Exploring the Allgäu Alps: A 6-Day Hut Tour Adventure

This is my first multi-day hut hiking adventure in the Allgäu Alps 🤓

In this guide, I’ll share my experience, and some tips if you want to do something similar yourself.

Let’s dive in! 🙌

Preparation for the Allgäu Alps Hut Tour

Route

We’ll start at the Kanzelwandbahn in Riezlern, and basically follow the mountain ridges along the border between Germany and Austria.

But we’ll keep the weather in mind, and might hike differently if needed.

Tip: want to hike this too? Take a look at the Komoot route for this hike that I made.

Accommodation

I would’ve loved to take the tent and camp in these magnificent mountains to stay flexible, but unfortunately it’s strictly forbidden.

Luckily, there’s a cool network of huts throughout the mountains.

I’ve never stayed at a mountain hut before, so I’m very curious to experience what that’s like! 🏠

(especially looking forward to the rustic food!)

For this multi-day hike in the Allgäu Alps, I’ve booked the huts below:

• Mindelheimer Hütte – €25/€15
• Rappenseehütte – €27/€15
• Kemptner Hütte – €25/€15
• Prinz-Luitpold-Haus – €27/€15
• Landsberger Hütte -€27/€15

If you become a member of the German Alpine Association (DAV), you get roughly €10 discount per hut per night, and also get insurance for accidents in the mountains.

The huts get booked out pretty quickly, so I’ve made reservations for all of them as soon as it was possible in January.

Food

Since we’ll be staying at huts, there is no reason to carry huge amounts of food.

But I still like to stay flexible, so besides hiking snacks, we’ll also be taking some spare dinners. That way, if a hike takes longer than expected, we can arrive later at the huts.

Water

There should be plenty of water in the mountains, so I’ll be bringing a water filter with a 1 liter supermarket bottle and 1 liter collapsible bottle.

The water is likely safe to drink in most places, but it’s better to be safe and filter everything.

I’ll also be bringing a strip of water purification tablets as a backup in case the water filter fails, but I hope not to use those because I hate the chlorine taste.

Weather

For our dates at the end of June, I found these averages:

• Rain: relatively dry compared to other times of year.
• Temperature: 15°C to 25°C (but can be colder at high elevation).
• UV Index: high 7 to 9.
• Thunder: usually only in the afternoon.

But I’m not super worried about the weather, since I won’t be camping. Just has to be good enough to make it to the next hut.

Before the trip I checked the forecast again, and was surprised that there is still some snow above 1900 meter:

And our hike goes up to 2600 meter 😬

I then checked the mountain weather forecast with a detailed status of the snow on specific hiking trails, and saw that the Heilbronner Weg between the Rappenseehütte and Kemptner Hütte is still covered by snow.

This made me a bit nervous because there isn’t really an alternative route, only going all the way down the mountain, walk to the next village along the road, and go all the way up the mountain again 🤐

In the end we were still able to hike over the Heilbronner Weg, but not without (stupid) risks. You’ll read more about that in the trip report below.

Logistics

I can get to the Allgäu Alps in roughly 6 hours by car 🚗

So the plan is to drive 5,5 hours to a cheap hotel near Kempten, and then drive another 0,5 hours to Sonthofen where we’ll leave the car before continuing by bus to the starting point of the hike in Riezlern.

In Riezlern, we’ll either take the cable car, or hike up depending on the weather and mood 😋

Teamwork

Since it’s my first time hiking in the high Alps, I thought it’s smart to have some company!

I absolutely love my solo adventures, but it’s probably also fun to hike with someone else for a change.

I asked some friends, and Jay, despite having no hiking experience, was the only one crazy enough to say yes to this adventure 🤓

Packing list

Since I’ll be sleeping in huts all the way, I save some weight by not having to carry a shelter, which is really nice.

So the total weight of everything below excluding what I’m wearing is 4 kilograms.

Shelter 🛌

I’ll leave my tent, sleeping pad and quilt at home because I’ll be staying in huts.

But it’s mandatory to take a liner to keep the beds clean.

