GERMAN HILL AND MOUNTAIN HIKING
27th February: Garmish-Partenkirchen - Hausberg - Kreuzeck Alm - Längenfeld - Kreuzeck
Start Garmisch-P'kirchen 700m, Finish Kreuzeck 1650m
Highest point: circa 1910m, top of Längenfeld
Distance: circa 15 kms
Weather: Snowing above 850m, deep snow above 1750m
Vertical altitude gain: circa 1300m
Time: 7 hrs 40 mins, mostly on snowshoes
The Bavarian winter of 2006/7 was, in early March 2007, reported as the warmest for 100 years with temperatures around 4 degrees C above average. But I didn't know that in late November 2006 when I started to look out for a few forecast snowy and cold days when I could get back on my snowshoes and enjoy some winter walking! By late January I had bags fully packed, but it was only almost at the end of February that I saw a short window of weather forecast that would suit my needs: some short spells had already passed but not at times I could travel. So Tuesday 27th February saw me set out from the mild and snowfree valley at Garmisch-Partenkirchen, onto the North facing slopes above the town where the forecast snow had indeeed fallen, and was still falling gently as I reached the first sprinkles of snow near to Kochelbergalm at around 850m.
My plan was to get as high as possible above Kreuzeck, using pisted and compacted old snow higher up that should now have enough new snow to make snowshoeing fun, but not too exhausting for someone like me who will never be fit enough, (or slim enough!), to go cross country snowshoeing.
