Trekking Munich to Venice. John Hayes
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Название: Trekking Munich to Venice
Автор: John Hayes
Издательство: Ingram
Жанр: Книги о Путешествиях
isbn: 9781783624249
isbn:
Geisler Púez and the Forcella Roa (Stage 16)
Despite looking quite different to one another the mighty Karwendel on the northern side of the core and the Dolomites to the south are closely related. Both are of similar age, formed in similar circumstances, and both are composed of types of limestone. The lagoons where the Dolomites were formed, however, produced a higher proportion of magnesium and that gave these mountains their distinct shape and colour.
The limestone on top of the core of the Alps, running east–west, has long been stripped away and older layers exposed. This is what you see when you cross the Tux and Zillertal Alps, where instead of limestone the mountains consist of much older metamorphic gneiss, slate and granite.
Although the age of the rocks on view is measured in tens of millions of years the process that turned them into mountains is more recent. This is a landscape where for most of the year the predominant colour is white, and which only a few thousand years ago was almost totally covered by an ice cap. Glaciers still cut their way into mountainsides today. Even with global warming the process that formed today’s mountains (only the highest of which would have protruded through the ice cap) is still going on.
Pelmo – the most beautiful mountain in the Dolomites? (Stage 22)
Identifying the various mountains is one of the challenges and joys of the Traumpfad. Some of mountains ‘visited’ have an iconic status that renders them instantly recognisable (such as Marmolada, the highest mountain in the Dolomites, or Pelmo, the most beautiful), but others are important in the wider pantheon of Alpine peaks (for example Bikkarspitz, the highest mountain in the Karwendel, the Hochfeiler, the biggest in the Zillertal, and Civetta the famous west wall of which is the highest of the last mountain stage of the route). Tentatively naming a mountain approached from the north, confirming its designation as it gets closer and saying goodbye to it from the south is a process that can extend over many days.
The Alpine seasons
The position of the Alps in the middle of Europe has a profound effect on both the seasons and the weather, not just in the mountains themselves but also in the surrounding regions.
Winter lasts a long time but the transition to a short summer (and walking season) is fast and furious. The gap between the treeline (1800m) and the snowline (2800m), where happily the route spends much of its time, becomes a riot of colour as alpine flowers and shrubs react to the warmth and sunshine and burst into bloom. Although no longer as important to the local economy as winter skiing, these summer alpine meadows still sustain the transhumance as beautiful brown cattle (the Swiss breed Simmental) are bought up from the valleys in July for ten weeks of summer grazing before returning in September just before the first snow.
Classic view of the River Isar from the Rißsattel (Stage 4)
The snow and the consequent surge of meltwater have an enormous impact on Traumpfad. Starting in Munich the route follows the River Isar whose fast-flowing grey water, destined for the Danube and the Black Sea, betrays its origins in the Karwendel limestone. The route then crosses the Inn, the most important tributary of the Danube, snakes above the huge reservoir, the Schlegeisspeicher, fed by the glacier on the north side of the Hochfeiler, before crossing the watershed on the border with Italy. From here the water heads south and then east to the Adriatic and the Mediterranean. The walk finishes, as it started, with a riverside walk, but this time along an Italian river, the Piave.
The Alps occupy a battleground between weather systems: the Atlantic, Continental and Mediterranean. In the summer you can expect (but not rely on) good weather. As a general rule it’s wetter in the north near Germany and drier in Italy, but extremes of weather, including snow, need to be anticipated. As the temperature increases in July and August, thunderstorms are not uncommon and September is the most settled month.
Alpine flowers, animals and birds
The epic film The Sound of Music may be associated with Salzburg but iconic scenes in flower-filled Alpine meadows can also be enjoyed on the Traumpfad.
A selection of Alpine flowers: Bavarian gentian; Apiaceae; white campion; alpine scabious; gentian; fragrant orchid; yellow alpine poppy; edelweiss; ground cistus; woolly thistle; silver thistle (Photos: Max and Frances Harre)
The edelweiss (symbol of the German Alpine Club), with its creamy felty petals in a star formation, may be the most famous flower but it’s only one of over 1500 varieties that all share an uncanny ability to survive extremely low temperatures. Easier to spot than edelweiss are blue trumpet gentians or harebells. Perhaps a little gaudy and much larger is the alpine orange lily. You may also see, growing heroically on inhospitable scree, the golden yellow Rhaetian poppy, larger flowered yellow ox-eye or the globeflower. Attractive even to those with the most casual interest in flowers are orchids, the most spectacular of which is probably the lady’s slipper orchid with its maroon and yellow petals. At the treeline, conifers dominate: silver fir, arolla pine and larch are the main species with dwarf pine higher up on the scree.
Like the flowers, animals have to be capable of surviving extreme conditions living on slim pickings. Perhaps the most prolific, and certainly the easiest to spot, are marmots. They look like a tubby meerkat (with a similar upright posture) but in fact are a type of squirrel. They live in colonies and whistle to each other as a warning. The colony leader, standing upright, spots or smells danger, issues a whistle that often echoes around a rock face, and the colony of marmots promptly disappears underground. You will certainly see and hear them along the route.
Sunbathing marmots
Less common and generally seen only in the distance are the chamois and ibex. Both in the past have been hunted to near extinction and both are happily in recovery. They are part of the goat-antelope family and share with their domestic brethren a distinct goat-like smell. As well as being incredibly nimble over rocks and up the side of mountains (occasionally unhelpfully dislodging stones) they graze in places where even in summer there is little in the way of grass. The male ibex has much bigger horns than chamois and the chamois has a distinctive black strip on its face.
Also specially adapted for alpine conditions and quite common is the black alpine salamander and its more spectacular cousin the fire salamander (black with gold patches). The alpine salamander is the only European amphibian to give birth to live young (usually two of them) emerging after developing inside the mother for three years – a longer gestation period even than the elephant (just over two years).
The Alps are not a particularly rich habitat for birds. Most common is the alpine chough, a small hyperactive crow specifically adapted for high altitude,. Also important is the nutcracker, a bird that looks similar to a starling, which plays a key role in the life of the arolla pine distributing, in a good year, up to 100,000 seeds in holes up to a metre under the snow at the perfect depth for germination. The nutcracker has a brilliant memory. It returns for most of the seeds but leaves enough to secure future generations of the tree. If you see a raptor it is likely to be a common buzzard although there are also honey buzzards around. There are about 350 pairs of golden eagle in the Austrian Alps so if you’re lucky you might see one of them as well.
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