Opening Up
Hello out there,
It was the last day on our annual hiking trip to the Austrian Alps and unfortunately, the weather was still pretty poor. More or less the whole week it had been raining and even snowing higher up on the mountains, ruining our planned hiking tours. But we did not want to leave, without doing one last hike and therefore decided to stick to our plan, to climb up to the Ups peak near Lermoos, which turned out to be the right thing to do.
Since the beginning of the trail mostly went through a forest, we actually did not notice the rain that much and did not mind it later on, when we left the forest behind and were already pretty exhausted to care for it. Only the muddy path made us struggle quite a lot. But soon we arrived at a mountain hut, where we got a chance to dry off and heat up again. Reenergized from this cozy rest, we decided to try, to hike all the way to the peak, even though the weather had not improved.
But soon, we had to realize, that the path was just in such a bad shape, that we had to turn around and would not make it to the top today. A bit disappointed, we stopped again in the same mountain hut, to a lunch. But before we continued hiking downwards, we went on an observation platform in front of the hut. Expecting not to see very much, I stepped to the railing and looked down into the valley and got the view everybody hopes for when he climbs a mountain. Through a gap in the clouds, I was able to see all the way down into the valley below us. The one and only reward, a mountaineer needs. For sure, I pull out my camera and just pressed the shutter.