Nearly 200 kilometres, twelve days of walking and three countries: Jean Marc Porte recounts the Alpine crossing from Salzburg to Verona that he completed in August 2015. His journal weaves together unexpected events, mountain huts, Austrian valleys and the mineral landscapes of the Dolomites.
Cirque of the Tre Cime De Lavaredo © Jean Marc Porte
Finding Verona again after twelve days of walking
Mid-August 2015. Night colours and heavy plains heat. Is Verona getting dressed in Prada? After twelve days of rather fantastic trekking (which, bad luck!, brought absolutely unfair weather due to relentless sunshine) getting somewhat dressed up. A clean shirt and a glass of Valpolicella versus sweat-soaked t-shirts and far too many white beers: this evening, they’re playing Romeo and Juliet (What else?) in the amphitheatre… Lost in the crowds of Piazza delle Erbe, facing the statues of ancient gods dominating the facade of Palazzo Maffei, this descent into heavy atmosphere after staying rather high up is an odd exercise…
Landscape on the Salzburg Verona trek © Jean Marc Porte
Countdown
Thirteen days back. The first part of a “real trek” – is it the approach? A Geneva-Salzburg train, and already, beautiful postcards of blue Alps through the window. Upper Lake Geneva, then Lakes Zurich and Constance, like an appetiser? Tomorrow’s stage has what it takes to make you dream. An electric boat connection, to cross one of the romantic jewels of the Berchtesgaden Alps, Lake Königssee. Calm waters reflecting forests tumbling from the peaks. Not to exaggerate: just steps from the Führer’s Eagle’s Nest (less romantic…), this Bavarian enclave cutting across the Austrian border southward has the feel of a mini-Norwegian fjord. Backed by the pure karst solitudes of the Steinernes Meer, it opens in an unconventional way the stages towards the first of the three worlds we will traverse: four days of Austrian Pre-Alps, before tackling the true heart of the range, the Hohe Tauern national park. But a surprise: strikes exist in Germany too. No boat on Königssee those days. We won’t climb to the 2 713 m-metre Watzmann towards Karlinger hut. Willy, our guide, had already unfolded the maps and prepared a plan B… Determined? One cross-border taxi ride, and we tackle the programme “backwards”. A small 1 400 m well-beaten (by sun) and a few cable passages later, we reached via a lateral track the Riemannhütte from the Saalfelden forests. As for disappointment, there’s worse: perched at 2 200 m altitude, right on the lip bordering the frozen surge of the Steinernes Meer, this big hut offers us, at nightfall, an unobstructed fifty-kilometre view towards the pale glaciers of the Hohe Tauern, which, seen from a glass on the terrace, seem… really far.
Lakes in the shadow of the north faces of the Tre Cime Di Lavaredo in Italy © Jean Marc Porte
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Alpine horns and leather breeches
Church with an ultra-slender bell tower and wooden balconies bending under cascades of flowers: the change in atmosphere is dizzying. A pass two hours east of the mountain hut this morning, time to enjoy traversing the barren limestone fields. Then 1 400 m of descent straight toward the archetypal worlds of Austrian valleys with floors as flat as…
Hikers on the Salzburg Verona trek © Jean Marc Porte
From Austrian valleys to the Hohe Tauern
… bright green: forests and waterfalls, farms and meticulously mowed fields. Cows and pastures. At Maria Alm, a small village-resort, this evening, there’s even a festival. Alpine horns, leather breeches, embroidered shirts and cracking whips: they dance and sing better than in postcards , knödels and jodels included , around the musicians… Eyes (very much) skyward, late afternoon facing the suspended glaciers and the 2 000 m of shadow on the southeast face of the Großglockner, the highest peak in Austria, and its satellite peaks. New song(s) in our landscapes? High mountain Alps whitened with altitude, full of green schists, climbing routes and mountain huts named after valiant pioneers, not to mention glaciers whose fate is severely threatened by climate change. In the viewing point car park where Sissi and Emperor Franz Joseph probably felt the same overwhelming impression as us (minus the crowds), between buses and swarms of motorcycles, we are literally at the foot of the second part of the itinerary, right in the Hohe Tauern National Park… Among the highlights of our recent days: the long wave of the walls of the Steinernes Meer and Hochkönig, emerging from a sea of clouds, on a perfect early morning on the alpine pasture. The familiar and peaceful atmosphere of the small bistro-mountain hut Statzerhaus, before tackling the verdant ridges of Hundstein. The blond-haired kids and the bull “Kolossal” from a remote alpine farm, before the endless descent toward the warmth of the valley floor. The song of torrents and cascades climbing back up the Rauris valleys. The picnics where Willy systematically pulls out the tarp to create a bit of shade. And more than anything, perhaps: the taste of fresh cheese drowned in blueberry jam and the smile of the proprietress, around ten in the morning, seated for a light stop at the Rochtor pass. But this 100 % bucolic happiness is behind us. Our itinerary for the coming forty-eight hours will turn its back on these tranquil scenes.
