Day 1 – Essener Rostocker Hütte

We started our hike on the Venediger Höhenweg from the Virgental valley up to the Essener Rostocker Hütte (hut).

Our plan was to have spent the night in the tiny village of Hinterbichl, one mile from the trailhead; but due to missed connections (both air and rail) we ended up 50 miles away in Kitzbühel instead last night.

We started the day with breakfast at the hotel; a nice restaurant – reminded me of the dining room at our hotel in Ginzling in 2019. I had salmon, Tiroler käse, ham & cheese omelette (I asked for classic Tiroler omelette, but chef said there isn’t one), Kaiser roll with butter and, and an Assam Irish breakfast tea. We returned to the room to pack up, then checked out.

While checking out we suddenly realized we had only 15 minutes to walk back to the bahnhof to catch our bus to Matreier im Osttirol; so off we went at a brisk pace and reached the busbahnhof with a few minutes to spare. We boarded the 950X Regio Express bus, which went over a mountain pass, descended into Mittersill, then went up a valley to the headwall where a tunnel took us through the mountains of Hohe Tauern. After the tunnel I was hoping the bus would detour over to the Matreier Tauernhaus to validate we could catch this bus back to Salzburg, but the driver did not turn off. We descended into Matrei where we got off at Korberplatz, a small parking lot with a wooden shelter for bus passengers.

I called Venediger taxi for a ride to the trailhead so we wouldn’t have to wait 2 hours for next bus (€50). I received an email that Essener Rostocker hütte canceled our reservation! I called them and they said there was a duplicate booking (which I noticed on alpsonline); they cancelled the duplicate and said everything was fine (we’ll see about that later). The Venediger taxi arrived a few minutes later and took us up the valley to the trailhead at Ströden, after stopping at a Raiffeisen bank in Prägraten am Großvenediger to get a little extra cash for incidentals at the huts (beer).

We arrived at Ströden which is a car park and a couple of farms. The plan was to start earlier in the morning so that we could have lunch at the hut, then do a short hike up to Simonysee lake in the afternoon, near the foot the Simonykees glacier. But it’s already noon now due to this morning’s travel from Kitzbühel after missed air and rail connections, so we probably won’t have time for the lake.

The trailhead was not where the map indicated it was, but we saw hikers heading up a parallel dirt/gravel road so headed up after them.

We passed through the Waldseilpark Grossvendiger, which looked like a mountain play park for kinder (children). After a couple of junctions, the road crossed over the Maurerbach stream and continued up to the materialbahn (material cable car) station for the hut.

Above here a trail forked off from the road, signed for the hut. The trail ascended more steeply than the road, up across hillsides and then into the forest, switchbacking steeply. A group of 3 Deutschers (Germans) had passed us, and we then took turns occasionally passing each other. A bit further they had stopped to eat and said we’d probably get to the hut before them, and they’d see us there. I think we exchanged the lead another couple times before breaking away from them. The trail got really muddy, and I was forced to skirt the trail on grass and rocks where I could stay clear of the deep mud.

We reached a flatter section after around 1,800 feet of climbing and shortly after could see the peaks and glaciers above the hut (which was still obscured by topography). The trail ascended more gently up here, crossing numerous gates through electrified fencing.

The hut came into view, perched on a hillside far above.

We came onto a small bridge over the Maurerbach, which was a raging torrent descending a canyon just below the bridge.

No sign of the Germans behind us here. The trail began ascending more steeply above here, eventually departing from the trail I had mapped; it appears the trail was rerouted for a gentler grade.

Passed a sign indicating we were crossing into the Hohe Tauern national park. The trail continued up toward a sprawling wasserfall (waterfall) at the confluence of the Simonybach and the Maurerbach streams.

The Germans caught up to us here while I was taking photos and passed us – would not see them again until the hut, which was a short distance up the trail. We came around a corner, and there it was just a couple switchbacks above.

Greeted the Germans outside where we all removed our hiking boots/shoes before entering the hut. The ritual begins by finding the schuheraum (shoe room) to drop off shoes/boots and trekking poles before checking in.

Chris at the “front desk” seemed confused and didn’t see our reservation for a zweibettzimmer (2-bed room) and kept asking if we were 4 people. After I insisted that we had a reservation and had called earlier to confirm, he assigned us to a 4-person room (#7). We went up to the room (a nice corner room) but found someone already in there. I showed him that we were assigned to that room, and he said we should go down to the front desk to sort it out. Turns out his name was Bower too, which seemed to be the source of the confusion. Chris assigned us another room (#9) in the older part of the hut (more rustic and authentic), but we found backpacks in there too. By now I was getting a little irritated with Chris, which I think he sensed. He asked me to wait, disappeared for a few minutes, then came back and assigned us to room #14. I asked if he was sure no one was in there and he said yes – because he had just run up there to confirm. The room was very “rustic” with dark wood – had three beds but Chris gave it to us because I had reserved and insisted on a private room.

We unpacked in the room and washed up for dinner. We grabbed the Hacker Pschorr beer I purchased for the train yesterday and Allan carried up (under protest) but didn’t drink (because we had beers with wurst with lunch in München instead yesterday) and sat out lawn chairs above the patio to enjoy the view of the glaciers above.

The weather turned and it started sprinkling from approaching thunderstorms, so we retreated under the shelter of an umbrella over a table on the patio. Enjoyed a delicious berry flat-cake of some kind as the rain began to pick up. The hut was planning to barbeque tonight and had started a fire but decided to abandon that plan because of the rain. The wind began to blow, driving rain under the umbrella, so we retreated into the dining area. Could not find space in the main dining room but found a smaller room down the hall where no one was yet. Enjoyed finishing our beers and cake and chatted with a guy who showed us photos of the route below the Kreuzspitz (which we will tackle in a couple days) – I thought this would be mostly scrambling but his photos clearly showed some walkable trail.

The Germans joined us at our table for dinner: Lina and Rico from Berlin, and Johannis from somewhere else in Deutschland. Rico was a schoolteacher, Lina was an ex-marketing executive, and I think Johannis worked in IT. They were a little younger than us and spoke English effortlessly, so it was easy to communicate. We lined up for dinner buffet and I chose Kartoffelsalat (potato salad), pasta salad, and a wurst (sausage). After dinner and after discussion/debate on which game to play we decided on Kniffel – a German version of Yahtzee. I had forgotten how to play, since last time was probably when I was ten years old, but Allan was very familiar as were Rico and Johannis – Lina had never played and teased Johannis that he was making up the rules as we went. I ended up winning after getting lucky after rolling a kniffel (all 5 dice having the same value) on my second-to-last turn. Allan and I checked the weather for tomorrow which was concerning with thunderstorms followed by rain for a few hours between ~10am to 3pm. Kinda early in the day for thunderstorms.

In the huts you pay for your stay (bed, food, and drinks) after dinner, and I was surprised by the bill. A little quick mental math revealed that I had probably forgotten to multiply the hut costs for 2 people. We will not have enough cash to pay in all the huts.