Hiking the Schafberg

Panta, me, Mary, and Claudia on a very unstable plank/bridge at the beginning of our hike

Remember how I said we had forty days of sunshine in the fall?  One of our last truly sunny and warm days, Claudia, Panta, Mary, Bernhard (Claudia's friend), and I hiked the Schafberg.  Normally by November it's cold and snowy enough that there isn't a lot of traffic on the mountain, but we lucked out.

I had made the conscious decision not to go anywhere for fall break this year.  During both my abroad semester and last year I felt like I had to see everything, to go everywhere.  By now I think I've seen many of the places I have always dreamed of - certainly more than I ever expected to see - and decided to explore more of Austria instead.  Naturally, that meant hiking an Alp.

Claudia's friend Bernhard is an experienced hiker who had hiked the Schafberg upwards of 30 times last summer, and we enlisted him to lead us up the mountain.  We got an early (and slightly chilly) start to our hike.  Supposedly it's a six hour hike, but we decided that six hours Austrian hiking time is more like seven American hiking time.  As my former German teacher would say, Austrians "truck" with the ease of mountain goats.  Just ask my dad, who will most likely do an impression of his Austrian fishing guide leaping from rock to rock.  There is certainly a different approach to climbing an Alp that we Americans experienced on this hike.  Hiking a mountain like this can be a spontaneous decision, whereas anywhere I've ever lived I've had to plan well in advance to go on a hike of this magnitude.  And schnapps is involved.

Anyway, Bernhard fearlessly led us up the mountain, over the rivers and through the woods, until we reached the top in the early afternoon.  There we took pictures and ate lunch next to the cross at the summit.  After a little wandering and a lot of gawking at the paraglider launching himself off the mountain, we sped down the mountain to beat the sunset and the cold.  It was definitely a strenuous adventure, but it was one of the most enjoyable things I've done in Austria.  There's nothing like working up a sweat with good company and a great view.

The gang (Bernhard was playing photographer)

Panta and his new best friend

The back of the Schafberg

Gipfelkreuz! The cross at the summit

Bernhard with the mountain sign

We watched this guy launch himself off a mountain

The mountain at the top of the photo directly above the paraglider is the Untersberg, the mountain in whose shadow Salzburg sits.

The whole crew: Mary, Panta, Claudia, me, and Bernhard

The slow descent