hut hiking

So last Tuesday morning we caught a ride with Frank in his boss' Outback (sniff, miss my old car) which was fully loaded with supplies for the hut. We spent half and hour driving up, up, up into the mountains on a dirt road. We parked, unlocked the shed, cranked up the phone (really!), and called the hut and told them to get ready for the first load.This gives them enough time to get down to the landing point for the little cable car. We hurried and transferred crates of soda, massive tins of apple juice, tomatoes, bags of corn flakes, bread crumbs, and loaves of bread.

We saved boxes of apple juice, tubs of ketchup, sacks of potatoes and onions for the next trip. Once that was on it's way, we started the rest of the climb up. Most people will take 2-3hrs to hike up to the hut, but since had a ride up the mountain with a staff member, we only had the last 30 minute stretch to do.At the mid-point we posed for pictures. Frank had run ahead since he was 'on-duty', so it's just Stefan and I. You can see the massive rock face rising up behind us. It's called the Benediktenwand (Benedict Wall). It would take an extra 3hrs to hike up it and back. We opted to do that next time since the weather was iffy and getting supplies had taken most of the day.

The Tutzinger Hütte is more a cute alpine hotel than a hut. It was overhauled in 1998 and is now known as a jewel of the Alps. The place was clean and thoroughly modern, yet decorated in mountain style. I'd totally kick it here for a while! Frank gave us a private tour, showing us the bunk rooms, massive store rooms, and kitchen.

Frank served a few hikers while we waited for Esther - cook of the moment - to make us a nice hot lunch. More fried potatoes and leberkaese, this time with a fried egg on top. More large mugs of radler. We were treated like royalty and were even asked to sit at the Stammtisch with Frank's boss, the boss' parents (who dressed like old mountain people of lore), and a 70 yr. old guy who mountain bikes to the hut once a week for lunch. Difficult for me to converse because of their Bayern-mountain dialect, but fun.

After the late lunch we decided to start heading down the mountain. After waving goodbye to Frank, we walked through pastures where cows grazed and their alpine bells jingled. We walked past huge slugs (gross!), something that looked like Heidi's house, and thought we got lost at one point, but realized we weren't.

At some point on the way down a ligament on the side of my right knee started with a dull ache and by the time we were at the bottom I was walking like I had a peg leg. The two days following were much of the same, so when we got home I had an appointment with an orthopedic doctor who says I have to wear those dorky braces and use the cool trekking poles when I hike. This means Wednesday's plan didn't go as planned.