After several weeks of home office, it feels great to leave the city and head for the mountains. Our favorite Hidaway in Garmisch reopened just in time for Pfingsten. Hence, we are back at Graseck.
Saturday, we take it slow. We sleep in, clean the kitchen and take a noon train to Garmisch. It is our first Corona train ride.
This time, we take the Graseck cable car to the resort. I sleep through the afternoon bevor we go to dinner.
Sunday, we sleep in. After a hearty breakfast, we head up the Kälbersteig.
Its a steep climb and we make slow progress. We decide to take the road to Elmau, which crosses the Kälbersteig at ca. 1250m. Its a nice an easy downhill hike, past a logging cabin. We take the old SS2 trail, ignoring “road closed” signs lefr and right; surely the must be for cars… We are rewarded plenty. We follow the abamdoned trail across moss covered stones, through high grass and over fallen trees, all the way down to the river.
The old bridge, however, is long gone. There is no dry path across the river. We take of our shoes and wase through the ice cold mountain stream. In Germany, we call it “Kneipbad”.
From the riverside, we climb a few meters through thick bushes until we reach the old road to Elmau.
We follow the road some hundred meters until we come to the next obstacle. The entire road is washed away by the river.
We need to climb down to the river and back up again on steep, sandy riverbanks.
There is one more obstacle where we need to climb down to the river but then we made it.
At Partnachklamm we find the reason for all this trouble:
After this small adventure, we treat ourselves to a nice Kaiserschmarrn at the Kaiserschmarrn Alm.
And we treat ourselves to a pre dinner Champagne on the balcony.
Dinner is beautiful, and not only after a day full of adventure. Saibling tartar, venison soup and pork filet.
We spend a beautiful evening on the balcony with some more Champagne.
Monday, we get up early. Fabian plans to do the Schachenhaus Run (Kälbersteig to Schachenhaus and decent into Reintal). Its a beautiful day.
I climb the first part of the Kälbersteig in ca. 50min and take a nice relaxing break at the mid level pasture.
The second part is not as easy as I had hoped. Gravel trails make climbing difficult. After 1 h, I reach the Königsweg (and immediatley want to have my gravel ascent back – so many annoying mountain bikers…).
The grass is truely greener on top. I hike underneath Dreitorspitze across green pastures. The view is stunning. After a short while, the Schachenhaus, a hunting castle of King Ludwig 2nd, comes into view.
I climb the final steps past the Alpine Botanical Garden (founded in 1901, unfortunately closed until mid June) to Schachenhaus (unfortunately closed).
I take a short break with Leberknödelsuppe, bevor I start the descent.
The descent is magnificent. The path winds down an almost vertical cliff, withe the most amazing view on Reintal. Pictures cannot capture this view.
Again some signs along the way to be ignored…
The path is a bit steep indeed, esp. the first 200m elevation where the cliff drops of 800m into the Reintal below.
Once back in the forrest, the trail drags on a bit with hundres and hundreds serpentines. Finally, after 1,5h, I reach the bottom.For the last 6km, I follow the beautiful Partnach river through forrests and gorges. Amazingly beautiful.
Finally, after 6:40h (19km, 1200m up and 1200m down) I reach the Graseck and hope for 10 more days of holidays, minimum.
Unfortunately, we have to leave. Being hotel guests, we can cut the long line of the Graseck ropeway. We buy a first class ricket home (on a regional train but we do not want to take our chances. This was a beautiful weekend. To be repeated.