IgloONotes

No, Höllentalklamm is not an ancient chant used by witches. Though it would be fitting because translated into English, 'Höllental' means 'Valley of Hell'. I guess I should of read about this before putting my name down for the trip. Nonethless I stared danger in the eyes, and prepared for what would turn out to be one of the most amazing places that I have ever seen.

My friend Jeff is a really avid hiker and when he approached me to go hiking, I was really quite excited to go hiking for the first time in Germany. This was the reason I bought a pair of Timberland Hiking shoes, as well as brining along a hiking backpack. The date was set in stone and for once the weather, the reason for many previous cancellations, near the hiking trails was projected this time to be excellent. Hiking up a mountain in nice clear weather? Awesome.

We would catch the 5:30 AM bus from Herzogenaurach and make a couple of changes at Nürnberg and Munich before arriving in the city of Garmisch-Partenkirchen where we would catch a taxi to the base of the mountain. The ride was relatively uneventful except when we got to the Munich train station.It was a really good thing we got on our transfer earlier than planned because it was filling up fast, and with lots of people.

Over the announcements, they announced that the bicycle car was non-functional. Whatever that meant. Anyways, the officials got involved and started to chuck off all the bikes on the train which I thought was utterly ridiculous because Höllentalklamm is an awesome place to go trail riding. I felt particularly sorry for one bloke who had no idea what was going on. His bike was left in the entrance area of the train and the officers just grabbed the bike and pulled it off. I had no idea where the owner was, but he definitely didn't notice his bike would soon be parting ways with him.

I felt worse for the guy because it had saddle bags that were packed full which meant all his stuff was on the bike. It was lesson to never leave you bike unattended, that's for sure. I could imagine the look on his face if he saw his bike sitting on the platform as train departed, jaw open wide, 'That's my bike!'

We jumped off the train at our final stop and took a Volkswagen Touran Taxi to the base of the mountain. In Germany, taxi's are quality cars. Unlike taxi's in Canada that the find on deserted roads, There's Mercedes, Volkswagen, Volvo and BMW. It was awesome to be driving up and see the tallest mountain in Germany right in front of us.

The Zugspitze has a height of 2962m. Lucky for me, we weren't ascending this mountain. Our plan was to make it about halfway to another part of the German alps. But first we had to walk through the Valley of Hell.

The first glimpse of the beauty was right where the trail had started. The water was really cold and looked like flowing ice. The pictures just don't do justice to the natural beauty. The air was crisp and fresh, unlike anything you've ever breathed. Its a far cry from the polluted air of modern cities. We followed the trails, snapping pictures of almost everything that came into sight. Every once in a while we would wander down to the edge of the stream to take some pictures and scoop up the water in our hands. If there was any water that could revitalize your health, this would be it.

We followed the trail, continously going upwards until the stream became a little drip in the dense forest we were cutting through. Its a wonder how these trails were made, especially when back in the day they didn't have all the modern equipment. We ran into a couple points of interest. One of them was a grave of a man. That gave me second thoughts about continuing. On the flipside, there was a mountain waiting to be climbed. Here we go!

Our first rest station told us two things: The people were wet and...time was a little bit tight. This was where the real adventure begins.

After paying 3 Euro's we stepped through the rotating steel gate and was hit with the natural beauty of the Valley of Hell. We put on our jackets, ready to be hit with the spray from the waterfalls and the damp, crisp air of the valley.

Even after years of existence and invasion by tourists, the natural beauty has not been lost. The wooden pathways hammered into the rockface was slippery and the chain railing had gaps big enough for someone to slip through. It was easy to fall into the thundering waters below. Though this wasn't nearly as big as Niagara falls, just for being able to get so close, and being engulfed in it all, it certainly beats it.

My Shoes proved to be one of the best purchases that I made before making my way to Germany. Not only were they waterproof, they were extremely grippy, giving me proper foothold to hike up the valley. I can't imagine if I had to wear Puma's. My Backpack also proved to be a worthy companion as it had a special place to store a single leg tripod. One experiment was to mount my Camera to the tripod while it was attached to my back. I then managed to record some pretty cool HD video footage of the valley.

We continued on our way, snaking along the rickety wood planks and ducking into tunnels blasted out by adventurous Germans. Being caught in the spray of clean, cold mountain water was extremely refreshing. The tunnels were lit with dim lights that seemed to be hastily fixed to the rocks. They led us through, and out of the Valley of Hell.

