Another hike with another friend. Who would have guessed (not me, certainly) that I would manage to meet sports buddies rather than bar / culture / other friends? Especially when being back in the “Super-Working-Trap”: Eleven months mark an overwhelming lean period between the last holiday and the next, even worse as travelling has lost some of its lightness for an undefined period of time.

Typical for October, temperatures vary from frozen to t-shirt-warmth, depending upon sun and southern vs. northern flanks. The length of today’s tour, instead, depends upon orientation and rare road signs. We manage to sort out the first half just right, or at least most of it. Forest roads, paths and rare outlooks keep us busy and uphill for a bit less than two hours, until we almost stumble out of the woods and over the peak’s cross. Far from being the most impressive peak of the Alps, the Staffel’s cross is almost hilariously huge.

The way down starts promising and mostly sunny. About half way down, an unmarked crossing lurs us into a deviation of a mere 5 km before we get back to our starting point. Hence, we get a bit more sun and walking distance than foreseen by the easy tour, summing up 14 instead of the planned 9 km. Still, it has been a nice and easy hike and before we leave the Jachenau valley, we ensure to fill up precious calories in the cafés along the way.