Alpen Tage 2 Kemptner Hütte - Memminger Hütte

We hiked 29km from the Kemptner Hütte to the Memminger Hütte.

Overview of the hike:

GPS trace 

Video overview of the hike: 

Sleeping with ear plugs was magical. We had bread an muesli mit milch und milch cafe for breakfast. We got our things and went outside to fill the water bag and prep the bags for the day.

Well organized to maximize sleeping capacity.

We climbed out of the crater to a amazing view with shrubs. To the first crossing to another country into Austria by walking. We walked down, about halfway down passed a cafe which wasn't open yet (it was still only 8 am).

Morning view of hike out of the crater.

 
We saw the sign taking about the taxi from the town to Madau base of the mountain, we decided to take the walk to at least the Bach town, and re-evaluate there since it would be our longest day and didn't appear to be normal to walk it.

The hills and fields were beautiful, we got to town, changed from our boots to our shoes and called for info about the taxi. The dispatch said they didn't know when the taxi would be back. We went to the market to re-supply a bit, got meat and cheese and nectarines. We read the sign for the taxi and it said 60 euros for up to 4 people, we decided to keep going (we knew we could do the distance, and we are that cheap).

View of the village in the valley.

Leaving Bach towards Madau and found that the train was a pilgrimage trail with icons and benches along the way. We saw signs saying the village or the road would be closed that weekend. We were running really low on water for what we had left to do, with only 700ml of water left. Our trail led us on the west of the river, until we got to the turn in the road and saw that the GPS trace we were following wasn't a path, this was the first mishap of the Komoot app, we turned around and went back to where the village was supposed to be, and saw 1-2 signs for Gasthof, but no restaurants or markets on the road, and still no water.

We made some hiking staffs and started the gradual incline towards the mountains. We ate some  wurst and talked to a nice older couple who were also on their way to the Memmingen hütte. We found a horse/hiker watering trough with running water, as we had seen elsewhere in villages and filled our water pack. We got to the end of the road and saw the cable car for taking packs and supplies up to the house. We read the signs 16€ per pack, that you can call with the telephone up to the hütte, but we decided we had enough energy to just keep the bags since they weren't very heavy.

We are going up there!

We started the climb at around  3:30, expecting to be at the top way before 9pm (sunset) since we had only 2km left to do, but 1km vertical also. We met a group coming down who warned us that it would take a trip least 2 hours, we smiled. Probably they thought we were going for a day hike as well. Yes we know...

Every 100 meters in altitude on our GPS we paused and had cheese, fig, tomatoes or wurst in alternation. This system, and the cold water from the mountains spicket gave us energy and we made it to the top by 7pm!

We crossed a few waterfalls and ice flows. It was windy, we even put on our tuque and gloves. We got to see mountain goats in person and even saw them battle (or play) for king of the boulder.

Mountain goats

We finally arrived at 7pm just before the kitchen closing of 7h30, it took us way longer than expected to do that last 2km.

Hutte in the distance.

While waiting for dinner I started getting the chills and, and I did put on m my winter clothes, but still kept shivering. We sat with a mixed group of folks, one of them (I think the guide of the group) said Mathieu didn't speak German. The rest of  the table gave him an eye and said be careful, I had been speaking with them in German for over an hour before he arrived. He recovered by criticizing me of speaking hoch Deutsch. I shrugged. We ate most of our food to get energy and went out for a walk to enjoy the sunset and view the crystal mountain lake.

The view was breathtaking, and amazing!

A wheat beer to enjoy the view.

Breathtaking view of the glassy lake at the top.

Again to bed early, tomorrow would be a short day only 14km, almost all downhill so we put in our earplugs and planned to wake up at 7:30... but of course at sunrise at 5.30am UP we were!