Alpine Adventures!

So how many cool things can happen in Austria in four days....well, about a million! I know we are a tad tardy in posting, but we have been a bit busy. I have been wearing a few hats at work, as I am training our newest LT to take over for me, as I am moving up to XO. Nate has been busy being UMO (Unit Movement Officer) extraordinaire. We have been putting in long days, but have been rewarded with some awesome weekends. Our most recent adventure to the Alps was just amazing.
On Friday, the first day of our four day weekend, we woke early and started moseying to the Austrian border via Munich on the the Autobahn. Our drive was uneventful, except for a tad bit of traffic. As we reached the border, the Alps just rose out of nowhere. They are just a stunningly large mountain chain, of whose size, I just cannot truly fathom. We reached the village of St. Anton, which was the location of the 2002 Alpine Skiing World Championships. Well, I can see why! The town pretty much dies in the summer, but it was quaint and picturesque. Due to our love of a ski town in the summer months, our room was half the price it was in winter, and we were the only guests in the guest house we stayed in. We wandered a bit, bought a good topo-map and turned in early in anticipation of our next day's hike.
Although we got up quite early Saturday morning, the hotel owner was awake and served us a delicious, yet simple breakfast of tea, rolls, jam, cured meats, and cheeses. Although it may not suffice for breakfast in the 'states, we have learned to truly appreciate this sort of breakfast too. Anyone who knows me knows I can never turn down good bread, regardless of the time of day. After setting off to find the trail head, we wandered through town admiring the flocks of sheep and herds of horses and cattle that sprinkle the countryside in this area. Austrians have superior looking sheep, I will say that much! We passed a series of gates up to the trail ( it goes through a series of higher altitude grazing areas for sheep) and started to climb steeply. We slowly made our way up to the first peak, Mount Gampen (6056 ft). From that modest peak, the views were splendid and the alpine wild flowers were in full bloom. I have never seen a more beautiful variety of flora in my life! Next we moved on to a neighboring peak, Mt. Kapall (7600 ft) where things started to get cooler, and snow patches more common. We even started to see glacial formations nearby mountains. The air was noticeably thinner and the wind much stronger. This was quite welcome, as the heat and humidity of the lower areas was really bothering Nate and I. Our final peak for the day was Weissenschrofenspitze (9028 ft). This peak was truly daunting. Its trail wound in switchbacks up the steep gradient, as a direct ascent would have been nearly impossible. We saw delicate varieties of wildflowers growing from the rocks and glimpsed two alpine marmots (thanks to their shrill calls, which sounded oddly like emergency whistles!). After reaching the summit (well, a point 100 meters from the real summit), we quickly descended due to some bad weather coming in. We showered and had a very disappointing dinner at an overpriced and very mediocre restaurant. After watching the Williams v. Williams Wimbledon Final, we turned in for the night.
The next day, we woke to rain. So we did what any sane people would do: we strapped our boots on and set out to find some waterfalls! After following a trail on our map and meeting some truly fantastic elderly Irish hikers, we found some of the most stunning waterfalls. We continued along the trail, reaching no peaks, but following a contour line at an elevation of roughly 6000 feet. From a clearing in the trees, we spotted what appeared to be the Rabobank Cycling Team bus. When we finally reached town after descending for a few miles, we discovered with delight, that it was the team bus! In addition, numerous other professional cycling teams were there as well. After talking to a Silence Lotto mechanic, we learned that the Tour of Austria was in the area. We vowed to find it to see the start the next day. We made it back to the chalet to shower and drove through some impressive mountain passes to find some better dinner in the next town over, Lech. Well, we found a great restaurant in the charming ski town, ate gourmet pizza, drank radler (it is known as "cyclists' beer" as it is a mix of beer and lemonade). We wrapped up the night by watching bits of the Tour de France and seeing the most impressive Wimbledon Men's Final I have ever seen. Poor Andy Roddick lost to Roger Federer, whom I still dislike more than most human beings on this planet...but that is another post for another day!
Our last day in Austria started out soggy. We finished breakfast, thanked our host (well, we tried, our German was very incompatible, as Austrians have such a strong accent, it is almost impossible to get even a bit of what they are saying) and set off to find the race. Luckily, as we were leaving, so were all the cycling teams, so we followed them to the start. I will not bore you all with cyclists and teams you neither know nor care about, but I will say that it was awesome. After seeing the start and a bit of the race, we started heading home and stopped briefly in Garmisch to check out the shops. It was a truly fantastic weekend in all! We love and miss you all very much.
-The Millers
PS: The cats say "Hi" too and also very much enjoyed the run of the house while we were gone!