CrispNZ Trips

Frauke and I headed across the border to Austria for the day to go for a mission in the hills. The plan was to do the Mindleheimer Klettersteig. We started late but made good progress and after 1.5 hours we were at a little hut below the ridge with our klettersteig route. We watched briefly as a helicopter rescued someone from the route before continuing. The helicopter was a nice yellow and looked not dissimilar to a taxi. I expect the fare would be quite steep however.

Above left: Flag flying in the down-draft from the helicopter. Above right: Rescue helicopter heading out to collect someone from our klettersteig route.

The klettersteig took us approximately 2.5 hours. We ran out of water about half way through and so we were very pleased when we descended into a valley and could fill our water bottles with fresh cold water (with just the smallest hint of alpine cow).

To stay healthy we consumed a tub of ice cream once we had returned to my flat.

Above and below: Frauke on the klettersteig route. Below right: Bird in the blue near our last peak.

Emily and I went tramping with Frauke and her friend Sabine (Bini) to the Schrecksee (Allgaeu). We started in the mountains in Austria and crossed back into Germany descending to a lake. It took at most five minutes before Emily and I lapsed into silliness singing all the classic tramping songs. She introduced me to the speckled frog song which I have added to my repertoire. It goes a bit like this

“Five little speckled frogs, sat on a speckled log, eating the most delicious grubs. Yum, yum. One jumped into a pool, where it was nice and cool, then there were four more speckled frogs.”

Quite a classy little number as you can see. We spent the evening swimming in the lake and sitting in the rain that began about the time we tried to BBQ dinner on a little “pocket” BBQ that Frauke had brought with us.

Above left: Emily made sure we didn’t get lost. Here you can see her efficiently directing the traffic in two possible direction, straight along the bumpy ridge, or down and around. Note her choice of stylish colours typical of the New Zealand tramper. Her expression is one of contemplation as she skillfully carries out here duties as a signpost. Above right: Frauke takes a break along the way.

Above left: Frauke and Bini attempt to get the pocket grill working. It was an inspired idea to bring such a device but unfortunately the weather made BBQing difficult. We decided a break in the rain was a good opportunity to start cooking but it wasn’t long before it started raining again which spoiled our fun. Above right: We retreated to a tent for potato salad, half cooked sausages, and raw veggies.

I spent the weekend in Haiming, Austria as it was the Faszinatour Season Opening. Grit, Emily, Birgit, and I entered the Faszinatour Fun “Adventure Race”. It didn’t have much to do with adventure racing but it was still good fun. We arrived Friday night, drank too much wine and went to sleep on the couches in the “adventure lounge”.

Above: We stayed the night in the Faszinatour adventure lounge. You can see it in this picture bathed in light. There were a few couches and it was really quite comfy.

The race started on Saturday with rafting on the “Imster Schluct”, i.e. the Imst river. We had a funny guide who we attempted to throw out of the raft several times. This invariably ended with Emily and I swimming. To rub-it-in he threw Grit out as we neared the end.

Above left: Grit and Birgit in the raft. Above right: Our wayward guide and I. Unfortunately it was 3-0 to him for throwing people out of the raft.

Up next was the “biathlon”, Build-your-own-plane, and Giant-jinga. Following this we headed out on mountain bikes for the perilous mountain biking stage. We got lost and spent two hours rather than the estimated 30 minutes. Well, actually we didn’t get lost. We knew where we were. We just didn’t know where the check points that we were supposed to be finding were.

Above left: Grit and Birgit assess the structural integrity of our block castle. Above right: Emily and I were sharp-shooters in the biathlon.

Below left: Grit and Birgit successfully co-ordinate their feet. Below right: Emily and Grit in the biking section. We took 2 hours, it was supposed to take 30 minutes.

Below: Would you trust your life in “Bäääm oida!!! Airways”? This is the plane we built. An amazing feat of engineering and artistic prowess you will agree. As you can see in the photo, I will be your pilot, and I have carefully painted the letter C on my cock-pit window so that you will know I am there and to allow me to better see where I am flying. On the maiden voyage, B, G, and E will be flying with me. No prizes for guessing who they are.

The last stage was the trekking section. The idea was to follow written instructions and the letters marked on bits of plastic hidden in a forest. Half way through I discovered we had a little map. I was most amused. Still it turned out that it was vaguely possible to navigate using it.

Above and below: We had an archery challenge during the biking section. Unfortunately as you can see we had a terrible accident! Perhaps this was caused by my droopy arrow below.

We were the last team to return and were feeling a little disappointed with our performance. However later at the prize giving we were amazed to find we had made the top 10, top 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4… 3rd place! Bäääm oida!!!

Above left: The team walking in the trekking stage. Very serious we all are. Above middle: Emily climbs a tree in one of the trekking challenges. Above right: The “map” for the trekking stage. Not really to the same level as an orienteering map. A GPS appears to have been used to map the route. In the bottom left you can see where the forest cover was too much for it and it gave up resulting in suspiciously straight route lines.

Above: The team, Grit, Birgit, and Emily running towards the finish line.

We celebrated by drinking various alcoholic beverages. People slowly left. Sam and Grit slunk off into the night. We found our spot in the adventure lounge again and Birgit and I went to sleep and left Emily drinking by the fire on the grass outside the lounge.

Above left: We weren’t the only hochseilgarten graduates there. It was great to catch up with Diana, Johanna, and Michi. Diana and Johanna are the blurs in the photo above pickling their brain cells with alcohol.

Birgit, Emily, and I went climbing in Oezt on Sunday. The weather was fine and we found a familiar crag in the Oetz valley. I climbed there 3.5 years ago with Gina and Ulli. The day was spent climbing before we left Austria and headed back to D-land.

Above left: Birgit climbing in a crag near Oetz. We found a few easy routes and spent Sunday climbing there. Above right: Gina sits at the bottom of the same crag 3.5 years earlier.

I met Katha and her friends at the Fellhorn in the morning and we went skiing. It was a good day out. We did some long runs from the top of the mountain all the way down into Austria. I filled my stomach to overflowing at the restaurant with “pommes” and “germknödel”. Oh yes the old knödel. I hadn’t tasted this little treat since I was in Ischgl, Austria in 1998. It’s a dumpling in vanilla sauce covered with sugary poppy seed(?) stuff. It’s filled with jam. Delicious. Apparently it’s only really made for tourists on the ski-fields.

Above left: The lads. Manu and Marcel. Above right: The ladies. Otherwise known as A and B to save space in my small brain.

Below left: Katha and myself. Below right: Us having chocolates after the day’s skiing. My attempt at making a joke in German ended with me getting a rum shot hot chocolate instead of the standard. Yum.

It was my birthday today. As I’m still mostly no-friends Cris here I went skiing by myself on the field. It wasn’t too shabby as Toosharn would say. A little cold and lacking in company but still ok. I ran home from the field along the side of the road next to the snow. It’s funny. I don’t mind training here even though it’s below zero degrees. I think it’s ’cause it’s so dry that you don’t really get cold. You just wear a bit more clothing and go out and all is fine and dandy.

I was happy to find facebook overflowing with birthday messages which made me feel less like no-friends Cris and more like very-few-friends-in-Oberstdorf Cris. An improvement one might say.