Hiking Tour: “Nordalpenweg 01 Stage 11 | Nord-Süd-Weitwanderweg 05 Stage 13: From Voisthalerhütte to Sonnschienalm via Hochschwab”

The Northern Alpine Long-Distance trail (Nordalpenweg, also known as the “01”) starts in the east of Austria in Perchtoldsdorf (city border of Vienna) and ends in the west of Austria in Bregenz / Bodensee. The trail is ~1000km long, more than 50 000m in ascent and the same amount in descent. The trail is known as the most spectacular long-distance trail through Austria and was officially established on the 22th June 1975. The trail is separated into 61 stages and has multiple variants. For example, the trail can be either started from the city border of Vienna (from Vienna to Bregenz) or from the Neusiedlersee to the Bodensee (lake to lake). In addition, the trail offers multiple alpine variants and even climbs up to the Zugspitze, the highest summit of Germany. It normally takes 9 weeks to complete the entire trail.

The North-South-Long-Distance trail (Nord-Süd-Weitwanderweg, also known as the “05”) starts in the north of Austria at Nebelstein and ends in the south of Austria at Eibiswald. The trail is ~500km long, ~18 000m in ascent and the same amount in descent. The trail was initiated by Carl Hermann and officially established on the 25th September 1970. The trail is separated into 3 parts: the northern part from Nebelstein to Plankenstein via the Mühl- & Waldviertel and the Wachau, the middle part from Plankenstein to Trofaiach via the Ötscher, Hochschwab and Eisenerzer Reichenstein, and the southern part from Trofaiach to Eibiswald via the Pack and Koralpe. It normally takes 3 weeks to complete the entire trail.

	Nordalpenweg 01 | Nord-Süd-Weitwanderweg 05 – Checkpoints
	Voisthalerhütte Schiestlhaus Sonnschienhütte

Personal impressions:
Transportation:
This tour is part of a multi day-trip. Robert and me had a pleasant overnight stay in the Voisthalerhütte hut and continued our trip from there on the  01 .
 
The hike:
Unfortunately, the weather forecast was right and it started to rain over night after a couple of very hot days. Although the rain was light in the morning, Robert and me had a hard time to decide if and when we should start the tour. Thus we first had an extended breakfast and after talking to the personnel working in the hut, we decided to give it a try – at least till the Schiestlhaus and then reassess the situation.
Finally, we started the hike later in the morning (08:45), when the rain stopped for a few minutes. And as expected, the first meters were cold but at least there were only a few drops of rain.
When we reached the Graf-Meran Steig, the weather was still okay, although we could see that the entire Hochschwab plateau was covered in fog. Fog became worse on the way to Schiestlhaus but thanks to the good markings and our GPS we managed even with seeing not 5 meters to make it to the hut.
Robert and me then decided to have an extended break at the Schiestlhaus (Checkpoint), having a soup, some lunch, a few beers and collecting the stamp . Although it was still very foggy, the view got a bit better and thus we decided to give it a try. Once we left the hut, we noticed that in addition to the fog, there was strong wind. No view and cold wind resulted in no stop at the summit, just a quick picture with the summit cross in fog before immediately continuing the tour. While walking across the plateau, the wind blew cold and partly icy rain drops into our faces. Because I was wearing glasses, I had a hard time to see the trail thus Robert took the lead.
While walking on the plateau, I remembered the documentary about the 7 students in 1988 who got lost exactly at this part of the trail ending in a big tragedy of only 2 of them surviving. Yes, mountains can be dangerous, even if the trail is very easy! But luckily we did have 3 GPS devices and no snow so the trail was always visible, although the view was sometimes less than 3 meters.
Finally, when we managed to reach the other side of the plateau, it cleared up a bit and while descending to the Häuslalm, we even had sunshine for a few moments.
For the remaining tour, we decided to stay on the forest road (skipping the Sackwiesensee) as it started raining again. Totally wet and suffering under the cold temperatures, we finally reached the Sonnschienhütte. We were immediately welcomed by the nice personnel and their young dogs and after changing into dry clothes and sitting next to the fireplace, we could enjoy an excellent dinner. After warming up and the dinner, I was also able to collect the desired stamp . The remaining evening we spent playing with the two little and cute dogs while having one or two beers before we finally went to bed.
 
Summary:
From the past, I know that this is a very scenic and promising stage! However, due to the very bad weather with strong wind, rain and dense fog, the stage was this time not pleasant at all. Bad luck .