• Silk liner
• Flip-flops
• Ear plugs

Clothing 👕

This is what I’ll be wearing:

• Trail runners
• Merino socks
• Merino underwear
• Merino shirt
• Hiking trousers

And this is what I’ll pack:

• Rain jacket
• Rain skirt
• Down jacket
• Sun hoodie
• Merino socks
• Buff
• Cap
• Sunglasses

Electronics ⚡

• iPhone 13 mini
• Powerbank 10.000 mAh
• Power adapter & cable
• Mini rechargeable flashlight
• eReader

Toiletries 🧻

• Micro towel
• Sun screen
• All-purpose soap
• Toothbrush
• Toothpaste pills
• Deo
• Portable bidet
• Tissues
• Trowel

Miscellaneous

• First aid & repair kit
• Pocket knife
• Trekking poles
• Pack liner
• Cooking setup
• Wallet
• Passport
• Microspikes

Trip report

Day #1 – June 24th

🥾 12.6km ↑1441m ↓523m
⏰ 9 hours
🏁 Mindelheimer Hütte

Let’s goooo! 🙌

The previous day we already drove to a hotel in Kempten, and now got up at 06:30 to drive the last bit to Sonthofen.

Feeling super excited, it wasn’t even too hard to get up so early 😄

Hit the road and it was nice to see the mountains getting closer and closer. We were both getting more and more excited 🥳

Found a nice free place to park the car and walked for 10 minutes to Sonthofen train station. Got a coffee and a pretzel.

Took the train for half an hour to Oberstdorf, which went smoothly. Cool that I could use the Deutschlandticket. From there, we took another bus for half an hour to Riezlern where we got some breakfast.

And then the adventure began!

We decided to skip the Kanzelwandbahn and just hike up instead 💪

That was tough—850 meters elevation in 3.9 kilometers is no joke. But we took some breaks and it wasn’t too bad. The views all along the way powered us to keep going, so nice.

At the top, we took a longer break with a nice curry rice lunch that Jay brought. Tastyyyyy!

The view kept coming and going with the clouds, which was cool. One moment you could see the whole valley and the next there was nothing to see but a grey wall.

We then had to hike a bit up, and then rather steeply down for quite a long time. The terrain was pretty rough with big rocks to cross, which made it a bit challenging for the knees, but nothing we couldn’t handle.

We also had to pass a small snow field, for which we didn’t even bother with the microspikes we had with us—big mistake. We had to slide on our asses down and walk in other people’s steps, which was more slippery than I thought. If you start sliding, you’re going down the whole snow field. Bit scary.

But then it got better and better, and we could go a bit faster because the paths were smoother. Still going up and down a lot, but with fewer big rocks. View from the trail over the whole valley was sooo nice.

That was until we got to Kühgund, which was a nice place to refill water and chill for a short while. But we already saw that we had to go steep up into the mountains, and that there was a lot of snow. That made us a bit nervous. We were looking for alternative routes, but there wasn’t really another option, so up we went!

We started our journey up the mountain and we asked some people who were coming down if it was doable. The first lady said, “Yeah, yeah,” but we weren’t sure if she understood us. Then an older couple came down and were like, “Uhh, ehh, yeah, well, there are some steep snow sections.” But they said we should be fine with spikes. So we went up but agreed that we’d go down if it didn’t work out.

We got our spikes on and up we went, using these things for the first time.

It was pretty steep, but the microspikes worked really well. So much grip, a big relief really. Tried not to look down—sliding down would not be great 😅

The snow then disappeared (for a while), and we walked over this really cool narrow trail between two mountain peaks.

But the snow returned soon and we had to put our spikes back on several times. But we got a bit more confident in the snow and enjoyed it more now and it actually looked very pretty with the big snow fields. The fields weren’t too steep, and going where other people went before, we felt pretty safe.

But soon the snow cleared and everything was lush green again, such a big contrast! 🤩

It already started to get late in the afternoon, so now that there was no snow we could pick up the pace a bit so that we would be in time for dinner at the Mindelheimer Hütte.

At 18:15 or so, we made it to the hut. Just in time for dinner. Tired but happy.

Our first time staying in a hut, not knowing what to expect. We paid the nightly fee of €15 each, dropped our stuff in the room, and went downstairs for food. Nice atmosphere!

Ordered a hirschgulasch and Jay a spaghetti bolognese. Took a while for it to come, and in the meantime, we had some beers.

