No Sunset, No Sunrise

I was hoping for a nice Sunset, which didn't happen, and I was hoping for a nice Sunrise, which didn't happen, but I loved it 😀

No Sunset, No Sunrise - I loved it
^{Hike to the Mountain Hochstadel}

On Wednesday evening I rode to my parent's house, parked my motorbike and after chatting with my parents I went to bed to get a few hours of sleep before I wanted to start my hike. I got up at 5am the next morning and at about 6am I have already been exhausted from the steep forest I was hiking straight upwards.

I forgot to tell you where my hike should go to. My desired destination was the mountain Hochstadel, which is a 2,681 meters high mountain of the Lienz Dolomites in Carinthia, Austria. But because of the tons of snow which was still on the peak I wanted to stay on the mountain pasture which is at about 1,780 m altitude.
More info: Wikipedia: Hochstadel or Hochstadelhaus refuge / mountain hut

About half an hour later I got rewarded with an amazing view. The valley below me was mostly covered by mist and the rising sun has colorized the mist nicely orange.

Later I have reached the forest road and hiking was a lot easier from then on. Every now and then there was a waterfall at the roadside which only appears in Spring when the snow melts. I took these photos hand held without a tripod, so long exposure shots haven't been possible. The yellow flower is a Primula auricula, in German Alpenaurikel. Later, you will see a few more of this flower.
Wikipedia: Primula auricula

A couple of kilometers later, after crossing a river I have been on the other side of the gorge where I could see the same waterfall with the Primula auricula again, but this time from quite a distance.

The mountain in front is called Böses Weibele what translates to Bad Woman in English. I wonder if you can see her head.

I was not expecting to meet people during my hike, but I also haven't expected to see a snake in the middle of the road. This is a Vipera berus, also known as common European adder or common European viper, a venomous snake, but because of the small amount of venom a bite would be dangerous for children and older people, they say, but I wouldn't want to try it. A German name for this kind of Vipera berus is also "Höllenotter" what translates to "Hell Viper" what suits to her melanistic colour patterns in my eyes.
According to the sizes Wikipedia tells, this snake was an adult. More info about this snake: Wikipedia: Vipera berus

In this photo you can also see the damages a huge storm has made a couple of years ago. Although they are working since the storm to clean and reforested the affected areas, there's still a lot of work to do. The mountain behind is the Hochstadel.

After kilometers of walking on the forest road I got to a steep mountain pasture which I had to hike almost straight up, but it was not very long till I reached a path which led me down on a deeply snowed path to my destination.

The weather was great, almost too sunny and hot, but sometimes dramatic clouds were to see over the mountains in the south. Don't ask me for the names of these mountains, which are in the Carnic Alps and if I'm no twrong, in the Dolomites behind.

I thought this image might look nice in black and white, so I edited it that way too.

As some of you might know, we own a little wooden cabin on this mountain, but I didn't have the keys with me and I wanted to sleep in my tent. So I put up my tent in front of the cabin. As you can see, the winter has left its mark - the snow has damaged the fence and also the table and bench in front of the cabin, but luckily the cabin is still standing.

The view down to the valley was great and in case you are curious, the village where I have grown up is in the right bottom corner of the image.

While I was cooking my dinner (something with potatoes and beef) I noticed a little animal also having dinner - a Marmot was my neighbor (Wikipedia: Marmot).

The sunset was none, because apart from some clouds turning slightly orange there was nothing to see nor to photograph.

It has been a nice place for the tent and the view was amazing, but because of the melting snow the ground was wet and cold. A cold wind was blowing the whole night through and the noise woke me up many times, but at 4am I opened the tent and had a hot coffee while I was watching the sky turning orange.

Although the sky looked quite promising in the beginning, there was not much of a sunrise to see and so I took only a few photos and packed my stuff together.

On the way back down from the mountain I walked on a forest road at first and then I switched to the official path through the woods.

My Garmin eTrex said my hike was 24.7 kilometers long and the highest altitude was 1,973 meters above sea level. My feet say it have been at least 100 kilometers and 8,000 meters upwards only ;)

No sunset, no sunrise, but I loved this hike alone on the mountain where I have grown up and I am already looking forward to my next hike, as soon as my feet are able to walk again :)

So, that was it for today's blog, I hope you could also enjoy my hike a little bit.

Information

All photos were taken with the Canon EOS R and one of these lenses: Canon RF 24-105mm f/4 L IS USM, Canon EF 70-200mm f/4 L IS II USM, Canon EF 16-35mm 1:4 L IS USM, Canon EF 50mm 1:1.8 L STM, SIGMA 105mm 1:2,8 DG MACRO HSM, Sigma 100-400mm F5-6,3 DG OS HSM C.
If you are interested in the image data, I leave all EXIF and IPTC information stored in the pictures.

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