GERMAN HILL AND MOUNTAIN HIKES

My winter trip with my wife Bobbie to Bayrischzell in the Bavarian Vor Alpen had shown these relatively small mountains to be in a superb hiking area. We were especially impressed with Fischhausen-Neuhaus, a very quiet village at the South end of the Schliersee. Surrounded by mountains with a large number of huttes. With an hourly train service from and to München, and also along the valley floor to Bayrischzell. An hourly bus service up to Spitzingsattel and the small mountain surrounded lake at Spitzingsee: and other bus services as well! Routes 9552 and 9562 are the most useful and times can be found on the Bus web site by using the "Linien nach Nummen" drop down menu. The village also has a small supermaket, (behind the petrol station on the main road through), and other useful shops. A veritable hikers paradise. So for my May trip undertaken on my own, it was no surprise I should select this village as my base, especially after finding on the Internet what seemed to be very good place to stay in the form of the Gasthof Kögel.

So the bright and sunny morning of May 19th, (after very heavy rain the day before), saw me heading up the Durnbachtal and past a lovely waterfall on the road heading almost due West away from Fishhausen-Neuhaus, in an attempt to get to the summit of the Bodenschneid. The grade was gentle to start with, but on entering the forest on a gravel road the climb on a steeper grade started.

That path should have lead to Bodenschneid and I was behind a mountain biker, (carrying his bike over the deep snow and uneven terrain). After a while I met him returning and he was not happy as the path had ended! I continued to see if I could find a track, but no. It seems that the only people to use this route in the snow had missed the turning to the South which was still well covered. I retraced my steps past Bodenschneidhaus as far as Raineralm. There I noticed a small track heading up to a couple of smaller summits and detailed examination of my map and a conversation with a local hiker confirmed that a non signed track lead to the top of the Wasserspitz, (1552m, right top), where I could expect good views.

The path was not that hard to start with, but on the steeper North facing higher sections there were more patches of deep snow! But the ridge was not that wide so it was obvious where the path must do it's narrow zig zags to the summit.

So I had to kick footholds in the snow one at a time, (photographed on the return, right), two or three kicks for each foothold, to get enough grip. A slow and very tiring way to ensure I got to the summit cross. But worth the effort when I did eventually stand on the summit, as there were some superb views in the by now partly cloudy weather as I sat and ate a rather late lunch.

The steepness of the track should not have been a surprise as I was using the excellent 1:25000 Topographische Karte 1:25000 "8337/8437 Josefsthal" from the Bayerisches Landesvermessungsamt München. These maps may not be that easy to get but seem very accurate, being something like the equivalent of the UK Ordnance Survey maps and a significant step up from Kopmass map series. My earlier study of the map had shown that the 20m contour lines were very close together on parts of this track, and even after the rocks there were some more steep parts through the trees, (right).

The track itself was not well marked and on several occasions there didn't seem to be an obvious route up the ridge. But this was a ridge so whenever the track was not clear I just kept going steeply upwards on what to me seemed to be the top of the ridge. A few sections of fences appeared from time to time, and nearer the top the going got very muddy indeed. But thankfully there was no snow, and the trees lower down gave some protection from a quite warm sun. Every so often a break in the trees gave an increasingly superb view over the surrounding mountains, enough incentive to keep me climbing for that summit!

I slowly warmed up and settled to a steady pace in the dark forest: the grade was not hard. Nearing Neureuthaus the forest road ended and a narrow track crossed a foggy meadow with the lovely sounds of tinkling cow bells: one of whose owners came to investigate me, (left). Then I passed the large Hutte, (center), but didn't stop as my research had seen it reported as "large and impersonal", whilst the same report had felt the much smaller Gindelalm hutte a better location. So I continued to follow what had now again become a forest road, (right), noting that for around an hour of walking the signposts kept saying Schliersee was still 2 hours away! Despite the poor weather there were other walkers on the route. Had it been a sunny day I was later assured the route would have been very busy as it is a popular destination for the residents of München over a fine weekend. But the continuing fog and low cloud had kept the numbers down as the gravel forest road approached Gindelalm in advance of which I knew from memory there was a small track off to the right that would get me to the summit of the Gindelalmschneid.

