Nothing for "old iron" - the Eisenzeit to the Zugspitze - Part I

Hi there! 😊

The pure madness began in August 2018! DF and I had a two weeks vacation in our second home - the Bavarian Alps.
We started our vacation with a relaxing sunday stroll - according to our measures. 😋
It resulted in a short walk of 12 km including cute 1.400 height meters (up and down) off the local tourist trails, which are usually crowded on Sundays. We even had historic education during our stroll to the "Eisenzeit" ("iron time") route on the northwest side of the Riffel in the Zugspitze's shadows. 

View from the parking space

Mauerläufer ferrata with a pinch of the Blassen ridge

Hi there! 😊

Don't jump to wrong conclusions: that blog entry is not a recipe despite the title. 😇
The story is about two Stoffel who went forth to escape from the heat - and might have some similarities with "The story of the youth who went forth to learn what fear was". 😂

Actually, DF and I had planned to pause with further hiking and climbing tours so there would be enough goals left for our long summer vacation. We had planned to spend tome relaxing days in the Rhine-Main-area; some bouldering, geocaching or whatever would come to our minds. 
What happened that we abandoned our good resolutions?
The first trigger was the weather forecast. After I had seen that more than 35°C were forecasted for our area (Wednesday, 25th of July 18), I had checked the forecast for Garmisch-Partenkirchen at a whim. I realized a liiiiittle difference between the temperatures. So, I jocularly told DF that it should only be about 24°C in Garmisch-Partenkirchen.
DF sent me the comparison between the two areas on Thurday and it was frightening.
Since we both are not very heat-resistant, the fun became more and more serious. The main idea was to escape the massive heat. We still had the problem of choosing a suitable tour for the weather conditions. We agreed on the fact that the mountains are already like an oven with 24°C. I suggested a tour on a northern side but I had to decline DF's idea of the "Eiger Nordwand". 😅  
Finally, I remembered the Mauerläufer (wallcreeper) ferrata which mostly follows the north side. DF had planned a tour only a short time later including the ferrata and the lower part of the Blassen ridge (complete east ridge of the Hohe Gaif). Nothing could have stopped us from that point on.

Long story short: we wanted to climb one of Germany's most demanding ferratas at the north side of the Bernadeinkopf to escape the heat at home - and not even to mention the rest of the tour. If that's not crazy, I don't know. 😂

Since there were no suitable parking spaces to stay over night close to the Alpspitzbahn, we spent the night on a parking space below the Eibsee.   

Morning panorama from the parking space

Ehrwald's Matterhorn - Team Stoffel at the Sonnenspitze

Hi there! 😊

Since the human is a creature of habit, DF and I couldn't fight the addiction and started another time towards the mountains at Friday, the 13th of July 208. And even if the packing before has become a routine, I was still not used to my room looking like I was in the middle of moving. 😅 

Moving?!

Our goal this time was the Ehrwalder Sonnenspitze ("Ehrwald's Sun Peak") with 2.417 m. It is practically vis-à-vis with the Tajaköpfe and wears the nickname "Ehrwald's Matterhorn" - not without good reason. I have to admit that the Sonnenspitze looked absolutely unconquerable when I looked at it from a distance. So, it was understandable that we were a bit nervours...

You see right in the middle the unconquerable looking Ehrwalder Sonnenspitze

Muddy Stoffel - Rats Runners X-Treme Run Goldbach 2018

Hi there! 

Since we cannot every week drive southwards to the Alps, there was a different schedule including a special "wellness programme" for the last weekend: 
The Xtreme Run from the Rats Runner series in Goldbach. Clay is supposed to be good for the skin! 😁

I had participated once in 2016 and had been very fond of the great mood and the variety - so I couldn't resist to sign up in 2018.

DF was my personal motivator, cameraman and pack mule. Thanks a lot! 😘 And that was the reason why he couldn't participate himself, poor guy. 😂

I was in the second starting field and so my race began at 01:35 pm. We arrived at the motocross area in Goldbach a few minutes before one o'clock. The biggest and greatest surprise was my bib number: 313! Absolutely awesome for me as a passionate Donald Duck fan! 😂

Bib number and medal

Ferrata Tripel (Seeben, Taja edge - and Coburger ferrata) - no "Mimimi" in the Mieminger mountains

Hi there! 😀

DF and I had a very "relaxed" end for this June - we had a nice tour to Ehrwald (Tyrol). 😂
Since the weather forecast had sounded more than promising, we had decided to start towards Tyrol at the 29th of June 2018. We had started extremely early to avoid the typical holiday traffic jams but we did not succeed that much. There had been a bad accident in the building site close to Würzburg (where else?) and it had resulted a the most wonderful full closure on earth. 😑 We somehow managed to get off the highway and continued our way over small roads and through dreamily little villages until we finally reached the highway A7 towards Kempten. What a beginning...! 

We were able to drive the rest of the route without any further disturbances so we reached our parking place close to the Ehrwalder Alm ("Ehrwalder alp") around 07:00 pm. It had become a routine to prepare the car for night so we still had more than enough time to explore next day's trail a little bit. 
We intended to go up the Seeben ferrata, the Tajakante (Taja edge) ferrata and the Coburger ferrata and didn't want to lose time right at the beginning. 

Seeben falls (arrow) and the rough curse of the ferrata (yellow line)