Trekking to the Ramoljoch Pass in the Austrian Alps

 The last two days of our seven-day trek through the Otztal Valley in the Austrian Alps took us up over 4000 feet to the Ramoljoch pass, and then down the other side more than 5000 feet in a single day. It was my favorite part of the trip, as there are no ski resorts in this area, just glaciers and rivers and valleys above the tree line. Also, as you'll see in the photos, the morning of the second day was the climb to the saddle (AKA "joch"), where you get to the top and cross out of the Otztal Valley and into the other valley. 

Here we are after leaving the little village near the base of the valley. The hut is actually visible in this photo, but it's miles away. 

We passed a few grazing cows when we first started out. The jangling of their bells could be heard from a good distance. They were curious about us as we passed, probably hoping we had food for them.

As we climbed higher and higher on our side of the valley, the views of the other side got better. We could see a beautiful, braided river at the base of a side valley across from us. Also visible in the lower right of this photo are a couple of two-story buildings used for resupplying our hut by cable. There were cables stretched all the way from those buildings, across the valley, to our hut. There was a small aluminum box on the cable that could be used to send up food, toilet paper, and other essentials. 

There were no cows at the higher altitudes. We were heading to 10,000 feet (about 3000 meters) that day. Instead, we passed lots of goats. They were also curious. Some even came over to see if we wanted to share our lunch with them. 

This was the view looking back towards where we started after a couple of hours. 

Here we have a good view of the Gurgl glacier. As with almost every glacier in the Alps, it's lost a large majority of its mass over the last fifty years. The bare rock marks where the ice used to reach. It's much smaller in terms of both height and length. 

After a few hours, we're getting closer to the hut, which is barely visible in the upper right corner of this photo. Unfortunately for us, it's closer, but still far above us. The trail rises gradually for most of the hike, but that changes at the very end. 

Here's how it looked as we got to the final approach to the hut. 

Luckily, this section of the trail was relatively short. 

Once we arrived at the hut, we sat out on the nice deck facing the glacier and the valley. It was only around 4 PM, and they weren't open yet. Luckily, they brought us food and drink out on the deck. It was fantastic weather, cool and pretty windy. It's funny everyone is looking at their phones here, as there was no signal, but one can try. Plus, they could have been reviewing all their photos of the day. 

Closer view of the glacier field across the valley. This is the Gurgl glacier. Notice the huts way up there, below the left ice field.

While we were waiting for dinner, I went back outside to look at the glacier. As it happened, a whole herd of sheep showed up to munch on the sparse grass around the hut. That poor grass has no chance to grow, as these guys eat every bit as soon as it pops up. It's hard enough with the cold weather and high altitude. I can't believe there's anything left alive once you add sheep. 

So, we spent the night in the Ramolhaus hut, in a tiny, six-bunk room, with sponge baths at the sinks in the (quite clean) bathrooms, and lots of snoring. Then it was time to do the last 500' of climbing to get over the Ramoljoch pass and start the 5000' descent to the town of Vent on the other side. 

When we woke up, we were in the clouds. We couldn't see anything but gray mist in all directions. After breakfast and packing up, we started to get glimpses of the mountains across the valley again. They would appear and disappear by the minute for the next couple of hours. 

Finally, it was clear enough to get started. We walked out the opposite side of the hut we had arrived from the night before, right onto the trail to Vent. As you can see from the photo, the clouds were filtering through as we walked. It was very slippery crossing the packed snow, but we managed. 

Then we reached the really exciting part - the via ferrata - where they've installed metal steps, with cables to hold onto, for the 500' ascent to the saddle.

You can tell how steep it is from the way the people only a few steps ahead are almost directly above us. 

I absolutely loved this section and wished it was even longer!

Since before the trip began, I'd been worrying that the heights, exposure, difficulty, and technical nature of this section would cause problems for our group. Our guide company rated this section as "Extreme." Fortunately, none of it slowed down the group at all. We went right up this section without a complaint or a rest. 

Here's how it looked facing back toward the way we came as we got near the top. As you can see, the clouds still hadn't cleared out by the time we reached to top. They were still filling up the Otztal Valley that we had come from. 

Finally, we reached the top, which was around 10500'. From up here, we could see into the other valley, which had its own glaciers. I loved how the clouds were below us, and hugging the mountains on the far side of the next valley.  We were curious why the glacier clearly had two different colors, and all these black lines of sediment.

The rest of the day, we would be hiking all the way down, even lower than the lowest part of that green area, a descent of over 5000'. Long day, but we brought plenty of food and water and took a few breaks to enjoy the views and listen to the glacial river flowing beside us. We were so lucky with the weather on this day too, as it had been raining every day earlier in the trip.