The Lamsenjoch weekend

Published on 2014-7-14 by Michael Stanton

The Sonnjoch

Kris, the boys and I planned a weekend stay in a hut. The weather was not great Saturday, so we took umbrellas and planned to spend the walk to the hut in the rain. But the forecast for Sunday was excellent. At the last minute, the boys brought their buddy Nick (Nicolau) along. We got a late start from the Gramaialm, first eating a hearty lunch as it rained. The boys discovered a great trampoline and got completely soaked.

We hiked up, and gradually the rain stopped. A real bonus of the poor weather was a wealth of salamanders along the trail. The boys got really good at seeing them hiding in the grass right along the edges. We picked up and petted so many of them!

We went into the Lamsenjochhuette for dinner. It was quite crowded, but the meal was good. After dinner the boys played for a while, and Kris and I thought about going into the bar once the kids fell asleep but honestly we were too tired. We fell right asleep!

In the morning, I took the boys up the little peak right next to the hut. At the end it was quite steep, and we had to be careful! But we found a little hidden basin, and made it a "secret spot." We took off shoes, ate a candy bar, and made plans to come back here sometime and sleep overnight. Actually the peak was a subpeak of the Schafjöchl (2157 m).

Salamanders!

Made it!

Hiking up the Schafjoechl.

View of the hut and Lamsenspitze.

On the Schafjoechl

N. loves the view.

Elijah fooling around

Boys with Lamsenspitze

On our way to the Westliche Lamsenjoch

A kid in the mountains

Coming carefully down, we met Kris and decided to hike to the Westliche Lamsenjoch and to the summit of the Hannkampl (2080 m) before hitting the Gramaialm Hochleger for lunch. There are huts everywhere around here!

Kris was a bit worried because the trail to Hannkampl was described as difficult. But it was okay. The boys all did really well with the steep areas. The day was beautiful and we felt glad that we'd come out.

Nick was extra happy, it was his first time in these kind of mountains. He was a great hiker too! Rowan and Elijah were in heaven having a friend there, too.

Coming down from the summit was a little tricky on scree slopes, but soon we were eating delicious homemade Kaiserschmarrn at the Hochleger. Below this, Nick had some trouble where he'd sleep on the tricky trail and bang his knee: in the same place twice! We used a pile of band-aids and bandages on the bloody wound! Still, he was a trooper.

Up and up...

The scary part

Looking to the giants...

High point!

Hiking down

More hiking

A cow!

The waterfall.

We drove home, fully satisfied with the weekend. Of course, there was a lot more trampoline-jumping at the Gramaialm!