Guidebook: distance 20km (12.5m) | ascent 932m | descent 1552m | time 8 hrs
Us: 8 hrs
Peaks: Neunerköpfle (1862m) | Schochenspitze (2068m) | Rote Spitze (2130m) | Knappenkopf (2066m) | Kugelhorn (2126m)
Last night was the first proper hot shower in nearly a week! And we’d had a nice sit down meal in the hotel restaurant opposite the campsite. The evening was so warm we sat outside to be covid safe and were served by a waiter wearing a large face visor. Strange times.
Today was a “first chairlift of the morning” day because we had a long mountain walk ahead of us. Walk 13 of our guidebook: Cicerrone’s Walking in the Bavarian Alps. We just about made it, I think we were the 4th or 5th party to leave from Tannheim, on the cable car Vogelhorn-Neunerköpfle arriving at the Bergstation at 09:00.
We took a quick up and down detour to the summit of Neunerköpfle (1862m). The path kept to the ridge for a short while, before descending on the east flank of Lochgehrenspitze (1995m) and curving around the end of this ridge on the south side of Sulzspitze (2084m). There was a path and option to ascend Sulzspitze, but we decided to continue on and put our energy into the ascent of Schochenspitze (2068m).
We’d found our mountain legs and were making quick time, descending and arriving at Landsberger Hut at 11:00. A cold rhubarb-ade, coffees and strudel with ice cream. We had rather run out of food for lunches and so we asked for a couple of sandwiches to take-away too! A great place to sit and watch those scrambling/climbing the dauntingly vertical face of Lachenspitze opposite.
The featured image shows Lachenspitze towering above the location of the Landsberger Hut which is just to the left of the small lake. Schochenspitze is on the left. The photo is taken from the col below Rota Spitze.
On leaving the hut we also diverted from the route in the book and took the steep but grassy ascent to the top of Rote Spitze (2130m). I’m pleased we did since it was a very distinctive mountain. The path down following the west ridge wasn’t well defined on the ground so we took some bearings just to make sure. Passing over a flatter section with a small hut and stream we took another bearing to get us back to the path used in the guide book. Our route north was clearly visible and marked by a major line of mountains: Knappenkopf (2066m), Kugelhorn (2126m), Rauhhorn (2240m) and Gaishorn (2247m).
Again, taking a different route to the guidebook, we summited Knappenkopf and Kugelhorn. The ridge to Knappenkopf was particularly narrow in parts and not something to fall from since you’d be guaranteed a rolling tumble down a steep grassy mountain side for a few hundred metres.
Rauhhorn was a black route and was something I might like to do another day. Today we forked to descend to the shore of the lake Vilsalspee (17:15). The sun was still just high enough for the mountains not to shade the stony beach as we did the ‘hot coal walk’ and took a swim in the very cold water!
We’d missed the last bus back to Tannheim, so ice-creams in hand it was Shanks’s pony, descending on paths through woods until reaching the village (19:30). A local cat had a free ride on my shoulders for a half kilometre or so before it got bored and hopped off, pummelled scratches on both shoulders!
A proper big day in the mountains and the first time on this holiday that we felt as remote as we had last year when completing the Haute route.
Shotley Walker 