Chiemgau Alps: Hochgern hike - Dec 19

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The last weekend we spent with friends in Traunstein. We decided to go for a hike on our way back on Sunday. Hochgern is on the way, a hut opened all year. Good for starting the winter hikes again.

The starting point is in Markquartstein, there is big parking lot where the forest starts. Estimating time for Hochgern is 3 hours 15 minutes. We wanted to make it quicker and possibly to do a round tour. As it snowed in the last 2 days, we were not certain about the conditions up there.

The hike start on the forest road. We later changed to a regular access road. There are few shortcuts you can do, so not walking on the access road too much. We followed some trails. They look nice for bikes (S1), we will explore this area with bikes the next year. It is now too cold. Although we have met few bikers today.

The snow started above 1000 m.a.s.l. The road was covered by ice as well. We did not need crampons though, walkable all the way up to Hochgern. There is much more snow below the Hochgern hut but as so many hikers go to the hut, the path was clear. Danka was glad that winter started again with snow all around us. It started to be more challenging after the hut. There was 15-20 cm of snow, plus wind helped to cover your tracks and made our faces beaten by hard snow flakes.

We reached it after 2:10 hours. Our pace was good. As we turned around at the summit, the trail was covered by snow again, that was quick. We descended back to the hut where we stopped for a quick break. Due to the snow and time, we decided to abandon our proposed round hike, and returned the same way down.

It was just below 4 hours once we reached the parking lot. Much faster than we expected.