alex robinson

Today we were supposed to go on a field trip to the nearest glacier. First up a cable car from about 2000m up to around 3200m. Then we would hike along the ridge above it until we found ourselves with a spectacular view of Hintereisferner, which I think is one of the longest glaciers in Europe. This didn’t happen, since the entire valley was covered with fog and it has continuously rained from morning until now.

So instead, also forgoing the choice of visiting the archeological museum nearby, which houses the “ice man” found not far from here, we went to the Messner Mountain Museum. At first I thought it would just be a typical museum in a castle, holding some medival paintings, etc. But it turned out to be quite fascinating. Reinhold Messner is, I guess, the most world-famous mountain climber. And during his trips he collected interesting pieces of art from Tibet and elsewhere. Then, since this castle above the Schnalstal (Schnal Valley) was decrepit in the 80s, he decided to buy it and convert it into a part-time home, as well as into an art gallery for visitors. We drove up the steep, winding roads piled into an 8-person taxivan and arrived to the loud braying of the local farm’s donkey (guess he was also disappointed with the weather). The museum was really fascinating and the location was breathtaking. The parting fog in the valley below somehow added to the mysticism of the whole place too.

Afterward, we actually headed on to the main event of the day: the arrival of over a thousand sheep into the valley after their summer grazing in the alpine valleys finished. Apparently it’s a tradition they’ve had for many centuries and they always take the same route over the glacier (where we would have seen them had we gone!) and then down into the valley to be stabled for winter. It takes about a week to round up the sheep from the pastures and then it’s a 12-15km hike to the new valley. It’s interesting that if you haven’t been around sheep much, you think the sheep noises (Baaahh) are the spectators imitating them. I personally came to the conclusion that we do better sheep noises than them!

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  Arriving at the castle

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  The greeter

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  Ominous entrance

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  View from Messner's castle above the Schnalstal

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  You could even here music from this village below

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  Making the most of it...

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  Our guide, in blue, and Georg translating

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  Messner brought a large collection of art back from his expeditions

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  And we even could make wishes on the wishmill

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  This is the old part of the castle, kept open air with a glass roof

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  I really did enjoy it, despite what the photo may convey

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  Early soccer strategy records...

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  Looking up into the art tower

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  Looking back down

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  The cable car we would have taken to the glacier ridge

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  Instead the view to the sheep coming out of the fog

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  Quite an event!

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  The sheep just followed each other, like sheep, I suppose.

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  All in a day's work

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  Of course, all of that sheep-watching brought on an appetite. What does the chef propose tonight?

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  This was excellent

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  As was this.

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  Topped off with a full moon