stage four: martell - sulden

02.09.2021

AND THE SECOND ONE FOLLOWS IMMEDIATELY... 

With the mountain illuminated by the rising sun, we got out of our sleeping bags and went for breakfast. Most of us were already awake at shortly after 6:00 am, and for almost everyone, it was an early start. Both of us had a very restless night and needed some strength before setting off. 

After successfully doing that, we went back a bit on the path and headed towards the Madritschjoch - which meant 100% uphill on the first half of the route and 100% downhill on the second half. The path led us along the Madritschbach initially, passing through a bit of vegetation before the real climb began in scree. We both had to struggle a bit today and had a bit of fatigue from yesterday. But that didn't stop us. Here, we encountered snow directly on our path for the first time.

Upon reaching the Madritschjoch at 3,123m, we continued uphill again - to another indescribable experience. Not only were we at 3,325m for the first time, on the Hinteren Schöntaufspitze, with an incredible view of two completely different mountain ranges and their nature. There were two men with us at the top, who were maintaining measuring stations there and were later picked up by a helicopter, just 10 meters away from us, which landed again later for a second time in front of us. If they had had room for us, we would have willingly flown with them!

Afterwards, we descended to the Madritschhütte, where we took a short lunch break. Then we continued further to the cable car and took the well-deserved - and luckily last - ride down to the valley, accompanied by wonderfully cheerful alpine hit music. A real highlight... 

Upon arrival, we had to walk a bit further to the village of Sulden, where we were delighted to find a wonderfully relaxing spot in the sun with ice cream and homemade lemonade at Ilse's. 

Our accommodation for today is the Nives in Sulden, which welcomed us nicely. We started a little shopping tour through the Spar supermarket and equipped ourselves with new items, and then, at least for me, it was time to go to the sauna! What a treat! 

After a relaxed afternoon, we enjoyed a delicious burger here and now we are taking any rest we can get to start fresh again tomorrow! 

The tour today was

6h 27min (including cable car ride & the way to the accommodation) 

15.3km

1,070m ascent, 1,480m descent

3,340m maximum altitude 

1,910m minimum altitude