Bad Gastein, Austria - Day 2 - hike/snowshoe/run

The sun came out today!

Peaks everywhere. I took inventory of my remaining lunches and then plotted out a route using satellite images that goes up the ski slopes, grabbed snowshoes, waterproof hokas, and headed out. This time I grabbed a map from the front desk of my hotel and did my best to follow it. The concierge told me to look for a lift call Graukogel.

I headed up through town, passed some kids on the street that looked at my shoes, said something in German and then they all laughed. I laughed too because my shoes are so Euro, they're picking on themselves.

Onward and upward. I found a sign for Graukogel, found the lift, snuck aroud the side, strapped on the snowshoes and headed up the edge of the ski run. I saw about 2 skiers, then after a couple hundred vertical feet I found a trail off to the side with boot prints.

I followed this up a ways and popped out a hut, high on the slopes. It was awesome. I sat and devoured an orange, took pictures and enjoyed the short-sleeve weather up high on the slopes.

I continued upwards and eventually found a dirt road with poor snowpack, enough so that I no longer needed my snowshoes and could still go much higher.

Eventually at about 4700 ft, and 3-4 miles, I turned around and followed the road all the way down back into Bad Gastein and jogged the remaining couple miles back to my hotel with snowshoes in one hand and my hiking pole in the other.

Garmin data for the hike, 7.5 mi