Kehlstein, Berchtesgaden - A painful hiking experience... my traini...

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_{(Here you can see the summit cross of the Kehlstein in Berchtesgaden. The edelweiss appliqué makes it one of the more beautiful crosses I have seen on my hikes so far.)}

Hi Actifitters,

after a long break from hiking, I finally went up into the mountains again yesterday.

The original plan was that I would simply start walking and turn around at about 500 meters altitude. In hindsight, that would have been a good idea, because I can currently only move with pain.

After climbing 650 meters in altitude, there was a moment when I considered turning back. At that point, I was roughly halfway to the summit. Since I still felt fit and nothing special was planned for the day, I decided to push through and finally tick off a summit cross on my mountain list after a long time.

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After climbing about 1000 meters in altitude, I had to walk more and more on snow. At some point, I probably took a wrong step. In any case, I felt a sharp pain in my hamstring and my hip also started to hurt. I probably should have turned back at this point, but it was only about an hour to the summit and ambition compelled me to continue.

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And so I continued on, trudging to the summit. Once there, I checked my options for the way back down. Spoiler alert: There weren't any. Since the road to the Kehlsteinhaus is generally closed to cars and the bus doesn't start running until May 7th, I had to hike back down the mountain.

I took a short break, put my aching leg up, and swallowed an ibuprofen 600. I actually hate taking painkillers, but it was the only option, since I had a three-hour descent ahead of me.

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After a few minutes, I set off. The first half hour wasn't pleasant, but fortunately, the pain wasn't quite as intense going downhill as it had been going uphill. Once the ibuprofen started to take effect, I was surprised to find that things were going quite well again. It's really amazing what such a small pill can do.

It took almost exactly three hours until I got back down to the valley. I was so relieved that everything had gone so well and went into the first inn I found. There I had some delicious food and a cold beer.

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Here are a few more key details about the hike:

Duration - 6:47:29
Average pace - 14:10 / km
Step count - 41354
Total elevation gain - 1404 m
Total descent - 1461 m
Min altitude - 542 m
Max altitude - 1797 m

When I woke up this morning, I found that the pain in my muscle and hip wasn't as bad as I had feared. However, I do have considerable muscle soreness in my thighs and calves.

I had actually planned to go hiking again today, but that's simply not possible, and after yesterday's experience, it would be truly unwise. So, I'll be content with my obligatory steps today and simply enjoy the day with a few beers and some delicious food with my wife and our friends.

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