Day 15 – from Erlacher Haus to Lärchenhütte

This morning I woke shortly after 6 a.m. after having slept more than 8 hours and so well!

Since we wanted to start early anyway we got up and ready. It’s gotten quite a routine packing our backpacks in the morning and thanks to our dry sack system it’s so simply and quickly done…

We had asked the day before whether we could have breakfast at 7.00 instead 7.30 a.m. and the innkeepers gladly didn’t have any problem with that. We had a nice breakfast with good coffee and homemade jam before we shouldered our backpacks again and said goodbye to Martin who would just start a bit after us. The lovely senior innkeeper Martina told us we could also go a shorter way because of the bad weather forecast but we were quite confident to make it before the rain might start.

It was so incredible hiking over the beautiful, quiet alpine pastures in the solitude of the morning sun. No one except us wherever you looked, and I think I’ve never enjoyed hiking that much like at this moment through the gorgeous Nockberge. After the first hard week with all the little pains and aches it felt so easy and returning back to Vienna in some weeks seemed totally unbelievable right now.

At first we headed upwards some 100 metres to the Nassbodensee which lay quite hidden behind some peaks.

Then we hiked on beautiful paths and an area of some large boulders before we headed straight to the Törl where we had to make some pictures at the edge of the ridges.

Then it went further up to the Predigerstuhl on 2197m. The view was enormous!





Since nobody was there except us we made a picture with self timer. It was only 9.30 a.m. and with the wind blowing it was quite cool. So, for the first time on the trail, we wore our jackets during the hike.

Afterwards we walked along the ridge a few 100 metres in winding roads down to the Erlacher Bock-Scharte and then on the other side up again in the same way to the Pfannock at 2254m. The view was even better up here! I could hardly believe the beauty of the region!



On our way down we met the two Slovenian Girls we’ve seen in Matzelsdorf for the first time and also were at the Erlacher Hütte. They hike parts of the AAT each year, this year for the third time. Shortly after them also Martin was on his way up.

After descending from the Pfannock the way led through the pretty alpine nature with so many mountain pines. It smelled just so good everywhere!

It was quite steep down and, of course, on the other side it went up again. 😉 This time of the day and being Sunday more day hikers approached us, some really badly equipped like wearing sandals in an alpine region! 😱

After crossing the Oswalder-Bock-Sattel we hiked up to the Rote Burg and to the Brunachgatter before the path led through the alpine meadows down again until we reached a pretty, weathered forest where the way suddenly got very steep again.

Then it was just a few more minutes before we reached the Falkerthaus and stopped for lunch. It was very good though expensive. They even had homemade blueberry and cranberry juice. The two Slovenian girls had joined us at the Brunachgatter and hiked to the Falkerthaus with us. They also wanted to do the last great tour in the Nockberge tomorrow but because of the weather forecast decided to go down to Bad Kleinkirchheim on the straightest way possible today.

When we just finished lunch Martin came along. We talked a few words, said goodbye to the Slovenian girls and hiked the last kilometre to the Lärchenhütte on a lovely but steep way through the forest.

There we ate and drank something before we spent a mainly quiet evening in the mountains. Unfortunately later this evening other guests came along for drinks and it got quite loud for some time. Nonetheless, the location of the Lärchenhütte is incredible, in the middle of the woods with a stream nearby. 💖

Some figures for today :

• 16,8km
• 1188m up
• 1192m down
• Hiking time: 4h 05m