Glaciers and northeast faces of the Großglockner © Jean Marc Porte
Exit from the Steinernes Meer with a view of the Austrian alpine pastures © Jean Marc Porte
Facing the Großglockner and the Pasterze glacier
Ice axes and ropes
Pinned against the slopes and tiny, we cross in the morning shadow the dam set beneath the immense rocky lock of the Pasterze. The Pasterze, Austria’s longest glacier, has been retreating for decades. The sun beats down on us on the ledges descending toward the Salmer refuge. A light break (beer, since there’s no fresh cheese). Around us, ice axes and ropes have appeared on quite a few backpacks: we are at the crossroads of the normal route of the Großglockner and its high mountain refuges, but also on a famous section of the Wiener Höhenweg, a five-to-six-day itinerary linking Carinthia to East Tyrol. Somewhat amazed, we watch a group on horseback effortlessly reach the refuge, despite the rather exposed sections of the path we look down upon. There are indeed many ways to cross the Alps. Ötzi, found not far from here on the Similaun glacier, was dragging his gaiters around these parts five thousand three hundred years ago. The Hochtor pass, just behind us, was already a sort of highway for the Celts and Romans. Salzburg-Verona, perhaps an ancient story of the region? There are more recent ones.
North face of Großglockner, the Pasterze glacier, Austria’s longest
Stratzerhaus refuge bistro © Jean Marc Porte
From the Tre Cime to the Cinque Torri
Sunset at 2 600 m, at the small Nuvolau refuge. For two days, the festival of the “Dol'”, sorry, the Dolomites, the final movement of our vast alpine symphony, has been unfolding. Sublime bonus of an already sublime day? We climbed up and back from the Cinque Torri, where we’re sleeping tonight, to enjoy one of the most spectacular panoramas of the Ampezzo Dolomites. From the terrace, the Toffane explode in raking light. The Cristallo group, the Sorapis, the Marmolada, the Croda di Lago sail like islands beneath a polarized sky. Over one hundred eighty degrees to the east of the void surrounding our viewpoint, the world has become a mineral splendor of cliff layers, delicate spires, desert plateaus and immense scree fields. Pure emotions of this Dolomitic section? Yesterday (already?) rushing down through quiet passes into the cirque of the Tre Cime di Lavaredo. And being, at noon, settled near a crystalline lake in the shadow of the north faces, following with eye and ear the rope teams engaged in the great overhangs of the Cima Centrale, thinking of the not-so-distant mastery of Tita Piaz, Dülfer, Comici or Cassin. Today (still?), the thrill of wildness and scale this morning navigating the immense canyon of the Rio Travenanzes to the Col dei Bos, under thousands of suspended meters of the Toffane, nose pressed to the passages of the ledges and via ferrata, face refreshed by the torrent’s cool breath.
A glimpse of sky over the Cinque Torri high above Cortina d’Ampezzo © Jean Marc Porte
End of a long alpine traverse
Epilogue
A trek “stunning in beauty”? By ordering an espresso at the Nuvolau refuge, it even gave me a gift I wasn’t really expecting: facing a signed photo of Georges Livanos, cigarette between his lips, memories not so distant of Sonia’s smile and the Greek’s accent began, I swear!, to fill all my vertical memories of the Dolomites with emotion… Does the duration of a Salzburg-Verona journey even allow regrets to settle? Two weeks, whether in the Alps or the Baltoro, that’s already quite a collection of worlds, days and nights, shelters embraced and left behind, crossed glances and smiles. Enough, in any case, for this trek to be truly the opposite of “one”. By chance: it was at the Wazzoler refuge, in the clearing of forests opening directly onto the vertical faces, that I finally! pulled from my bag the small book by Erri de Luca, The Opposite of One. Does the book speak of the place where we are? Eyes still full of our light hikes towards the massive beacon of Pelmo and the immense face of the Civetta massif, just before the Duran pass, tomorrow, and the end of our journey, a phrase by Erri de Luca came back to me: “full of Alps in the bones”. It summed up our state of mind quite well
Shadow wall of the Civetta, crowning moment at the end of the itinerary © Jean Marc Porte
The co-founder of the Grand Angle agency based in the Vercors, Jean-Claude Praire was at the origin of the first “north-south” crossings of the Alps, which animate the spirit of Salzburg-Verona.
Has this story inspired you to cross the Alps? Check out the latest program for our Salzburg to Verona trek.
To compare other itineraries, explore our selection of major Alpine crossings and our travel ideas in Austria.
Text and photo credit © Jean Marc Porte, Grand Angle guide
