Kopfkraxen Hike

Published on 2014-5-4 by Michael Stanton

Kopfkraxen

May 4, 2014

I went for hike in my new climbing boots, to continue breaking them in and maybe, if I was lucky, get to do a bit of rock climbing or scrambling. Unfortunately, the weather took a turn for the worse, and I was alarmed to see fresh snow down to a low level on the drive into the Wilder Kaiser. I parked at the Jaegerwirt above Scheffau, and hiked up past the waterfall into the Schneekar, now in deep but consolidated snow. A bit of misting rain turned to snowflakes on the way up. I decided to climb the West Ridge (III) of Sonneck, a summit I'd never visited. However I was turned around at about 2050 meters by insecure icy rocks in a steep gully. So I descended back to the waterfall at about 1550 meters, and then dutifully up the snowy trail to the summit of the Kopfkraxen at about 2130 meters. By now it was pretty late (I think I started hiking at 2 pm), so I regretfully decided not to continue on to the summit of Sonneck, which would have required a snowy descent. I went down a different way into the Kaiser Hochalm valley, then rather inefficiently along a grassy spur above the Jaegerwirt, at some points leaving the road or trail and following my nose in the gloaming. I think it was about 1700 meters up and down. Here is a video: