Perfect 1 or 2 days tour at the border of Austria and Italy

 

Coordinates of the parkinglot: 46.863668,10.917102, Vent

Starting point: Vent, 1900 m

Martin-Busch Hütte: 2500 m – possible place to spend a night

Similaunhütte: 3019 m – possible place to spend the night

 

Difficulty: PD

Overall height difference: 1700 m

 

 

Originally we planned the tour to be 2 days long. We wanted to reach the Martin-Busch hütte on Friday night, then Saturday summit and driving back home. Unfortunately the trafic jams on the german highways did not allow this…we managed to drive 30 kilometers in an hour or so. So we changed the plan, went back slept a little and started 2 in the morning. We also took our bikes with us…

We reached Vent at 6:30, nobody was at the parking lot, so we couldn’t pay. After waiting a bit we decided to take our chances and leave the car there without paying. We had luck nobody took it away or left a ticket.

We assembled our bikes and continued on 2 wheels to the Martin-Busch hütte(600 meters). On the way we had our goal in sight.

We arrived at the hütte at 8 o’clock, the personal was really nice, because we got breakfast (normally you get one until 8) Here we left the bikes and continued on foot.

There are two ways to get to Similaun from the hütte:

– Along the Similaun hütte (easy)

– Over the Marcellklamm (bit harder)

We choose to go up on the bit harder way and come down the easy route. We crossed the small river over the bridge, and continued the steep way up.

At around 3100 meters we reach the side of the gletscher. We gear up, but leave the crampons in the bag, because the snow is melted.

We saw some cracks covered with snow, but in all the gletscher is compact, and not so dangerous.

Closing on the summit, the storm was closing on us.

We made it!

On the summit we only spent a few minutes, because the storm was closing in. We could feel the static charge in the air.

Going down was easy but took longer.

Reaching the Similaun, the Storm got us.

At the Martin-Busch hütte, the storm was breaking up, so we decided, we bike down to the car.

We reached our car at 7pm.
In short, it was a beautiful tour.

 

Funfact: Ötzi, the prehistoric man was found a few kilometers away from the Similaun hütte in 1991.

 

July of 2013.