I turned the car back in (finding out that I had a minor bump on the car - it was on Christine's insurance and I would settle it with her later.) Then I walked down to the Hauptbahnhof with my pack to catch a bus to the Koenigsee. At the Busbahnhof, you can buy a bus ticket all the way to the Kehlsteinhaus.

As reported last year, they are building a ski resort on the site of the old Führergebiet. In fact, they are constructing the main building on top of Göring's house (he had the nicest site), and the SS Baracks and Platterhof are to be parking lots. Most of the Platterhof, including the old garage already and and the new Kehlstein Busabfahrt is here now. Then there is the fun ride up to the Kehlsteinhaus and then the elelavator ride to the top. Thank goodness I had spared myself the easy climb up here because I was about to need all of my energy.

Before I set out, I had a coffee and some pie for lunch. I had two apples and lots of good cheese and chocolate in my pack. I was to eat all of it on the way. My plan was to go from the Kehlsteinhaus over the Mannlsteig that connected the Kehlstein to the Höhe Göll. It looked easy on the map and from the Kehlstein. Then climb the Höhe Göll and catch the trail to the Stahlhaus, which was a bit far but feasible in theory. The view up here is remarkable: a wonderful view of the Königsee with the Watzmann on the right.

As I set out on the Mannlsteig towards the Höhe Göll, I began to notice that things were not as I expected. I had expected a walk over a bridge connecting the two mountains. Instead, I begain to lose altitude and then began to encounter the first of the the steep down and then up again traverses of the thin ridge. One is never able to stay on top: one is constantly going up and down, and, in at least two places, even through the rocks: there is one place where you have to remove your backpack to get through.

This ridge is a lot tougher than it looks from headon: if only I had been able to see it from the side first: (Höhe Göll on the far left and Kehlstein on far right) and especially if I could have seen a bit of detail of this route from the side. But no, as I can began, the route to the Höhe Göll looked rought but not all that bad.

I started going up and down very steep climbs that required the use of cables and steel stakes in the mountains, over sheer dropoffs to the Königsee valley far below. But I thought that I was about there. My first clue that things were going to get rough were when I came upon a possibly older and definitely slower guy going in my direction. He let me know that the unbleivable climbs I had already done were nothing and that it would get worse and worse. And furthermore, I had no chance of reaching the Stahlhaus as it was way too far.

My second clue was meeting a young couple coming from the top dressed in hard hats and with lots of technical climbing gear strapped to their belts, and using their safety lines on the cables. And indeed, it got worse. I would climb hand over hand back up to the ridge only to discover a trail that went straight down on the other side. The most disheartening thing was that I almost always could then see an even longer climb back up further along the trail. I said to myself "O Nein" a lot. I also kept repeating in my head, the entire day, "Sei vorsichtig" ("Be careful"). Eventually I start using my own safety line, because the ascent starts requiring real climbing. Fortuntely, one of my errands Monday was to go buy 2 meters of line and two snap-lock carabiners fro this very purpose, even though I didn't think I would really need a safety line. Hah.

After three hours of hard work, I reached the junction of the Mannlsteig and the Höhe Göll, and also the junction of the trail down to the Purtschelli Haus. This is also the Grenze (border) between Austria and German. and from here I can look up to the climb to the top of the Göll. I can, from here, also look back to the Kehlsteinhaus to see how far I have come (the Untersberg mountain range lies in the background to the right, with Berchtesgaden in the valley between, to give some scale.

As I climb, I meet a few people coming down from the top who are obviously very experienced. The let me know that the top is covered with deep snow and ice and is impassable. The rain Saturday dumped a lot of snow on the mountains, and by now, Tuesday, it has partially melted and refrozen so as to make deep ice on top. One would have to have special equipment to traverse it.

I climb and climb, trudging through increasingly deep snow. Eventually, I am just a few hundred meters under the top . I sit and eat the last of the food. It's very cold even, with my down jacket. It's getting late in the afternoon and I am definitely the last person on the mountain. I decide that a cautious person would not attempt the ice, and start back down.

It's somewhat easier going down through the snow and sometimes I even ski a little with my shoes. I am defintely high in the mountains now and I am now seeing the Kehlstein from a snowy vantage point.

I go lower and lower back down the Göll until I reach the trail back down to the Purtschellihaus. I have been told that this trail is not passable either, by an experienced climber. And indeed, the climb down is along a sheer wall with lots of ice and snow. And it's pretty far down: the dirt scree that you see at the bottom is the very large remains of an old glacier and is very far off.

However, I have checked out this path from above and different angles and can see that the ice and snow only go down a few hundred meters. If I am very careful with each footstep and handhold, and use my safety line, I should be fine.

And I am. Eventually, I get clear of the ice and snow and have only the sheer wall to deal with, saying "Sei vorsichtig" in my head over and over.

Even once I get off the wall, it's no "cakewalk": there is still quite a bit of up and down. And I find that the cables are broken in three places and about to break in another. But eventually I reach the PurtschellerHas. I had started down the wall at 4pm and it is now 7pm.

Wednesday 17 Sep 2003

It was a cold night in the "Lager": I used four of the heavy wool blankets and was still cold. There was nice company and in the morning I helped Crystal and Bart unload the small cable car that hauled firewood up to the house. I met three young guys who were going to go up(!) the way I had come down. I told them about the ice and snow and broken cables. They thanked and went on up. The lady running the house said she would notify the DAV about the cables that needed repair. Seems to me that not many people go this way and the ones that do scoff at cables. :)

Then I went down (and up) with Bart to the Rossfeld Ringstrasse where we got a cup of coffee at the cafe and waited for the bus. This allowed me to look back and see where I'd been. (The Göll is topped with snow on the left and the Purtscheller Haus is on the green ridge lower to the right.)

