Day 55 – Prinz Luitpold Haus to Oberstdorf

Daily Distance – 18km
Daily Ascent – 680m
Daily Descent – 1700m
Total Distance – 918km
Distance Remaining – 95km

As a motif for my final day on the Via Alpina a mountain goat springing effortlessly from rock ledge to ledge while directing me a haughty look is a pretty apt one. After the past few days my legs have felt pretty heavy today. Happy enough to deal with flat or downhill trails, but supremely reluctant to contemplate anything remotely resembling an uphill slope. The only thing that got me up the 550m saddle this morning was the fortuitous presence of a day hiker in the distance and a childishly competitive urge to overtake in order to demonstrate my legs of steel after 900km walking. When doing so it is particularly important to only slump exhausted against a rock when out of sight of said day-hiker, otherwise it really puts a crimp in the aura of hiking invincibility. Typically when sleeping in a mountain hut dormitory, last night was very disturbed and I would have happily napped instead of walking. Confounding my expectations of a relatively quiet room many people turned up without reservations, so the dormitory filled up to the point that there was always somebody coming, going, flashing a torch or simply rustling around like an oafish hedgehog. Given the choice I have reached the point where I would prefer to sleep outside in my tent if only it was allowed. If nothing else the air quality would be better. 10-15 unwashed bodies in a room with no open windows is a stuffy experience at best. Certainly the smell of my socks alone could fell a mountain goat at fifty paces.

Fortunately, while the past few days have been among the most tiring hiking of the trip to date, the views have really compensated. Despite this, I didn’t take a huge number of photos today, preferring instead to try and just soak in the experience. Only a few days remain before Bregenz and no terrain quite so alpine.

The anachronism award of this stage goes to the young boy in full traditional dress of lederhosen, shirt and hat, watching over his cows while carrying on an animated phone call on his iPhone. Quite how he could hear over the clanking of the cow bells I don’t know. Perhaps it’s a learned talent passed down through generations of alpine herders.

While it feels like I have moaned continuously about the accommodation situation on the Via Alpina, I am nonetheless glad to have walked a large part of this trail. That I have only met or heard about two other people walking this trail makes me think it is not nearly so popular as I believed before setting out. While Austria and Germany have strong hiking cultures, the thru-hiking, that is, point-to-point over long distances, culture seems almost entirely absent. From a trail community point of view that has been a disappointment, although conversely it has often felt as if the Alps were my personal domain, shared only with cows, roaming goats and the occasional scurrying marmot. Over time I have become ambivalent towards mountain huts, finding many of them to be a little too capitalist and antithetical towards the relaxation that I want from my hiking. However, they are nevertheless an amazing resource and form a network of exploration possibilities that cover practically the whole alps. For each hut that I have visited there have typically been three or four within half a day’s walk. Each hut also takes on the character of those that run it, with a multitude of different routines, cuisines and atmospheres. Curiously though, despite this, it is almost universally necessary upon arrival to walk aimlessly around to try and find where the main entrance is (there are often several doors to choose from), and is also a mystery if there is table service or whether food and drink should be ordered from a counter.

I look forward to commencing the tiny part of the E5 trail that I am walking tomorrow. Two out of three trails down and home seems tantalisingly close now.