Went outside for a bit to watch the sunset, which was epic. It was funny because it was only getting dark in an hour, but the sky already looked so nice—loved it. Such an epic area. I kept saying to Jay the whole day, “Whoa, look at that. Do you see that?” Every time we came around a corner, it was amazing and we had yet another stunning view.

Went to bed at 22:00 and worked a bit on my journal. No shower, unfortunately, but it’s fine 😋

Day #2 – June 25th

🥾 13,3km ↑835m ↓778m
⏰ 9 hours
🏁 Rappenseehütte

Slept okayish—not great, but not super bad either. Have to get used to sleeping with so many people in one room.

Got up at 06:45 and almost everyone was already up, crazy. But the sun is shining outside, wohooooo.

Decided to skip breakfast because of the long line, and it didn’t look very nice. Prepared our overnight oats instead, which takes two hours to get nice and creamy.

Started the hike by going up a steep path. At first, we looked up and saw some people going steeply up in the distance, but we trusted our spikes, so up we went. It went really well with the spikes, which gave us a lot of confidence that the snow was going to be fine the next few days.

(why that confidence was false, you’ll read later..)

At the top, we had breakfast and coffee with such an epic view.

We then walked down, down, down over a nice zigzaggy trail with epic 360-degree views. It looks so cool with the snowy mountains.

After descending 300 meters, we got to a valley that looked so cool with mountains on both sides.

Near the bottom, we hiked a bit down to the river to take a break and filter water. Made coffee and spaghetti bolognese.

Then we had to go steeply up over the Schrofenpass, which is a really cool narrow trail along some steep cliffs with some bridges here and there.

Then we hiked over a narrow trail with bushes and roots all around. It looked so nice with the views and cool with all the plants that were growing, soooo many flowers.

After a while, we got to a little lake, Schanzlesee, where we wanted to take a break, but it was a bit of a nasty small swamp so we kept going, haha.

We then hiked over a really cool open field where there were also some cows. The field looked crazy, going up and down from the mountain.

We then had to hike down to a river between two mountains, which was crazy steep, but there were some steel ropes we could hold onto 😋

The weather slowly started to turn, which made us a bit nervous. First a little drizzle and then thunder in the distance. Thunder is really scary in the mountains because there is no place to take shelter.

We picked up the pace and had to pass some more tricky parts, like an old snow field. Then steeply up along a windy route between the greenery.

In some parts, the snow melted from below, which can be quite dangerous. But here it looked quite cool because the staircase went into it. Took a quick, safe look—pretty cool to see all the ice from below. Also, there was a raging river down there, you definitely don’t want to fall into that.

The last bit went by in a flash, trying to hike fast to outrun the weather.

Luckily, it sounded like the thunder moved further away as we counted.

The last ascent to the hut, we hiked in the clouds.

Made it to the Rappenseehütte, exhausted 😅

We had dinner, which was nice. We ate schnitzel with fries, and kaiserschmarrn for dessert 🤤

After dinner, we went for a quick walk to the lake. The hut looked really cool too.

In the evening, we talked about what to do the next day. Heilbronner Weg, the highest point of our hike. We asked someone behind the bar, and she told us about the situation; the path is shovelled, but thunder is expected. Talked with Jay, and we decided to just get up super early and see.

Before bed, went quickly outside to take a look at the sunset. Niiiiice.

Day #3 – June 26th

🥾 10,2km ↑684m ↓921m
⏰ 10 hours
🏁 Kemptner Hütte

Woke up to the alarm at 05:00, which hurt a little. Saw sunrise colors through the window.

We went downstairs to eat our overnight oats, and were a little surprised to see that we were the first ones up.

Jay isn’t feeling well, maybe ate something wrong. Hope he’ll be fine today.

Waited a bit for him to feel better while enjoying the morning view, and then off we went at 06:00.

The hike immediately started off pretty brutal with a climb to the next valley, but the views quickly made it worth it.

We then had to cross our first snowfield towards the beginning of the Heilbronner Weg. It’s early and all the snow is still very frozen and easy to cross.

After hiking for 1,5 hours we got to this cool spot with a view over the valley, absolutely incredible. We even saw several Ibexes crossing the snow in the distance.