Breaking into the sunlight was a huge difference in Temperature. Down low, the relative lack of light and the cold water sucked all the heat out of the air. Once in the open air, the sun returned, heating up the rocks and showing for once, how hot it was that day. After only a few minutes I had to take off my jacket.

Along the way, we spotted some snow pieces big enough to be chunks of glaciers. We hopped around the place, getting in-between the snow and snapping the pictures. Jeff thought it would be cool to crawl along a rock face and lie down on top of the ice. I too thought it was cool, but I'd rather watch.

We continued our trek up the hill, pacing ourselves and actually noticing that we were right on schedule. That was the perfect time to grab some rest and soon enough, we had reached the mountain inn.

We sat down after a much needed rest, munching on some sausages and granola bars, as well as downing my carbonated apple juice. We studied the map and according to his calculations, Jeff said it would take about two hours to make it to the top where we would then catch the cable car down.

The thought of sitting at the bottom of a valley was really unreal. Here we were, isolted from just about everyone else. On the left were mountains. On the right were mountains. Right in front of us were mountains. It was almost like something out of the Lord of the Rings. Though as Jeff tells me, its not as spectacular. So off we went to an unexpected journey.

The final leg of our journey looked to be about 1/3 the distance. Easy enough...if we need to get there quicker, we'll just step up the pace a little. The path looked quite unused...a bit of an assurance in the fact that it was actually used and not to comforting that this may not be the right route. We soldiered on and Jeff told me the story of how two guys recently died on the mountain.

They were competing in a marathon to cross the German alps when a freak snowstorm hit. They were wearing nothing but shorts and a T--shirt so when they stopped running, their sweat turned to ice and... so did they. I had a jacket and a spare t-shirt so I was a bit farther into the safe zone.

It was getting hotter and hotter as we continued up the mountain. Almost none of the paths had railings so you had to always watch where you were going. This is where I was extremely happy to have bought my $60 life Insurance policy; my Timberland Hiking shoes. Without them, I either would not be here today, or would not have been so cheerful in writing this blog.

Jeff scared me a couple of times by stopping and looking at the map but thankfully, we met a couple of hikers along the way who helped direct us in the right direction. Not so thankfully, they informed us that the last Cable car going down the mountain would be leaving at 5:00. With our current time and our 2 hour estimated climbing time, we were behind schedule.

I tell you, rushing up a mountain is NOT fun. Even if we wanted to, we couldn't just run up there. We had to contend with loose rocks, the heat, and of course, the mountain. Somewhere along the way, I entirely forgot that I was carrying my glasses I was wearing earlier, on my shirt collar. When I looked down, the were thankfully still there. But what wasn't there was a lens to my clip-on sunshades.

As a stroke of luck, I remembered that I heard a very odd 'plunk' sound a bit earlier down the path. I promptly sprinted down and sure enough, lying down on the rocks, was my lens.

This wasn't the first time I lost something on the mountain only to find it again. A couple years back, I lost my watch on the ski slopes. Amazingly, someone picked it up and gave it back to the lost and found. I still wear that watch on a daily basis.

After being reinvigorated with my find, we continued up the grueling hill-climb. At this stage of the climb, there was nowhere to hold on to and you really had to make sure you didn't slip. If you did, well...game over. The final push to the peak was on the extremely steep wooden log steps. At one point, I found it easier to crawl along the steps on all fours! My legs were knackered and soon, we were taking 2 minute breaks every few minutes. We knew we couldn't break too long or else we would miss our ride down the mountain.

After much too long...we reached the peak. It was bittersweet because on one side, we had a really nice view of the German Alps. On the other side, we could see the cable car station. We just couldn't stay for long. Thankfully, the slope reversed and we were heading downhill.

After hours of rushing uphill, I thought we could finally rest. But our adventure had a few more things in store. Once we got to the station, we had to immediately grab the tickets and run to the wiating cable car where people were already lining up for. If we got on this one, we would have more time at the Munich train station.

For just a few minutes, we were finally able to rest. But of course, our rush was not over.

Soon after stepping off the cable car, lots of other people were running, not knowing why, we soon noticed the train heading our way. This train would take us right to the train station! First, we had to run across the railroad tracks, ducking under the booms as they came down, then we had to run to the stopped train. It was madness! We jumped on and for once, we actually had some rest...uninterrupted rest.

We made it home, reclined back in the rain seat. It was an amazing day, a tiring day, and a sight I would never forget. I had conquered the Valley of Hell.