What a wonderful weekend!!

This is the view from half way up Zwölferhorn of lake Wolfgansee.

This is one of my pirated photos from inside the ice cave!

Here is a shot from the starting point of the mountain in which the ice caves are in.

So this weekend started in a very American way, the 6 guys of the group got together on Friday and put together a NFL draft. It was a great way to start the weekend... although my week 1 is not looking too good at the moment... So Friday was a pretty boring night, went to bed early because we had to be at the train station at 7:30 on Saturday. Normally, this would be miserable, but it was more than worthwhile in the end.
So the day started off early, we headed to the train station and took a train south into the Alps. It was a beautiful train ride through the Salzach river basin, and it took about an hour. After getting off the train we had about a 10 min ride to the base station of the mountain. Then we started the hike. Right from the beginning it was incredibly beautiful. We basically hiked right up the side of the mountain. It was a winding pass built into the rock, and at times one bad step and you had a long fall straight down. It was an absolutely beautiful day! The landscape was simply breathtaking, probably one of the most beautiful places that I have ever been. So the hike up took around 2 hours and near the top we took a break to eat lunch, and met some Americans from Portland. After lunch we headed into the largest ice caves in the world! The cave was pretty incredible. The only problem is that photography was forbidden. (Verboten) So I had to be really sneaky with my pictures, and they didn't come out really well. Anyway, it was 1km of ice, and we had to dress up in winter gear to go in because it was just above freezing in there. The Cave was absolutely beautiful, layers and layers of ice, and it was changing every year. When you enter you see a 300ft ice wall, and you have to go up 500 steep steps to go up it. We got old style lanterns that were purely propane, and the guides used magnesium which when lit on fire is very bright. The tour lasted about an hour, and then we headed back down. It was an amazing day, and an absolutely beautiful mountain! When I got back I crashed and got ready for day 2.
So day 2 started almost as early as day 1, except that for some reason I didn't sleep well, so I was already exhausted from day 1. However news of Syracuse winning really got me pumped up and ready for the day!!! This time we had a 50 minute ride into the Salzkammergoot region. We got off the bus and headed up the hill. It was a steep climb to the top, however very different from yesterday. Very wooded, and in the winter it is a very popular ski resort. The hike up was very nice, but very steep. It was very humid, and there was some low lying clouds, so the view wasn't as good as it could have been, but still absolutely beautiful. By the time we got to the top of the mountain a large cloud had enveloped it and we couldn't see a thing. The temperature dropped about 20 degrees in 5 min and there was a cool mist. The way down was pretty steep. At points there was only barbed wire fence between you and death... it was pretty sweet. It was about 4 miles up and took us 3 hours, and the way down took about 2 hours. It was another amazing day filled with exercise and fun. I capped the day off by going out to pizza with two friends from the tour Rachael and Amy, and then sat down to watch the Bills game, which is going quite nicely!! So it has been another great weekend, and now its time to sleep!!
Gute Nacht!
-Christoph-