After a while, we had to go up a crazy steep snowy incline, maybe 50 degrees or so. I led the way and had to dig into the snow at every step so we could place our feet, super exhausting. It was also a bit creepy having Jay right behind me. If I would slide, he would too. After climbing for 45 minutes or so, we ascended about a hundred meters—crazy.

After the steep snow climb, we had to cross mostly rocky paths with steel cables next to it, with here and there a small snow patch to cross. Such a cool path, felt like king of the world up there 🤗

Another group overtook us, reassuring us that we weren’t alone. We asked if they had a weather update; they reported light drizzle at 13:00 with no thunder.

After zigzagging up narrow rocky alpine trails, steel cables and ladder, we came to a bridge that connected one peak to the other with sharp drops on both sides. The view was insane, a total 360 degrees with snowy peaks on one side and a wide spread greener valley on the other side. WohoOoOooo! 🤩

We then continued hiking over the ridge, and at some point, we had to go steeply down, then immediately up again over a very rocky trail with steel ropes to hold onto until we were at the Bockkarkopf at 2609m elevation.

Such a niiiice view all the time, we are so freakin’ high.

What a view, epic 🤯🏔

We hiked steep down from the Bockkarkopf towards the Bockkarscharte, which is a pass between the peaks of Bockkarkopf and Hochfrottspitze.

That’s when we heard yelling and saw two people falling off the steep snowy trail, tumbling down hundreds of meters like rag dolls. It didn’t look good—whoa, I hope they’re okay 😶

We noticed they were in a larger group, so we hoped the others could help since we were too far away and unsure how to assist.

(we later heard one of them broke some ribs, but should be okay)

We were luckily not going into their direction, but it was also the only way of the mountain, so we decided to keep going and definitely not go down there.

Big mistake.

The next three hours would be torcher and thinking back it would probably have been smarter to go down here.

The nightmare began when we had to cross one large snowfield after another on the glacier. Every time we crossed a field and came around the corner, another massive field would reveal itself.

The weather turned worse, visibility dropped, it started to rain, and we heard thunder in the distance. Moral was low but we tried to keep motivating each other 🙄

Most parts were doable, but some parts were rather steep and just scary as fuck. Falling down would probably mean breaking every bone in your body or worse. This is definitely the stupidest thing I’ve ever done—so dangerous.

We came across a couple, asked them how long the snow continues, and the woman just shook her head with a disheartened face and said it had taken them 4 hours from the hut to get here. That’s double as long as we expected, crazy.

There was really no end to the snow, after an hour we were still walking in the snow 😩

(not great in my not waterproof shoes)

But man, were we happy with our hiking poles and microspikes. This was already dangerous, but without those it would’ve been suicidal.

We encountered a man in a blue cape heading in the same direction. We hiked together for a while, and it was clear he had much more experience with the snow than we did.

After nearly two hours, we finally reached some rocky stretches, but we still had a lot of snow to cross. Will this ever end? 😓

At least it looks pretty…

After three hours of walking through snow, with ice cold feet, we finally crossed the last snowfields, hiked down a rocky trail, and could see the hut.

What a relief, we made it.

I can’t tell you enough how happy we were that we finally arrived at the hut after 10 hours of hiking.

(usually in normal conditions it only takes 5 hours)

The hut is located in such an amazing spot with several massive waterfalls across the hut. Wow.

The first thing we did was go up to the room to take a power nap, as we were both mentally and physically exhausted 😴

After our nap, we went down and had a nice dinner, I had some kind of rolls filled with sauerkraut 🍽

During dinner, we talked about the day an agreed that we definitely don’t want to do something like today again. The snow is just too intense, and it’s not responsible to keep going like this.

We asked the hut manager, and he said that there is still a lot of snow on the route the originally wanted to follow, and that some of the route is destroyed due to rockslides.

So we made an alternative plan, and decided to hike to the Hermann-von-Barth-Hütte tomorrow, which should take maybe 5 hours or so.

We then went to bed at 20:30.

Today felt like a week 🤯

Day #4 – June 27th

🥾 16,1km ↑239m ↓1157m
⏰ 9 hours
🏁 Gästehaus Gruben

Slept in until 07:30; we really needed it.

