Age Doesn't Matter (Much) -

– A New Alpine Experience –

Ela and I enjoy long meandering conversations during our road trips. Age doesn’t matter much; we talk and feel and dream like young people when we’re alone together. There’s something about rolling down the open road that stimulates a flow of thoughts and, like the endless scenery, it’s different from the everyday mix.

“Where would you go on an adventure alone?” she asked while we corkscrewed through the forested mountains in the Czech Republic on a road one-and-a-half lanes wide.

Where Would You Go Alone

I had to think about it. My answer might have changed…

When I was young, my favorite place to ‘get away for a few days’ was Amsterdam. I enjoyed everything about the city. To visit in present day, however, would be more enjoyable in Ela’s company. I’d plan a trip there to share it with her but probably wouldn’t go alone.

In the recent past, my favorite place to adventure alone was the wilderness… the Frank Church Wilderness in Idaho, to be precise. But I live in Europe now; takes too much time and money to go back to the Rockies. Ela, in her infinite wisdom, gave me a book about the Alps for Christmas and it opened my eyes to some new opportunities.

“Maybe Austria,” I responded to Ela’s question. “I can imagine taking some time alone in the Alps.”

The Austrian Alps

She smiled at the idea because she knew it sprouted from the seed she planted.

“The Alps?” she said. “I expected something else.”

“I’ve never seen them,” I reasoned. “It’s like what I was doing in America but not as extreme. Not as high in elevation, not as rugged or rough on the body.”

..and, for the next couple of days, that idea festered in my mind like a splinter under my skin. Not just the idea of spending time alone (because couples need to do that), but experiencing a distinctly European approach to enjoying the majesty of mountains. The Alps were the birthplace of alpinism and it excited me to think about strolling slowly through that history.

Adventure in the Alps

The Alps stretch from France to Slovenia in a wide arc over the top of Italy. The Austrian Alps mark the eastern end of the range; they’re only a 10-hour drive from our home in Strzelin. They have shorter peaks than their cousins in Switzerland and more of a small-town feel, but the ‘hohenweg’ (high trails) in Austria are as spectacularly breathtaking as any in the range… and I can travel there with my backpack by train in a day.

Age hasn’t dampened my enthusiasm for adventure. In fact, imagining and planning an adventure feels the same as it always has; an obsessive excitement fuels fresh thought and action. It airs out my mind and distracts me from my daily routine. In retirement, I’ve lost my enthusiasm for most of life’s nonsense but remain ready to entertain ideas for exciting and unusual activities. And the Alps struck me as both unusual and exciting.

Age hasn’t changed the way I imagine adventure, but it impacted my ability to do the things I think up. I stay relatively fit through good eating habits and an active lifestyle, but a passing glance in any mirror reminds me that I am – in fact – just a couple years from seventy. So I have to take care and prepare in a special way if I want my body to keep up with my youthful appetite for adventure.

Organizing a Trip to the Alps

In spite of my experience as a mountaineer and trekker, I had no idea how to go about organizing a hut-to-hut hiking trip in the Alps. I ‘googled’ the routes highlighted in the book given to me by Ela and began looking for good sources of information.

There is no end to the resources, information, and advice for hiking in the Alps. The system of trails and huts is well organized and allows a person to hike for days on end with just a daypack for clothing, toiletries, and snacks. The trails are well marked and easy to follow thanks to being worn in over hundreds of years.

The best advice I got was to join the Austrian Alpine Club (Österreichischer Alpenverein). As a card-carrying member, you get discounts on almost all alpine huts (outside of Austria as well; benefits are usually reciprocal between countries) and membership includes insurance for helicopter mountain rescue.

Booking the Huts

Most of the huts are owned by the Alpine Club but managed separately. Each hut requires a reservation 2-5 months in advance (that’s how popular the activity is in Europe). Most can be booked online, but some require a phone reservation. Or a traveler can turn to a booking agent or travel agency to put all the pieces together.

As someone new to the area and the activity, I thought it best to select a planned route from a menu of adventures provided by a travel agency. There are dozens of agencies with an online presence and a quick search will uncover a handful that specialize in the services you need. The ones that I bookmarked were:

(Disclaimer: I have no affiliate relationship with companies I feature in my articles. I recommend them only because they worked for me… not because of any financial incentive.)

Levels of Difficulty

I wanted to schedule a trip up, around, and maybe over some big mountains on a trail of moderate difficulty (not via ferrata, but almost) and I did not want to be in a hurry. Age doesn’t matter much, but it’s better to warm up to the change in elevation; enjoy an easy acclimatization. Instead of charging through 15-20 kilometres each day, I’d go ten and enjoy the scenery.

And I was able to do that; routes were listed with specifications and I picked two that met my needs. Two week-long trips on high trails in the Austrian Alps with train rides in between sounded like a great way to spend some time alone, so I booked them for September.

Final Preparations

I needed to buy new gear. All my outdoor equipment was stateside with my brother except the 40L daypack I use here in Poland. As I put together a gear list, I began to realize how little one needs to participate in the hut-to-hut hiking scene. Boots, trekking poles, and a mid-sized backpack to carry a rain jacket and some clothes, and maybe a little trail food (because you eat breakfast and dinner in the huts). I didn’t need a tent or a sleeping bag; just a liner to keep my bed in the hut dormitory clean. All I had to buy was a new backpack and some boots.

My alpine adventure was easier to organize than I’d imagined. After booking the trips and buying the gear, all I have to do now is get fit.