Westerham

Franz is excellent at picking mountains.

I love hiking with Franz. I learn so much without understanding so many words - where great hikes are, how to find them, the joy of a good view and how to nap in mountain nicks and crannies.

Today's lesson includes a steep walk to an Staff-alm, where benches let visitors enjoy the sunshine. Ooli is recovering from a cold, so we pause to rest on the way, and I'm happy to share the pause after yesterday's run. We are heading to a peak, a nose near the top, yet to get there we need to go up, then down a gully, and up even higher and steeper. We pass an instrument of wood with a hammer, where you can play woodpecker and ring the wood out. Each species has a different tune. Ooli knows how to play a few tunes with them :)

Franz guides us through a river gulley where the shade is so dark and the temperature so cold I have to put layers back on. I hate layers - when I am moving I am always so warm that I take most layers off, removing sweaters and jackets until I am at a shirt and pants only. This feels most natural to me, and I love it, yet I return the laters reluctantly in this cold shade, only to remove them 5 minutes later when we return to the sun. The peak of every mountain has less trees and more sun. If you're lucky, like today, there is no wind. The rocks and few trees that exist are warm to touch even while the snow stays ice-cold.

Near the top, we pass two other climbers. They have settled for a closer peak, not so high, that is right in front of us, yet it is not the top and that is not our goal. Franz eggs us on while Ooli leads.

The higher we get, the worse the slope is. we must use our hands, grasping the snow for balance as our feet slip, even though there is nothing in the snow to grasp except twigs and thin branches. At the very top, it is too steep for snow to hold. The rock is too warm for snow to stay, and we scramble to the very peak. It's not long before we hear the other climbers following our steps. By the time they reach us we're already lounging in cracks and crevices in the rocks absorbing sunshine and having tea.

The rest is nice, yet even nicer is the return back and the stop-off at the Staff-Alm. We have beers in the sunshine, and I eat a pancake-sandwich filled with plum sauce and covered in powdered sugar. This is a Bavarian dessert, a treat, that no one can translate to me, and nor can I to you. It's not really pancakes. Perhaps a frenchtoast sandwich? yet no eggs the way French toast has. Either way, it's delicious and goes well with the beer.

We continue down to the car, passing a launch for paragliding. I love the idea of flying in a parachute, and Ooli and Franz simply smile and encourage me to find a way to do it. On the way down, we pass a young man with a large backpack going up, and Ooli points at him and tells me he's a paraglider. You can tell by the huge backpack and no hiking gear.

The way up was steep to start, which means the way down is also steep. I've been running so much now that going slowly down a hill is hard, and so I half-run, half hike down the hill ahead of everyone else. I'm in hiking boots on the mountain and it feels like running in clogs, or in ski-boots, compared to my normal barefoot running shoes. I am clumsy yet still I love moving quickly down the hill.

Quickly that is, until I see a parachute above us! the Paraglider is soaring! I stop! it's wonderful and incredible to see a person floating through the air with nothing but silk holding them up. Ooli see's it too and shouts! Franz just smiles as I shout out that I see it too. The paraglider floats for what seems like forever as the paraglider kidnaps all my attention yet only a moment has passed and they are already hidden behind trees, floating down more and more.

By the time I'm back to my senses, Ooli and Franz have caught up. We're on our way back to the parking lot, arriving just in time to see our paraglider packing up his car to drive off.

We pack up ours too, and then we're also driving off, back to the city, where I eat and head out to an international-friends meetup to meet whomever I may meet.Read more