We had breakfast at 08:00, pretty simple but nice. Smart idea to use eatable cups for hazelnut spread and jam—so much better than those small single use plastic cups.

We also talked to Otto, the man with the blue cape that we saw yesterday. I did my best to have a conversation in German, and it went pretty well. We talked about the people who got rescued and the ones we saw falling. Nice guy. He originally wanted to do the same route as us, but mentioned going down to the valley to make another plan for the next few days.

Our plan was to go to the Hermann-von-Barth-Hütte. We asked again at the reception where a Belgian woman worked. She didn’t seem very sure about the route, so we asked the manager too. He said there is still lots of snow and that you need a lot of alpine experience.

We packed our stuff and started the hike. We immediately doubted our plan after what the manager said—we absolutely didn’t want to cross dangerous snowfields again. So we decided to follow Otto and go down into the valley towards Oberstdorf. It drizzled a bit, but the hard, intense rain from this morning was over.

Had to pass one more snowfield, hopefully the last one. This one was covered in mud, so grip was pretty good.

The path continued epic, with mountains on both sides and waterfalls everyyyyyywhere. Had to cross water quite a few times too.

After a while, we exchange the rocky path for that looked like a lush green jungle. So nice.

Had to cross a bridge to get to the other side of the river.

After the bridge, we hiked up a bit until we reached a chapel with a cool view. We stood there watching the clouds move and change shape influenced by the mountains and wind—so cool. It looked completely different just minutes later.

Crossed a raging river on a sketchy bridge, but nice because most water crossings we did so far had no bridges. Here, the water was so intense you couldn’t walk through it 😅

The path continued through more and more forest; you can really see we’re getting lower. Jay also pointed out there are more insects because you see the leaves of lots of plants are eaten. Higher up, the plants looked perfect.

We saw the materialseilbahn pass overhead—pretty cool and a smart solution to supply the huts without the need of a helicopter. This one can apparently carry 250 kg and takes 30 minutes each way 🚠

At the end of the hiking trail, we stopped at the dam to eat, which was a pretty cool spot with the water coming down like a waterfall.

Walked a bit and spotted a little restaurant—the first one of the trip. We just had lunch, so we went for a beer instead and enjoyed the view. Lots of cyclists here; you can see we’re in the lower mountains now at 1000 meters 🍻

No reception and still no plan of where to sleep. Notice now how much we rely on the internet to research things. So we decided to hike further through the forest on a wider path.

At some point along this path, we noticed a sign pointing towards a trail going steep up. We checked the map, and noticed a Berggasthof at the end of that trail at 250 meter higher elevation. No internet, so couldn’t check if they have beds. Doubted a bit but then went up a steep forest trail to check it out.

After half an hour of hiking steep up through a dense forest, we got to the top to some really nice open fields surrounded by mountains—looked really nice. Hiking here really never gets boring, wherever you go 🤗

After crossing the field, we went down toward a river. The slope was steep, but it looked like a paradise jungle. The winding water was so cool, surrounded by high walls overgrown with various plants 🌿

Even if there would be no bed up here, this alone would already be worth hiking up here. So beautiful.

We reached Berggasthaus Gerstruben, but unfortunately, they didn’t have any rooms available. She also mentioned that there weren’t any guesthouses up here, so we had to head back down toward Oberstdorf 😅

Despite this, the mood was good. We ordered some drinks and looked at the map to decide where to go next.

We continued a trail steeply down through the forest. We didn’t expect anything until a little sign told us there was a view 2 minutes from the trail. We looked and wow, such an epic, huge waterfall! 🤩

Hiked down further and saw more epic waterfalls. Incredible to see how the water carved out the rock.

Got down, passed a few more waterfalls, and followed a gravel road towards a place that seemed to rent out rooms. Arrived and nobody was there. Called, and someone answered saying “hallo” and then hung up. Called again, and someone upstairs opened a window and asked what we wanted. Asked in German for a room, she asked for how long, and apparently, 1 night wasn’t long enough because she sent us on our way to Oberstdorf 🤷‍♂️

We walked further until we came to a place where we spent the night. Nobody was there at first, but the chef of a tour group gave us the phone number of Michael, the owner of the guesthouse. He came downstairs and gave us a room for 80 euro. It looked basic but had everything we needed and more. Plus, there is a super nice garden with a fantastic view of the mountains.

