View of the Tegernsee from the summit of the Hirschberg
There is nothing like a day in the mountains to decompress from all the stress and excitement of shifts; well, maybe a day at the beach, but real beaches at some ocean are notoriously scarce in Munich. In the late spring, it is far too late in the season for skiing, but that’s not so bad, after all, hiking is also a good way to enjoy the mountains.
Hiking up through the snow.
On Saturday morning, we headed south to the first ranges of the Alps, to hike up the Hirschberg, a mountain near the village of Kreuth in southern Bavaria. At an altitude of 1700 m ASL, it is not a really high alpine peak, but since the valley is around 730 m, it is quite a climb. The mountain is actually quite close to the castle Ringberg, where I spent a few days at a workshop recently.
After all the snow we had in late winter, there is still some left in the mountains, in particular on more protected north-facing slopes. So part of the way up turned into a slippery adventure. After a sweaty two and a half hours with the sun burning down from a cloudless sky, we reached the summit, and were rewarded with spectacular views of the beautiful lake Tegernsee below us and the high snow-covered peaks of the main range of the Alps in the distance.
Today I am quite sore, my body has to get used to this type of exercise. Nevertheless, inspired by the nice views from the top, new tours are already planned. One good candidate is the Rossstein and the Buchstein, the two rocky peaks in the foreground in the left part of the picture below.
View from Hirschberg towards the main range of the Alps. The Rossstein and Buchstein, potential targets for a future excursion, are visible in the foreground.
