Mid week and the last day of sunshine before the next big dump of snow arrives, so of course we had to go on a tour somewhere, we decided to hike up the Watzmann 3. Kind (3rd Child). The Watzmann is a mysterious mountain that I can see every day when I brush my teeth in the mornings, and because I am usually away from home at this time of year I have only ever hiked up the Watzmann in the summer, and always dreamed of touring up in the winter so this was the perfect opportunity to finally do it!
The tour is 1500m of altitude (almost one vertical mile) and the weather forecast was showing better weather conditions for the morning, so we met at 7:30 a.m. which is quite early for a snowboarder. It had snowed in the night previous to the tour which made it even more enjoyable as it truly looked like a winter wonderland! The hike through the forrest was the longest section of the tour and with all the trees that kept appearing we couldn't see a finish point for a long time. But once we finally reached the end of the forrest the fog lifted slightly and we were able to see the peak we were heading towards which was still quite away from us but was great to finally see the point we were aiming for.
There is a fairy tail about the Watzmann Mountain which my Dad used to tell me as a child. ( If you're not a fan of background stories or fairy tales then you should skip this section.)
The 'Watzmann' was a King who liked to party, hunt and entertain women... basically he lived a pretty rockstar life. Because of his nature and I imagine arrogance he pissed off the wrong people who decided to cast him with a spell which resulted in himself and his family being fossilised above the Berchtesgadener land.
There are many peaks to the Watzmann which are said to be the fossilised family the largest being Watzmann himself, the second largest his wife and all the small peaks are said to be their children.
Once we were out of the sheltered forrest and into the more exposed section the wind picked up and along with it came thicker fog, and the scenery quickly went from winter wonderland to something that resembled life on Mars (only with snow instead of dust.) Luckily we had our GPS with us and that made getting to the top much easier.
The Descent;
The most exciting part of a tour! Which for the first part wasn't amazing since the visibility was so bad and we couldn't see much at all.
Finding our way back into the forrest we were sheltered from the wind, the powder got deeper and the visibility better.
We even found a nice pillow or two to hit which was so much fun and made us wish the ride down was as long as he tour up!
We had a lot of fun on this tour, despite it being a very very long hike up!
The snow was incredible and the Watzmann looked amazing with all the snow coverage apart from the very top needing slightly more after the wind had blown it all away.
stay safe!
Gerwin & Markus
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