Stubaital without glaciers

1 September 2020

9° The weather is still nasty and I'm clueless about what to do today.

Two attempts to reach starting points for short hikes fail due to two roadblocks that are not displayed in my navigation system or Google Maps, or are signposted in time.

So I have to pay toll twice to drive 350m. Now I'm trying to drive for free on the country road 182/183 towards the south and thus towards Stubaital.

If the clouds were less, hung higher, and it rained less from them, it would definitely be breathtaking. I follow the road towards Stubai Glacier, knowing well that I'm not going to drive up there as the webcam already showed a gray wall this morning. I would have liked to visit the glacier cave, but for that I first have to take the cable car into the fog 🌫 for 21 euros. You can't see the glacier from down here.

So I park at the valley station, which is located at an altitude of around 1600m, shortly after encountering some funny 🐐 goats that squeeze themselves next to the road tunnel to avoid sitting in the rain.

Before the tunnel, a very Austrian sign warns 'Obacht Goaß kema' 😉 about the 🐐 🐐🐐🐐🐐 goats and I wonder how the usually numerous Asian tourists here would decipher and understand it 😂.

There are no more than 8 degrees up here at the end of the road, where there are only two cable cars left. The hotel is closed until October, and so is the restaurant next door. Only a small sports shop is still trying to sell off. There are at most 20 cars here.

The cable car to the glacier sometimes runs and sometimes doesn't. It's just pointless to drive up there because you can see from here that it's no better up there than it is at the valley station. A webcam shows gray soup - it's simply not worth it.

I walk a few hiking trails back and forth for an hour.

Insane volumes of water rush down here from the peaks and various glaciers, especially after all the rain. The Mutterbergerklamm is a raging waterfall that has washed away tons of debris and huge tree trunks. It's around 3 o'clock when it slowly starts to dry up and for a few minutes the sun even burns holes in the clouds.

Instead of hiking, I now take some beautiful nature photos, even discover a small raspberry and a wild strawberry. 🍓🍓🍓 At half past three, I start the descent because I still want to visit the Grawa Waterfall.

The Grawa Falls are the widest waterfall in the Eastern Alps and a natural monument. It is about 85m wide and drops about 180m from the visible waterfall stage. Now, after the immense amount of water from the rain, the waterfall is very wide, which is rather unusual for late summer.

At the lower end, a great wooden viewing platform has been built. But the air is quite cold and damp, so it's not very inviting to lie down here today and watch the masses of water.

So I walk the path back through an enchanted forest with tree ferns, mosses, and thousands of 🍀 clover leaves to the Grawa Alm and treat myself to some apple strudel 🙈.

The sun comes out for about 90 seconds from behind the clouds, then disappears behind clouds and peaks of one of the many mountains around me.

You can see your breath, it's so fresh - and so humid. It's half past four and I trot back to the car and drive off. Since I'm already so far south, I think I'll try to drive to Trins again, where I actually wanted to do two small hikes this afternoon.

But when I arrive there, it's completely overcast and cold, so I have to give up my plan. In a moment of spontaneity, I drive below the Brennerautobahn that runs high above to Brenner.

Just take a look at Italy 😉 At half past five, I reach the outlet directly at the border crossing and hang around there for a while, find two fleece jackets and drive back to Mutters in high spirits.

Because I have already talked to my landlords and can stay 2 more nights. From tomorrow, Wednesday, the weather is supposed to get better and now I will stay here until Sunday morning and then drive straight to Berlin.