The forest road emerged from the trees and in front I could see Gindelalm. Immediately on my right was a small track, (left), heading up to the top of the Gindelalmschneid. A short time late I was next to the very imposing cross on the top of Gindelalmschneid, (centre), but sadly unable to take in the views because of the continuing bad weather. The low cloud lifted long enough to catch a glimpse of Gindelam below, (right), where I planned to get a bowl of soup.

I left the forest road and took a zig zag track down the side of the Krainsberg towards the Schliersee lake, but it was only on emerging from the forest much lower down did I get a view of the still water in the continuing dull day. From there a good path lead alongside the lake and then into Fischhausen-Neuhaus and my Gasthof where I ended what had been a quite long and pleasant hike, despite the poor weather.

This was the fifth and last day of my May trip to Fischhausen-Neuhaus and even though I had not taken a rest day I still set out for what I expected to be a quite easy ascent of a low local summit. I had chosen the Auracher Köpferl as it was just across the railway from the hotel, (photo right), and also had a short section from the South to the summit that was shown on the local Kompass map that covered the area, (008, Bayrischzell Schliersee 1:35000), as a "red" route, i.e only for experienced, (nur für Geübte).

Closer examination of the more detailed and more accurate 1:25000 Bayersiches Landesvermessungsamt München map "8237, Miesbach", had revealed that this part of the route probably had some steep rocky sections. So it seemed an interesting short hike for my last day especially as I could easily expect to get to the 1231m summit before forecast heavy rain arrived late in the morning, so could expect moderately dry underfoot conditions.

It was certainly preferable to trying to hike up a much higher summit where I could expect to be into the cloud base and therefore fog and mist for most of the time with potentially very slippery conditons once the heavy rain arrived. Even assuming I would have the energy on my fifth successive day of hiking to undertake a peak like the Brecherspitz or Breitenstein!

The route first took me past the railway station then onto a well signed forest road with a good surface, (top left and centre). The efforts of the previous four days showed and I was very slow on the easy grade and in dull weather. But morale was raised when I passed something on the road moving even slower than me: photo right!

It took a while to get to the first summit in the road at just over the 1000m mark, where the sign, (top right), pointed at the harder route to the summit of the Auracher Köpferl 200m above me.

I mixed an Isotronic drink and set off to enjoy what soon became a rocky section that I needed to scramble up as it was steep, (above). That was about par for most of the climb. A wooded ridge, fairly narrow at times with on one occasion a very steep drop to one side that I needed to scamble up past to feel secure.

My tiredness had gone and I thoroughly enjoyed the challenge of a route that I am sure more experienced hikers would never even bother about. But even in the low cloud and dull conditions I found it an invigorating, albeit short climb.

The path down the North side of the Köpferl was straightforward and led to a junction of several forest roads. A convenient bench allowed me to enjoy a lunch and then put on overtrousers as the forecast rain started to fall. I felt revived from my very tired start so decided to continue onto the Schliersberg in this commercially operated forest with it's fully signposted walks.

The forest road undulated to start with, then dropped down to near 1000m approaching Taferlmoos. Near here the forest road ended, replaced by a narrow track that lead up thorugh Dorrerluss and into the dark forest that was Zielmoos.

The rain was now heavy and with the grade getting steeper in the forest I managed to loose the path! But a combination of compass, detailed map and the knowledge that to top the Schliersberg I needed to climb at just West of North saw me through a half hour stumble in the dark forest and back onto a track I soon identified without difficulty. A short section on a forest road then onto a final track pointed me in the direction of the Rhonberg, (an alternative name for the Schliersberg). That got moderately steep and in torrential rain started to become very wet as I saw the small clearing with the summit cross for the Schliersberg, (Rhonberg).

With some difficutly I managed to take a photo of the cross and decided to continue quickly along the track, which was getting more and more like a fast flowing mountain stream. That soon joined a forest road that was coping with the downpour somewhat better, and after a couple of hours in dark the forest I soon emerged just by Schliersberg Alm, but without much of a view over the lake as the cloud base was still low.