I made some dinner for us with the food we still had. Good that we brought something because there is nothing here.

I had yummy mashed potatoes, and Jay had Thai instant curry with shrimp.

We made the plan for tomorrow to go to the Edmund-Probst-Haus, a DAV hut at 1921m. Checked online and they have exactly two spots left, which we quickly booked. Tomorrow, 9 km with 1100 height meters over the Schattenberg ridge—cool! 😄

At 21:00 or so we went to bed. Can hear the sound of the river in the room, so nice.

Day #5 – June 28th

🥾 9,2km ↑1172m ↓112m
⏰ 8 hours
🏁 Edmund-Probst-Haus

Such a big storm last night, it rained so much and so hard. There was also so much thunder and lightning—crazy really.

Woke up at 07:30, ready for the day 💪🏻

We first walked a bit along the alpine farmlands, which looked lush green and so nice with all the farms and mountains in the background.

Then quickly started our way up—1,100 meters to go! 🙌

After crossing the farm fields, we quickly got to the forest. It was getting steeper and steeper, but still fine so far.

It’s pretty warm today.

Saw two alpine lizards hugging (or mating?), look at these cute buddies.

And then the trail went steeper up again. But it was all doable with lots of sweat until we got to this cool viewpoint of the village of Oberstdorf below. Pretty nice.

The climb was again going more up, and the climbing was getting more serious. Slowly started to get worried because there wasn’t any stream of water so far, and we didn’t bring much because it was so easy to find it everywhere the last few days.

We were now nearly at the first peak of the ridge, and the views were pretty cool. The trail was quite challenging, with basically just an hour of climbing over roots and going between pine bushes. We could see the hut in the distance, but still had to go over the rest of the ridge.

I started to get more and more thirsty, and really tried to ration my water. So stupid not to bring more. In the future, I should always check the map for streams and bring more water if I’m not sure, and then I can still throw it out if I see that there is plenty.

We already saw a few paragliders, but now we really spotted many more. Maybe 8 to 10 at a time—really cool. Sometimes they flew right above us so we could wave to each other.

We got higher and higher along the ridge, and the views were so cool. We could look left and right into both valleys. So cool.

I started to feel worse, so we took more breaks and Jay gave me a bit of his water. Such a shitty feeling to not have enough water, and the burning sun didn’t help much either. Just one liter more would’ve been enough.

Several times we had to climb through crazy bushes over piles of roots, you can see that not so many people hike here.

But when we got to the final peak of the ridge, we saw some snow fields. Water! Big relief! 🥲

When we got down to it, we filled both our pots with snow and started melting it until it got liquid enough to put it through our water filter. Worked really well and rather fast. Also got some more melting water from the ice further down. Drank more than a liter of water with electrolytes immediately.

Reborn! Feel sooooo much better already 🤗

We continued and then passed one of my favorite spots—such a cool alpine lake. Look at the color! Epic! 🤩

After that, we had to hike over some sharp ridges full of green and thousands of flowers—so cool.

And then we got to the hut. Crazy day again, 8 hours on the way.

In the hut, we treated ourselves to some nice food. First got a nice platter with cheese and meat outside, and then had burgers an hour later. So much food. Lots of laughter with Jay talking about our crazy adventures from the last few days.

After dinner I went outside to spend some time on my own in this beach chair. Cool to see the ridge we hiked over on the left.

The rest of the evening we chilled, and talked to some of our roommates.

Day #6 – June 29th

🥾 11,2km ↑101m ↓1256m
⏰ 7 hours
🏁 Langenwang Train Station

We got up at 07:00 to start the day. Went downstairs for the breakfast buffet; it was simple but nice. We sat outside in the sunshine, so lucky again with the weather.

Some girls who worked in the hut also had breakfast, but they had egg and avocado. We had a bit of futterneid—I’m dreaming about having an egg myself! 🤤

Ready for the last day of hiking! We have to do 10 km and 1,200 meters down.

First had to hike 110m up over the Geißfuß mountain, which had some rocky paths with steel cables and small waterfall crossings. Pretty.

