Up to Dachstein massif

Austria – day 3 – Dachstein massif adventure. Who would not want to see the world from the bird’s perspective? And if you can let a cable car take you as high as possible in the Dachstein massif so that you can see its awesome views from above, you may even experience that perspective for a while.

Well, let me pause here… as to get up there is just a part of the success. The other one is having luck regarding weather because on a cloudy and misty day, you cannot see much, and unfortunately that was our case. The trip was planned, the tickets were reserved and that gave us no more choices. So, in my photos below, you can see no breathtaking views and no blue overwhelming sky…

Yet let me tell you, the experience was breathtaking anyway.

We arrived at the parking place, got in a cable car and went up into the clouds, losing the sight of the greenery soon enough.

Surprisingly, one of the first things we saw in the upper cable car station were these covered beach seats, unbelievably colourful in that cloudy greyness. The seats looked so misplaced, no sunbathing for us…

To get from the station to the near Ice Palace, you have to walk over a 100-metre-long suspension bridge hanging above 400-metre-deep open space. Although we could not see the entire depth under our feet, being aware of the height and feeling the bridge’s slight movements was enough of an experience. To make it even more interesting, the ever-changing clouds obscuring parts of the bridge now and then helped to create somewhat mysterious atmosphere.

The changeability is what makes the no-blue-sky weather special. If the clouds are tirelessly moving and dispersing, a bit of the scenery is revealed here, a bit there, and you do not see just one view but many of them…

Inside the Dachstein glacier, an Ice Palace was created in 2007, in its space you can see ice carvings lit in changing colours. Accompanying texts provide information on the exhibits as well as on glacier development and physics. Beware, it is really cold inside.

As far as I could see, the exhibits are not the same all the time so when you come next time, you may see different figures and sceneries.

When you get out of the palace, you can choose which way to continue, we opted for the snowy path to Seethalerhütte. The hut is placed at an elevation of 2,740 meters above sea level and from the station, you “just” need to follow quite a wide path with a mild elevation difference.

I guess in nice weather, this path must be (over)crowded, but during our visit, not many people were eager to make the effort only to reach the clouds. Walking in the slippery snow was tiring but we hoped the view might open when we arrive at the hut.

But it did not. When we reached the hut, we could see just its contours, everything around was just white and greyish. It was really cold up there but we decided to stay for a while and our patience was rewarded by catching glimpses of the crags and eventually also by seeing the hut itself.

It is something indescribable when you see nothing at all around you and suddenly a huge crag appears out of the whiteness right in front of you where there was nothing just a while ago, and before you manage to focus your camera, the view is gone.

We could see flowers thriving at the top by the hut…

…and surprise, surprise, we even caught a glimpse of bright blue in the sky…

On the way back, I slipped in an icy and slurry spot below the station, and fell on the side where my Nikon camera was placed. I bruised my leg badly and was afraid I damaged the camera, the lens hood could not have survived for sure… Fortunately, the camera showed no failure and also the hood survived, no crack or any other damage at all, and that made me feel grateful for the good quality of the camera body and hood. Thank you, Nikon…

I have to admit, I was happy to use the conveyor-belt transport on the way back up to the station. I was laughing at it when we arrived but my feet thanked me for changing my opinion on the return…

When waiting for the ride down, we discovered that there is a platform on the top of the cable cars where you can stand outside and watch the surroundings directly. We managed to join and enjoyed the ride, despite the limited view…

When we got back to the parking place, we had some more time before leaving, which we spent by walking in the surroundings. We discovered that there are many tracks, beautiful countryside, grazing cows and freely moving horses. Heartily recommended…