Internet Resources

This post will discuss some of the Internet resources I have used so far and I will share some of the questions that I wrote to the huts (and their corresponding answers).

Once I zeroed in Stubai Hightrail as the place for our next trek I began to comb Google for resources about the trail to begin my planning. I quickly found two excellent websites.

The first is Stubai.at, a site I believe is run by the Stubai and/or Tyrol tourism board(s). It has excellent info about the valley and great downloads, including the below posted summer 3d drawing of the valley. It has an English section and a good hotel listing. The site does have info about the high trail (including a listing of the huts and descriptions of the walks between them) but will direct you to the next website for detailed info.

The second and best resource I have found so far has been http://www.stubaier-hoehenweg.at/ The website is German only but it is manageable with a slight understanding and looking at the words in the context of a trekking page. If you wish to translate it to English follow this link to a Google Translate version of the page in English. Stubaier-Hohenweg.at has excellent info about the trail itself, access, what to bring, when to go and the huts themselves. This pdf file is the single most valuable tooI I have found and I have been told the walking times on it are realistic. The trail overlaid on a photo of the valley really helps to visualize the topography between huts.

I then made a list of questions to ask the huts themselves. I have listed those below along with the paraphrased answers in italics.

Q) If I want to avoid snow (to the point that passage is difficult or dangerous) can I come in both July and August or should I wait until September?.

A) Snow should be discussed in two categories: snow fall during your hike and accumulated or winter snow that has yet to melt. The first can occur at any time of year in the mountains. The second is the one to be concerned about. Winter snow is almost all gone by mid July and even more so by the start of August. Based on answers these comments seem to also hold true for two of the higher peaks (that I might try to bag), the Habicht and Gamsspitzl. Interesting Note: the highest pass, the 2902m Grosser Trogler, is clear almost all summer as it is exposed to a lot of sun.

Q) How are the crowds in July and August? Is one moth busier than another? Are there any local festivals or events that would make a certain week a good (or bad) time to plan a trek.

A) The huts are busiest from mid July until the beginning of September. None of the huts suggested any local festivals or events to help make a week selection.

Q) I am planning to hike between Dresdner Hütte and Innsbruck Hütte. Is there a better direction to hike.

A) None of the huts suggested that one way or the other was more enjoyable. It was however noted that it would be easier to hike from Dresdner Hütte and Innsbrucker Hütte for two reasons. 1) the longest single leg in the Höhenweg is between Innsbrucker Hütte and Bremer Hütte. If starting from Innsbrucker Hütte this will be tackled on the second day. 2) Should you wish for a gentle start, and wish to avoid a day of total ascending, starting at Dresdner Hütte offers a cable car ride up from Mutterbergalm.

In the next post I will discuss a planning tool that is dear to my heart – the map.

Afraid Your Trip Won't Actually Happen? Just Buy Airplane Tickets

Well its official and the no refund policies of airlines have made it so; we are off to Austria this August!

I bought our tickets this week and confirmed accommodation with all huts so the trek part of our trip is mostly complete.

On this note I thought it might be good idea to share the flight planning experience. The combination of rising fuel costs (not new news, but I haven't flown much in the past few years) and traveling to Europe in the peak Season have made this airfare a larger portion of this type of a trip’s budget than before.

We will be flying to London (Gatwick) on Air Transat and then from London to Innsbruck on Easyjet. This seemed to be the cheapest way to get to Innsbruck, at least from Toronto. I did find a slightly cheaper trans-Atlantic flight on Sunwing but they did not get great reviews as an airline. We will take advantage of the London transfer point to spend 4 days in London at the end of the trip. I have been to London but not for many years and it will be a first time for my wife.

Planning Tools

For trip planning the route I used Expedia (always a good tool even if you buy with another source) and found that Wikipedia was useful for determining which airports provided connecting flights to which cities, and by which airlines. Here is a link the Innsbruck airport page on Wikipedia. I looked into various airports since I have found that Europe offers the chance to fly to another local airport (say for example Graz) and then train to your target city for less than flying direct. This tactic did not work in this case.

Discount Airlines and Using Buffalo's Airport

Remember to consider some of the discount airlines in Europe (not typically listed on Expedia) as options for moving around Europe. An example of this would be a recent search of Toronto to Innsbruck on Expedia for our travel dates. The result was (excluding flights with two stops) a cost for one stop flights starting at $1788 per person! Compare this to a flight from Toronto to London (available from Expedia) and then from London to Innsbruck (booked online with Easyjet) for only $1160 per person! In case those of you from the GTA were wondering, I also looked into the Buffalo thing (and before considering the extra costs of gas and parking) it was not even close to being a cheaper option..... at least not for this destination.

Direct Flights to Innsbruck? No Luck if You Live in N.A.

Assuming you want to fly direct to Innsbruck, check out the Destinations section of the Innsbruck airport for who flies into this airport and where those flight come from. This is useful for any future travel as you see all your options based on destination. For example you can see that Air Berlin flies to Innsbruck from Berlin, so that could be your first stop from Toronto. This is where I got the idea to look into Eaayjet from London as London is often the cheapest place in Europe to fly to from Toronto. One final note on direct flights to Innsbruck (the closest major airport to the Stubai Valley): according to Wikipedia, no airlines fly from N.A. direct to Innsbruck so (for us North Americans) plan for a connecting flight. If you know of one (even seasonal) then please post a response.