians wanted to kill it.

Towards the end of the hike we walked past many waterfalls and even spotted a deer grazing. We endured one final climb before we could enjoy the fantastic views from Hans-Berger-Haus (936m). Hans-Berger-Haus (http://www.bergsteigerschule.at) is run by quite friendly people, even if certain signs (including one on how to use a toilet brush) around the hut signal beginning tourist fatigue.

As with Gaudeamushütte we would sleep in the lager, this time however without a snoring baby. We were served the most fantastic food for dinner (mind you anything tastes good when you are hungry) and were even able to have a hot shower before dinner. Again we sat outside most of the time with a cold drink just enjoying the views.

Unfortunately that evening we learned that Bruno the bear had been shot by some Bavarian hunters.

Hans-Berger-Haus to Kufstein

The walk from Hans-Berger-Haus to Kufstein was short and quite easy compared to the previous days. It was still very hot, and I felt very sweaty and smelly when we walked into Kufstein. We sat down for a cold drink at a café, and I felt very out of place among people in their freshly pressed suits smelling of cologne.

We didn’t stay long in Kufstein, as we were catching a train back to Salzburg. When we arrived in Salzburg we were caught in a brief, freak shower. This was the only time during our entire trip that we had been caught out by rain. Up till then it had only rained at night which was very lucky.

Salzburg

I only saw very little of Salzburg. Originally my partner and I had planned to explore Salzburg on our very first night there, but because of flooding and consequently total chaos on public transportation, we didn’t get to Salzburg until 1:30 in the morning.

As mentioned previously we spent our first night in Salzburg at the Hotel Bayrischer Hof. Our room was ok, but a little small and with a rather poor layout. The walls were decorated with pictures from The Sound of Music. Worst of all the room had no air conditioning, and only a small fan which was not nearly powerful enough to keep us cool in the very stuffy room.

Breakfast however was great, the staff was polite and helpful and the location of the hotel is very good.

On our final evening we stayed at the CD Hotel Salzburg (am Messezentrum). The hotel is about 3km away from the centre of Salzburg, but the number 1 bus will take you into the centre for only €4.20 for a 24-hour ticket. The hotel is an international hotel and therefore has a variety of selections at the breakfast buffet, from rice and noodles to a full-on continental breakfast.

Our room was medium-sized with a decent bed and a very non-alcoholic mini bar. The bathroom was a normal budget-to-medium range bathroom with a combined shower and bath. Unfortunately the room did not have air conditioning, so once again we spent a very hot and humid night trying to fall asleep. Staff are very friendly and helpful though.

The following day we had only a few hours in Salzburg before we had to catch our train back to Munich and flight back to London. We managed to squeeze in the Getreidegasse (the famous shopping street), Salzburg Cathedral, St. Petersfriedhof (St. Peter’s Cemetery where many famous people are buried), Mirabellgarten and Collegiate Church (University Church), where we witnessed a fantastic choir practice. We ended our trip with a coffee and Mozart Kugel at Cafe Tomaselli.

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2 Responses to “Dodging Bruno The Bear in the Austrian Alps”

1. Simone McConville:

   I am looking for quiet places to take long cross country ski trips in the Austrian Alps. Any suggestions?

   10 January, 2007 at 15:29
2. Anni Poulsen:

   Hi Simone,
   I’m not much of a skier myself, but I have sent an email to a friend of mine who knows the area well and I’ll let you know here, if she comes back with anything.

   I have heard though that Tirol (Tyrol) is excellent for cross country, so in the meantime you might want to check out the “Top Tracks” and “More Tracks” sections of the official Tirol Tourism web site.

   If you plan to go this year, you might also want to check out the snow reports here, as European ski resorts have suffered from the warmest winter in a long time.

   Anyway, I’ll leave you a comment here, when I hear from my friend. Thanks for stopping by!

   Update: It turns out she is only into downhill skiing, so no further suggestions, I’m afraid.

   10 January, 2007 at 16:31

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