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 sheep. 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. 

Ultimate Iceland: Horses, Cliffs, and Dynjandi

The icy wind nearly knocked us down as we got off the plane early on the morning of September 3 in Iceland. The day before, high winds had forced Iceland Air to cancel flights. With the wind whipping our hair in our faces, I really started to doubt my choice of time of year. But, I wanted to go on the shoulder season, between the peak summer months of midnight sun and too many tourists, and the freezing winter months when it's dark all day. At this time of year, there are fewer tourists, the days are still long, yet you still have a chance to see the Aurora Borealis. I call our trip "Ultimate Iceland" because it was two full weeks, and we covered not only the entire "Ring Road", but also went to the ends of western, northern, and eastern peninsulas, and to the edges of the Westfjords. In other words we went far beyond the Ring Road in all directions. It was great. 

As soon as we arrived, we got our rental car and started our first day of marathon driving, bypassing Reykjavik, heading up to the Snaefelssness Peninsula. Just north of Reykjavik, we started to see beautiful horses in brilliant green pastures everywhere. The advantage of planning your own trip is you can stop wherever there's something cool to see. This is especially great for a photographer like me. 

As you can see, there are quite a few amazing breeds of Icelandic horses. Each color combination here is a different breed. Icelandic horses have been isolated from other horses for about a thousand years now. The Norse brought over horses sometime in the late 800's or early 900's. Soon after, the Icelandic government banned the import of other types of horses. They're somewhat smaller than horses Americans are used to, but plenty large and strong enough to ride long distances on difficult terrain. 

We drove all the way to the end of the Snaefellsness Peninsula to see the cliffs and the ocean there. On the way, we saw a few people walking beside a stream leading out of a mountainside, so we decided to check it out. A short hike up a hill led into a dark and narrow grotto that the stream had cut into the cliff. Every surface was covered in thick, rich, green moss. Apparently, the wet and cold environment of Iceland is perfect for this moss, because you find it in many far-flung regions of the island.

The Arnarstapi Cliffs at the western end of the peninsula were our excuse to go exploring in this general direction. We spent a little over an hour walking on (and off) the paths around the area. When we arrived there was a group of a couple hundred Chinese tourists all wearing bright red parkas included with their tour. In this first photo, the water is rushing out from this inlet bordered by a thick layer of dark brown seaweed clinging to the rocks at the waterline. The rock is crystallized basalt, which gives it the appearance of being man-made, like giant Lego rocks. Rock like this occurs all over Iceland, and comes from magma pushing up through a glacier, and consequently being cooled extremely rapidly. 

Those winds we'd encountered at the airport that morning, and that were blowing waterfalls backwards up cliffs, were still whipping up the sea - sending this wave all the way to the top of this forty foot cliff. 

Just a little while later, we got hit by a sudden, powerful hailstorm, with fifty mile per hour winds. Luckily, we just happened to be near our car, so we were able to use if for shelter. Others weren't so lucky. It only lasted five minutes, but left the roads covered in a rapidly melting layer of white hail slush. 

 

Our destination that night was an isolated converted farm house down 40 miles of a packed gravel road, on the northern side of the peninsula, called the Drangar Country Guesthouse. In order to get there, we had to cross over to the northern side of the peninsula. Once on the northern side, we walked on a black sand beach and watched the wavetops being blown backwards by those powerful southerly winds.

On the way there, we spotted a couple more horses at the outlet of an incredibly beautiful valley, with giant waterfalls at its head, and sunlight illuminating the mountains through a gap in the dark clouds.  While I was taking photos of these two horses, we noticed a small herd of horses in the distance, and they were running down from the hills right toward us. Within a minute they had arrived and run in a small circle right up to the fence and stopped there. They were bored and curious and we were their entertainment. 

Here's a video Jennifer took while I was busy trying to take the photo above.

After a great breakfast at the guesthouse, we headed northwest toward the Dynjandi waterfall in the remote region few visitors get to known as the Westfjords. One of the great pleasures of traveling across Iceland is seeing one beautiful, unspoiled fjord after another, even if it's in cloudy or rainy weather.

That day, we could usually see bright sunlight, dark clouds, and rain all at the same time. This photo was taken from the top of a pass leading into the Westfjords, on a black gravel road that was under construction. We were driving on gravel roads for hours that day. I was surprised to find that we could do 80 KPH (49 MPH) on these roads, partly because of the 4WD we had been advised to rent. 

Finally, we reached the Dynjandi falls when the sun was out. There are actually several waterfalls that follow the big one at the top. This is one of the small waterfalls below the main waterfall. 

