Alpine Water Games

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Drizzle. We hadn’t expected that. For days, the weather forecast had promised harmless clouds and plenty of sunshine... The Seven Lakes Hike is a classic – but always full of surprises.

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We’ve already covered the first 600 meters of elevation when I step off the shuttle bus with photographer Oskar and our two hiking friends, Karl and Irmi. The bus has taken us from the parking lot at the Mining Museum in Maiern (1,417 m) through the Lazzacher Valley to just below the mountain hut Moarerbergalm (Poschalm, 2,113 m).

 

 

Wearing rain jackets, we hike over alpine meadows and follow the mining heritage trail, marked with remnants of the former silver, lead, and zinc mining operation at Europe’s highest-altitude mine, heading north along trail number 33. Karl and Irmi are hiking light – unlike me: “Take plenty of water, there are no springs along the way,” a friend had warned me. “If necessary,” Karl laughs, “the glacier runoff will do just fine.” My friend meant well, but in fact, we cross several streams of crystal-clear mountain spring water – surrounded by bellflowers, clover, alpine buttercups, tiny butterflies, and cairns.

Every few steps, the red-and-white marker shows us the way, and yet we almost passed the Middle Moarer Egetsee lake (2,468 m). For just a brief moment, the view is clear of the tiny waves that the morning wind drags across the water’s surface.

The seven lakes are on average half to three-quarters of an hour apart from each other. The Pfurnsee lake, the last one, we have to earn after a one-and-a-half-hour climb. First, we ascend the snow-white debris slope of the Moarer Weißen ("Ridnaun Dolomites") up to the Egetjoch, the highest point (2,693 m).

Karl and Irmi have walked this path many times, in winter with skis, when they climbed surrounding peaks like the Botzer. At the beginning of July, three weeks ago, we would have had to trudge through much larger snowfields than today. Snow and the search for markers can take up a lot of time here. Last year, around this time, everything was thawed, and even the many small lakes around us had dried up.

The longer we hike, the more silent we become. Only the streams rush continuously, from far and near, sometimes quieter, sometimes louder, sometimes deeper, sometimes clearer… The water accompanies you here from the first step to the last. As we descend from the Egetlahner to the sandy flats, the mighty Fernbach crashes down the rocks to our left.

With heavy hearts, we decide—after a stop at the Grohmann mountain hut—not to take the serpentine trail No. 9 up to the Teplitz mountain hut and the Pfurnsee lake, but instead to descend eastward toward the Aglsboden, pausing briefly at the “Three-Hut View,” where the Grohmann mountain hut, the higher Teplitz mountain hut, and the distant Becherhaus mountain hut can all be seen at once.

The sky opens up as we pass a herd of mountain goats and cross the suspension bridge to the Aglsbodenalm. Sunshine everywhere, only harmless clouds. Just as the weather forecast had promised. Before we return to Maiern, our starting point, via the Burkhard Gorge and mountain trail 9, we take a refreshing footbath in the fish pond near the Aglsbodenalm. Next year, we’ll head back up to the lakes. We owe it to the dry bathing suits in our backpacks.