Day 2 – Türmljoch and Johannishütte

Today’s route took us from the Essener Rostocker Hütte up and over the Türmljoch on the Schweriner Weg (trail) and down to the Johannishütte.

For breakfast at the Essener Rostocker Hütte, I had self-sliced bread, cold cuts and kase (cheese), Erdbeere (strawberry) jam, yogurt with muesli and cornflakes, scrambled eggs, and a cup of tea.

After breakfast I went to the front desk to ask for a refund for my €20 deposit which had not been deducted from last night’s payment, and I met Thomas Ludwig, the proprietor who cancelled my reservation yesterday – he was friendly, apologized for our difficulties, and I expressed appreciation for his staff and the facility. Nice guy. We went back upstairs to pack, then to the shuheraum (shoe room) to put on shoes, rain cover over my pack, and retrieve my poles.

We set out on the way to the Türmljoch and Johannishütte under a very light sprinkling of rain. The trail sloped up slightly into the scenic upper Maurertal valley where the Maurerbach flowed from glaciers surrounding above.

The rain picked up a little as we went further up into the upper Maurertal until it became a light rain. The trail arced back 180° and went over a moraine before starting the ascent up the mountainside.

The grade steepened but was not too hard, but the rain increased to a steady precipitation requiring me to put my hood up. We ascended endless switchbacks, none of which were too steep.

From up here we could see the Simonysee lake that we did not get to visit yesterday – Lina and Johannis attempted it but were forced to retreat due to lightning and rain. The lake doesn’t look all that spectacular since the Simonykees glacier has retreated and without sunlight today there is no turquoise color.

My OR rainjacket worked really well – rain did not seep through and it seemed to shed enough perspiration to stay mostly dry inside. Only one pair of hikers passed us on the way up, and we saw no sign of Lina, Rico, and Johannis. I noticed that all of the hikers we saw had sturdy mountain boots, but I’m just in my Scarpa trail runners and Allan is in light hiking boots. I like the comfort on the 90% of the trail that does not require sturdier footwear, and I get by ok on the other 10%. My hands were getting chilled from the cool temperature and rain, so I put on my thin stretch goretex gloves to stay dry and warm up a little.

Soon we could see the joch above and the grade of the trail lessened to where we could stroll up to the top.

Soon we reached the top of the pass at the Türmljoch! The temperature was colder up here, so we both put on another layer under our jackets. After selfies, photos, and looking around, we continued down the other side.

The elevation profile for this route made it appear that the descent would be steep, more so than the ascent, but that was not the case – was generally a nice walk down after steeper sections near the top. We could not yet see the Johannishütte in the Dorfertal valley below.

The rain stopped and the temperature began warming up so the weather was becoming pleasant. As the trail progressed around corners, a large glacier came into view below the Großvenediger.

Soon after the hut came into view and we could see that we weren’t far from it.

We could see the Kreuzspitze, the high point of tomorrow’s route.

The trail became a steeper and uneven for the remainder of the descent. We finally got down to where the grade eased off in a cow pasture and we had to tiptoe around cows on the trail. We crossed over a natural bridge over the raging torrent of the Dorferbach fed by glaciers above.

A few minutes later we were at the Johannishütte and removing our shoes in the schuheraum.

We checked in and we picked our beds in the matratzenlager (mattress storage) where instead of individual beds there is one platform with mattress lined up side-by-side. Thankfully I was able to grab the one that was at the end of a row and next to a wall of storage shelves, so I could get into my bed much easier, could unpack and organize my gear, and had neighbors on only one side (separated by a low divider). As far as matratzenlagers go, I got lucky with this one (one of only two that we will stay in on this route).

We went down to the dining room for a Kaiserschmarrn and to figure out how short we are on cash. I knew from the previous hut that I could get a taxi from here down into the valley. I called Venediger taxi a couple times to reach agreement on a 4:30pm pickup time. After noticing people walking down the road from the hut who had been talking about a taxi, I found out the taxi doesn’t come all the way up to the hut and you have to walk down to meet it.

One of the guys in the taxi van from Niederlande (The Netherlands) asked if I was from California, and said he recognized the accent (good ear!). The van went down a long, twisty, and bumpy dirt road all the way down to the floor of the Virgental valley. Everyone else got off at a car park or a gasthof (guest house or hotel); “California man” and I rode into Prägraten to the Raiffeisen bank to withdraw € from their ATM (he needed € for the taxi). We chatted about the political situations in the US and in the Netherlands. After dropping him off back at the gasthof, the taxi took me back up to near the hut. I was surprised at how little English the taxi driver could speak – she said she had studied 20 years ago but forgot most of it over the years. I am guessing that this part of Österreich does not see many english-speaking tourists. I walked back up to the hut just in time for dinner.

We sat with a young Dutch couple at dinner – he was fresh out of university (mechatronics) and she a schoolteacher. They hiked up from Ströden to the Essener Rostocker hütte like we did, and then continued over the Türmljoch to the Johannishütte – doing in one day what we did in two. They are doing something similar again tomorrow by going all the way to the Bonn Matreier hütte passing the Eisseehütte. Over beers we talked about politics in both the US and the Netherlands, and differences in the way of life in the US vs Europe (maybe everyone doesn’t need to go to the moon). Enjoyed a delicious dinner of soup (unknown kind), salad, lasagna, and banana ice cream with chocolate mousse. The Dutch retreated to their room after a big day. Allan and looked at tomorrow’s route on our maps, and a 3d map in the hallway that better illustrated the options. Tomorrow will be one of the biggest days on the trail, so everyone went to bed before 10pm. I stayed up until after 11pm to wind down before attempting to sleep in the matratzenlager.