This is a view of the big one from a distance back. There's a person at the base of the falls, along the ridge, a little to the left of center. The person looks like a small grey bump because the falls are so huge. The waterfall is over three hundred feet high, so a person is pretty small in comparison. 

The water is pure and beautiful close up. 

Here's a view looking up at the falls from below.  Of course, a tripod is needed for a photo like this so the water can flow while the shutter is open for one or two seconds. My camera was getting wet, as the air was full of the spray of so many falling streams colliding with one rocky shelf after another. 

One of the most unusual parts of this day of travel is that we were driving on packed gravel roads. We were going into a remote part of the country that even most Icelanders never go to. So, the roads that go there aren't the greatest. They'll probably pave them in the next five to ten years, but they haven't gotten there yet. With a mid-sized four wheel drive SUV, we were able to drive on those roads at 40-45 MPH, which isn't that much below the national maximum speed limit of 55. To add a bit of humor, take a look at the view of our black SUV in the hotel parking lot when we arrived. I got a napkin and wiped off the license plate next time we drove it. As you can see, it was completely coated in mud.

That's all for the first leg of the trip.  

Click here to see photos from the second leg, including visits to the Arctic Fox Center, Godafoss and Dettifoss, with plenty of sheep in between.

Click here to see photos from the third leg of the trip, including Studlagil, Hengifoss, Litlanesfoss, and Heineberg Glacier Lagoon.

Antarctica: Second and Third Gentoo Penguin Colonies

 

On this day, we visited two different Gentoo penguin colonies. There were penguin chicks with almost every parent. You can see them in most of the photos below, except the ones where the parent is rushing out to catch some fish or coming home from eating krill (tiny shrimp-like creatures that are key to the entire Antarctic food chain), squid, and fish. 

Dinner time. The tongue is just as bright orange as the beak. I thought that was kind of surprising. Also, the tongue is like a cat's tongue with sharp spikes curving back towards the throat.  They're called papillae, and they help with catching prey.   

A chick pushing its head into the throat of its parent to get food may be a bit disturbing, but it's nothing compared with the videos they showed during the recap presentation that night. Someone had videos of  the semi-digested fish paste oozing out of the parent's throat and into the chick's mouth. Ick! In this photo, you can see the papillae (that's a fun word) on the parent's tongue in even more detail. 

Most of the time, the chicks seemed to be enjoying the warmth and security of a parent's belly. 

More chicks burrowing under bellies. All four of these parents have a chick under there. Fun how they're all facing the same way. 

It's not just a penguin photo, it's an Antarctica penguin photo. The setting is as important to me as the animals.  

Love this amazing glacier face combined with the penguins.

That afternoon, we moved on to a different landing site. In the photo, you can see a guide standing in a Zodiac, just below a rare bit of direct sunlight hitting the glacier face. The glacier is even larger than it looks, as he's not as close to the face as it looks like in this photo. Safety demands keeping a safe distance away from glaciers, as they could calve without warning; creating a huge wave that could capsize or swamp nearby boats. 

The glacier is breaking up into chunks because it's sliding over a large hump of rock underneath. 

This is a Weddell seal that we saw when we arrived at the next site. You can tell the difference between this and a leopard seal by the shape of the face and jaw.  The lower jaw of a leopard seal is bizarrely large and deep. The Weddell seal has the cuter whisker face. 

Funny how they look so comfortable lying on a lumpy bed of ice. They have no fear of the nearby people and boats. 

After getting a good look at this seal, and watching a Minke whale play with another Zodiac, we landed and hung out with the local penguins. 

They would often decide to squawk for a few seconds. 

I saw them point their beak to the sky quite a few times also. Maybe they're just stretching their necks. I like the water and glacier in the background. 

Coming home from fishing. 

Here's a quick video of a couple of penguins on one of the many penguin highways at the colony. Once a few penguins take the same path, the snow and ice are compacted, which makes it easier to walk there. After that, more and more take the same path until it turns into a highway they all like to take. These guys were so cute. You can hear me reminding someone to give them room (as the guides had told us to) because everyone gets so excited to see a penguin coming so close that they often end up standing right in the path of the poor confused penguin. 

Also audible in the background - the otherworldly sound of all the penguins doing their various cries, . 

We saw this whale on the way out of the bay. You can see the roiled water where another whale dove a second before. 

Links to other Antarctica posts:

First Antarctica post, including video of the epic 80 MPH storm we lived through.

Second Antarctica post, with spectacular icebergs in the sun. 

Third Antarctica post, about passing through the narrow channel called the Gullet.

Lots more penguin photos.