The L1 to Brescia: Dortmunder Hütte – Schweinfurter Hütte (Alps 6)

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An easy morning

On this day we had to walk a very short distance to the Schweinfurter Hütte and so we decided to take it easy during this morning. First of all the bright sun was shining while we sat on our small balcony in front of our room. We enjoyed the warm sun for a longer while but then we had tot o start and so we packed our backpack and stepped out of the Dortmunder Hütte. Another start without a breakfast – It was way to expensive for us.

Kühtai

In this time Kühtai is far away from the main season and the village looks like a ghost village with many closed hotels. The only thing happening here in summer is that they built even more hotels. If you search for some mountain romantic you shouldn´t visit this place during the summer. Sooner or later this village will even more unattractive with those big hotels. We followed the main street to search the only store in Kühtai. It is located at the other end of the village right next to the street. We bought a banana a bun and paid way to much. But in the end we had to fill our stomach. The next thing we had was an disgusting coffee. By this time I thought about having an expensive breakfast at the Dortmunder Hütte. But it was to late and so we started our trek. On the opposite side of the store we opened a wooden gate and stood on the trail.

Finstertaler Speicher

First we walked on a small trail up to tree small mountain lakes and the Drei-Seen Hütte (Three Lakes Lodge). After the lodge we walked over to the Finstertaler Speicher. The Finstertaler Speicher is a water storing lake where they make “green power” for the region. The impressive building is on 2.300 m above sea lavel and when you stand next to it you have a great view down on the valley. Before we could walk further we saw that our trail was closed because of an avalance and so weh ad to climb a fence to walk on a small trail right above the main path. After a short while we where back on the main route. It guided us along the lake until we had to walk uphill to the Finstertaler Scharte.

Finstertaler Scharte

There was another steep walk right in front of us. First of all it was a moderate walk through small rocks until it got really steep in the end. But after 2 ½ hours we stood on the highest point of our route. The Finstertaler Scharte is on 2.777 m above sea level and we had an amazing view on the mountain range in the south. This are the moments you are waiting for when you are on a hiking trip in the mountains. The sun was still shining and we ate a (non filling) lunch which was another muesli bar.

Descent to Schweinfurter Hütte

In spite of our late start we had much time left and so we could walk down to the Schweinfurter Hütte very slowly. We passed some wild goats and climbed some rocks and after 1 ½ hours we stood in front of the hut. Finally we had walked for only 4 ½ hours. We ordered a beer and sat down in front of the hut where we could enjoy the warm afternoon sun. The DAV hut has 52 beds (plus emergency beds) and we searched for our beds in the dorm until we sat down in the attractive main room of the Schweinfurter Hütte. One more time we ordered a mountaineer meal for dinner. After we´d filled our stomach with some good noodles and another beer we played some card games and went to bed early.

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