The bus let us off at the Hauptbahnhof and Bart and I parted company. I caught a bus to the Königsee to climb the Watzmann. Walking up the bobsled run to the first hills, I wasn't sure if I really wanted to do this. I hadn't slept well and I was pretty tired. But I had prepared for a long time to cross the Watzmann, so I had to at least try.

I made fair time up to the Küroint, leaving at 1:30pm though at the last crossing, there was a man lying dead in the gravel. His wife was sitting by him and police, the Bergwach, and a nurse were there as well. It looks like he just overextended himself. All I could see was a boot sticking out from under the silver emergency blanket. I walked by in silence with just a look from the nurse. I warned people coming down the trail so that they would not be shocked.

Up at the Küroint at 3:45, the weather was beautiful as I had a small meal and beer and just enjoyed the sunshine and rest. The Watzmannhaus looked impossibly far away still, just as it did last year. I carried on at 4:45pm

There is a walk along the woods to the Falzsteig, which is the first cliff one climbs between the Küroint and the Watzmannhaus. In between, it is a mostly level walk through magical woods overlooking the Berchtesgaden valley. It is a great feeling striding through the mountains here.

As I walk along, I can also look over and see the Kehlsteinhaus and the Höhe Göll where I had climbed yesterday, but now from the other side.

After the Falzsteig, one reaches the conjunction of trails between the easier way down to Ramsau, the way to the Watzmannhaus, and the way to the Külroint via the Falzsteig. The last sign says "Alpine Erfahrung, Trittschirheit and Schwindelfreiheit erforderlich": "Alpine experience, surefootedness, and freedom for dizziness (from heights) required" for the Falzsteig. It isn't really that bad. But, rather in the American style, there are so many tourists now on the Watzmann that such signs are needed.

As I was going up the Falzsteig, I saw a small helicopter flying back and forth and I gathered it was landing at the Watzmannhaus , which I reached in good order at 6:35pm. There I saw again Annette, Bruno, and Marcel. Annette told me that she and Pauli were in the helicopter. The guy who maintains the water systems constructed this craft himself and too them for a ride. It was really wonderful and little Pauli didn't want him to leave.

The bad news is that the top of the Watzmann is covered with deep snow and ice still, just like the Höhe Göll and is impassible. I had dinner with a fellow, Walther Zimmer, who is a very experienced guy. He liked my own adventures, though his were so much more. He likes to go out in the mountains for 10 days and sleep in the open in a bag, with almost no food. He invited me to try to cross over with him. I slept pretty well that night because Marcel gave me a private room, without asking, and the bankets were new ones made out of synthetic stuff, which were very light and warm.

Thursday 18 Sep 2003

The next day, I decided again to go for caution, which I never would have in earlier days. He went up to see what the top was like, after giving me his phone number and inviting me to do a big glacier in Austria with him next year. While leaving, I talked to some other folks who had been up on top to try it and they had turned back, so I was sure then that was the right decision.

I talked to Annette about the big trip I wanted to make one day and she said that it was now possible to sleep at the Wasser Alm, Brantmveinbrennhütte, though there is not much food there. Also, the Hirschniese is a very nice peak to hike up to, near the old Trischü, at the southern foot of the Watzmann.

As I left at 9:15am, I intended to go over to the Gontzen Alm on the other side of the Königsee. While gearing up, I talked to a couple. The woman wanted to do the same, but the man didn't because his knees were bothering him. I foolishly tempted fate by urging the guy just go slowly, because my knees were bad too, and going slow seemed to work.

Well, my left knee started to get sore and I had to start favoring the right one. Still, I really enjoyed the beauty of the way through the forest, so much that it is almost "Zen". After I reached the Kühroint at 10:30, I rested, and had a real breakfast of Kirsch-Stueusl Kuchen and Kafee.

It's just all downhill walking, and my knee hurt so badly that I didn't know if I could even make the Königsee. I had lunch at the bottom and then it was clear that I had to come out of the mountains. Well, I had been going up and down thousands of meters every day for days now, but I'd like to fix this knee if possible so that I could do this for more days.

I got back into Bertesgaden late in the afternoon. I wanted to have dinner in the city, so there was no point in the expense of renting a car and driving to the Walch house. I got a room in the very nice hotel Grünberger just across the steam from the Hauptbahnhof for only € 45 and had an easy night.

Friday 19 Sep 2003
In the morning, I rented a car and went to the Walch house, , named "Bernegglehen", where the "lehen" denotes that this house, dating from the 1700s, once belonged to the church. That night, I attended a documentary on the construction of the "Führergebiet", with interviews from living witnesses to the construction and associated destruction of the houses of ordinary people already living on the Obersalzburg.

Saturday 20 Sep 2003

The next day I turned the car back in, after a last look at the Watzmann (with the snow now melting away) and took the train to Berlin.

This is the last set of pictures from this trip as there was some confusion at one point in my train compartment and a woman sat on my camera and I forgot it when I switched trains next. There is a hotline for such things, but it is futile, even if the people who got the camera can't use it since they don't have a charger for the proprietary battery.