Off the Map

Adventures on Wank Mtn. (Garmisch)

Yodelayheehoo!

Let's hear 3 cheers for the alps! On Friday 5 others and myself took an impromptu trip to the German Alps - specifically the beautiful town of Garmisch.

The city itself looks and feels like a German Estes Park - which means beautiful, relaxed with good food and plenty of outdoor activities. The architecture was totally typisch Bavarian Alpine style, with small plots of land IN the town for sheep. Brilliant!

The highlight of the day was our extremely strenuous hike up Wank Mountain (see sign below). Its pronounced Vank, but spelt with the German "W", giving rise to a plethora of terrible jokes.

Anyhoo, in about 2 hours we scaled almost 1,800 Vertical Meters of raw mountain. From the base to the lodge (with great cake and coffee, thank the lord!) at the peak. Never have my legs been so worn out as they were then.
what's great about alpine mountains like Wank is that in a relatively short (but intense) time, you can experience a great feeling of accomplishment. In Colorado it might take the entire day to get to a peak with the same degree of vertical fall off as in the Alps. Our (CO) tops are higher, but their contrast between base and peak is much more dramatic.

It was surprisingly refreshing to hike in mountains again after leaving Colorado; all of us felt a bit spiritually energized despite the obvious physical drain. Lucky for us, there's a beautiful Gondola lift running on the mountain which we were able to snag for the ride down.

Not only did we enjoy our first Mountaineering in 2 months, but we also had our first Chinese food in 2 months. Its much harder to come by over here, and in general the quality is proported to be lacking. But we tried it in spite, and decided that either we'd forgotten what good Chinese tastes like, or this small German Alpine Town's Chinese restaurant knew what they were doing.

Till next time!

posted by Jason @ 4:26 pm