Day 1, Karnischer Höhenweg, Helm to Oberstansersee

We got up early to get the bus from Sillian to Vierschach just over the border in Italy. It is still German speaking and culturally Austrian, so it was easy to get a gondala up the hill to Helm and save lots of forest track walking. The weather was excellent, warm enough for shorts and a windproof and only a light breeze. The good thing about the gondola was that we got to 2000 metres quickly and meant we could go onto the Obstanserseehütte on the first day. The bad thing is that people used to sea level go slower with the smaller amount of oxygen in the atmosphere. However we made guidebook time to the Sillianer Hütte where we had some Almdudler, an Austrian fruity spritzig soft drink, before going onwards. The views back west over the Dolomites were impressive to begin with and then as the day went on the view east became more spectacular and the light became more interesting as it clouded in and got a wee bit windier. The Höhenweg follows the line of the border between Austria and Italy, which was ‘agreed’ by the Allied powers after WW1. AS Italy was on ‘our’ side they got to keep the Südtyrol part of Austria. The whole walk has a lot of offensive and defensive positions and it must have been a hellish place most of the time during WW1.
The blip was taken on top of Hornischegg looking towards the Dolomites and the extra a collage of fortifications, flowers and the Obstanserseehütte as we went through the day. As we had our food in the evening the clouds rolled in and it was quite earie as it got dark.

Yesterday’s blip.