8.9 miles ascent 4725′ descent 1056′
Within minutes of the start of today’s adventure, we joined the ancient Salzbergstrasse on a paved trail which followed the Halltal river up the Halltal Valley. This road was used for 700 years, until 1967, hauling salt down the mountain. The trail began with an immediate and lengthy uphill grade although we did enjoy breaks along the way to read the occasional historical story boards about the salt industry in the area.
Water fountains built from the materials available were infrequent but most welcome.
St. Magdalena, an old church with a popular restaurant was an appropriate rest stop. We were here early in the day, beating the crowds who would come for the wonderful food.
Refreshed, we carried on uphill and soon came upon the abandoned buildings of the Herrenhauser salt mines. Notice “Gluck Auf” (“Good Luck” in German) at an entrance to the mines, which were very dangerous. The sentiment was appreciated.
Another mine entrance indicates that this part of the mine was opened in 1492, also with a “good luck” wish for the miners who passed through.
The trail continued on to where we had a good view of the mine rooftops and the surrounding peaks.
Most of the hikers that we had seen thus far considered this point as the end of their day-hike and returned to a gasthaus in the valley for the evening, but we had more challenges to face before reaching our day’s goal, including this enormous scree field across which the trail would lead us (notice the trail over Kathy’s right shoulder).
The further we went the steeper the scree slide became. At times the footing was quite unstable which made for a few scary moments.
Finally off the scree field, we were relieved to reach make-shift steps, cables and ladders which took us back up the mountain.
Arriving at Stempeljoch Col, we were treated to a spectacular view toward Pfeishütte, our next destination.
Colorful wildflowers were prolific along the trail.
This side of the col was much easier to navigate, giving us the opportunity to enjoy its wild, mountain beauty.
Pfeishütte was a welcome sight and everyone was very hospitable and friendly. Shortly after our arrival we had the excitement of watching a helicopter successfully rescue two people off of the mountain and land them next to the hut. It is comforting to know that this service is available in these rugged mountains.
We were assigned to a table for dinner and had two enjoyable dinner companions: Jaap from the Netherlands and Timo from Germany. Nancy and I spent the evening playing a rousing game of Yahtzee with these new friends.
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