Then hiked down to the Oberer Gaisalpsee and made a long break there 🙏

Doubted a bit, but while the water for the coffee was boiling, I took a quick dip in the iceeeeeeee cold lake. Brrrr, but so refreshing! 🥶

Then we hiked further down to the Unterer Gaisalpsee, 250 meters lower in elevation than the previous lake, which had wayyyy more people around it because it’s probably easier to get to.

We continued the hike down to the valley, and saw a big waterfall coming from the lake. Amaaaazing! 🤯

Further along the path, we encountered more people than we had seen in the past few days combined. These lakes appear to be a very popular place for day hikes.

It’s crazy hot today, nearly 30°C, so we stopped at every waterfall to dip our hats into the water to cool down. Worked wonderfully.

Had to hike through some dense forest, over some fields, until we got to Berggasthof Gaisalpe. People weren’t very friendly, but the cake was amazing.

After that we had to hike a few more kilometers over a road and through some forest to get to the train station in Langenwang.

But before we hopped on the train, we first went for an ice-cold dip in the Iller river, and made another coffee.

The air near the river felt so much cooler because of the cold water, as soon as we walked away it was a bit like walking in an oven again 🥵

And then it was finally time to say goodbye to the mountains, and take the train towards Sonthofen.

What a fantastic day, such a good final hiking day 🤗

When we get to Sonthofen we jump for 5 hours into the car, and then the adventure is over!

Afterthoughts

Alternative route

Because of the snow, we had to go a different way after the third day at the Kemptner Hütte.

Below, you’ll see the trail we followed.

It was definitely different than intended, but we didn’t regret it for a second.

Every single bit of this trail was beautiful and still challenging enough, but without the dangerous snow crossings.

Quick learnings

Here are some things I learned from this trip.

• Should avoid hiking if there’s lots of snow, way too dangerous.
• Should consider bringing a helmet when hiking in high Alpine terrain. Small rocks have tumbled down on multiple occasions.
• Should always check the weather, even if the morning looks glorious.
• A third clean t-shirt would be nice to wear in the huts.
• Toe socks were awesome to wear in flip-flops, but a wide slipper would be simpler. Those socks are such a hassle to put on.
• Standard water bag from Sawyer is annoying to fill if you have to filter water often, will upgrade to the CNOC Vector 2L.
• Huts are awesome but take away the flexibility you would have with a tent.
• Brought a small 64g mini tripod for my phone but never used it.
• Didn’t need my small 18g flashlight in the huts, just used my phone.
• Small binoculars would be cool to spot wildlife.
• A satellite SOS device would be handy for emergencies, especially when doing Alpine hikes on my own.
• It’s better to look up how many hours a route takes, instead of how many kilometers. We had several times that 10 kilometers would take almost 10 hours because of the technical terrain.
• Microspikes and hiking poles saved our trip.

Trip cost

The mountain huts are very affordable, especially if you become a member of the German Alpine Club.

Most huts cost €15 with the club discount, a meal averages €15, and half a liter of beer is €4.50 😄

I didn’t track every euro, but here’s an overview what the trip roughly costed.

• German Alpine Club: €57
• Accommodation: €105
• Food & drinks in huts: €155
• Shower: €4
• Self-brought food: €50

So that’s €371 in total, not including transportation to Sonthofen and our hotel in Kempten for the first night.

Not bad for a week of great fun 😋

Recommendations for future hikers

Want to do the same or similar hike? Here are some tips!

• Go at least after the second week of July if you want to avoid snow. If you go earlier, absolutely bring microspikes and hiking poles.
• Bring a water filter, there’s water (almost) everywhere.
• Knowing a little German is handy because not many people in the huts speak English.
• The huts all have a weather forecast for the next day near the reception or bar.
• You can’t go wrong in this area, it’s beautiful everywhere.
• Look up how many hours it takes people from one hut to the other, instead of guessing based on kilometers and elevation.

Conclusion

What a blast of an adventure 🥳

I had a great time hiking together with Jay, cool to have a buddy for such adventures.

And the views were absolutely unreal. No matter where we went, views were epic morning till evening 🤩

But maaan, did the snow stress us out on several occasions. We grossly underestimated that!

But nevertheless, this was an adventure to never forget.

What about you?

Are you planning a similar trip?

Have any questions?

Let me know in the comments below 🤗