Favorite Alps for hiking and alpine climbing

2023-08-09 10:17:00, Kosova & Bota CNA

It is a July morning just before nine o'clock when the adventure of crossing the Alps begins. My father, I and several alpine sports enthusiasts have come to Wildental, Austria to face this challenge. Our route will have several stages and will take us through Tyrol to Northern Italy. Our destination is the thermal town of Merano, the "pearl of South Tyrol", which once enchanted the Empress of Austria, Sissi.

Our guide Ludwig Pittl, a retired doctor with bright blue eyes and a refined smile, will accompany us for six days. Luggi, as his friends call him, comes from a village near Innsbruck and has been hiking in the mountains since he was young.

We set off with tightly laced alpine boots, light packs on our backs and full water bottles. The sun smiles at us from the cloudless sky. The valley shines with a lush green. The eye sees freshly mown meadows and dark pines. A mighty mountain range rises on the horizon.

The atmosphere is relaxed and we quickly engage in conversation with other members of the group. Many are retired and experienced climbers, while my father and I are novice climbers.

We turn onto a path of stones and shadows and follow the course of the stream, Wildenbach. Apart from the sound of water, the crunch of pebbles underfoot and the sporadic chirping of birds, nothing is heard.

Traffic jam on the mountain

Yes, we will not have much time alone for this idyll. We constantly meet other groups of hikers and hikers on electric bikes. A little later, when we start the first climb, we have to stop. Dozens of amateur climbers, many under the supervision of a guide, slowly struggle up the climb. But because the mountain path is narrow and the slopes are steep, overtaking is impossible.

At noon we finally reach a mountain hut at the foot of the Großer Widderstein. The effort was worth it. From here the panorama of the Lechtal Alps unfolds all the way down to the valley. It's time to have a refreshing drink and lift something to pick yourself up.

Climate change threatens mountain tourism

But the future of such mountain lodges for climbers is increasingly uncertain. The cause is climate change, says Tobias Hipp of the German Alpine Club. Hipp is an expert on water, climate change and nature protection. He completed his PhD on the effect of climate change on alpine permafrost areas.

The consequences of global warming stand out "most glaringly" in the European Alps. The most obvious example is the melting of the ice, "over the last ten years there we have had an extreme fall, on average 20, 30 meters every summer in the eastern Alps, so in Austria and northern Italy", says Hipp.

Mountain lakes are important water reservoirs. If they melt, the consequences are severe. "Of course this has an impact on the mountain lodges and their water supply. A lot of springs in the high mountains are fed by somebody, and there we had a water shortage," says Hipp. The problem is especially evident on the Pasterze, Austria's largest and longest mountain on the Großglockner mountain.

But even climbing routes are threatened by climate change. Melting ice, for example, leaves behind rocky slopes, which can lead to more frequent rockfalls. This also endangers hiking routes at lower altitudes. Equally dangerous is the continuous melting of the permaforst (permafrost), which holds the rock formations together like a putty. If the frost softens, massive landslides can occur, as happened recently at Flüchthorn on the border between Austria and Switzerland, where about a million cubic meters of rock came off.

Although rockslides and landslides have always occurred, global warming appears to increase their intensity and frequency. Friedl Knönauer, a passionate climber from the Bund Naturschutz eV in Bavaria, thinks that in the future "some climbing routes in certain areas will no longer be maintainable". His attitude is as pragmatic as it is fatalistic: "This climate warming will bring about changes and we have to adapt." Knönauer does not appreciate intervening in nature to make impassable roads accessible again, such as by using bridges. hanging on cables. "You have to let nature be nature," he says.

The last stage

However, on our way few things testify to the growing dangers of alpine tourism. Apart from a lone sign along the Merano High Trail, warning of the risk of falling rocks, the consequences of global warming on the alpine ecosystem and tourism can be easily overlooked.

We feel euphoric on the last day of our six-day excursion, during which we have walked 45 kilometers, although we have also covered some distances by bus and taxi. We are now on the way to Merano. After a few hours, after having managed to climb a 500-meter climb with a lot of technical and physical difficulties, we arrive at the Talbauer guesthouse at 1200 meters, exhausted, sweaty, but happy. With cold drinks in hand we enjoy the wide panorama over Merano and the Adige valley.

Then we descend by cable car to Merano. In the center of the old town we eat from an ice cream parlor. We deserved it after all those hardships./ DW