loading . . . A lazy morning turned into a perfect winter hike Last week I had a day for myself. Yet, after a busy week I was just very lazy. Not just physically but also mentally. I simply didn’t want to decide about what I really wanted. The weather here is a bit “difficult” currently. There’s snow higher up, but it’s rather warm and especially most south flanks are free of snow (except some shaded areas). So even if you get into the snow it often doesn’t provide a beautiful winter-panorama. And … usually you have to cross some icy, wet-snow area first. I had some tours in mind, but all of them would have lead me into wet snowy areas. Even with snowshoes, wet snow can be quite a pain. Whever some of the snow falls onto your showes, they get heavy — really heavy.
But okay, **I also knew that I wanted to get out**. And finally a route came to my mind that I wanted to scout since a couple of months. A new forest road was built as a replacement for a quite steep one. It is also south faced, so it should be free of snow, and as I procrastinated until late morning, it was okay to aim for a hike no more than around 4h. That said I drove to the trail head — leaving also my snow shows at home. I didn’t expect needing them. Especially as I recently got a glimps to the respective mountain and saw a lot of brown-grass-like meadows. Just okay, less weight on my back!
## Mission accomplished!
Arriving there, I was a bit surprised to see that even in the valley there were a good 30cm of wet snow on the ground — and on half of the parking space. Yes, only half of the car park had been cleared of snow (meaning just about 10 parking spots being available). Luckily, I found a last little spot. Not sure if it was a real parking spot but I didn’t block anyone, so who cares.
The amount of snow around made me already question my decision to leave the snowshoes at home. But I had to live with that choice now. So I just headed off and walked the first ~4km and 400m elevation along this new forest road. Luckily I found the conditions as expected: just a bit of snow and sometimes ice. But not even enough to unpack my microspikes. Thus, my first mission of exploring this new road was accomplisehd after about 1h 15m. And — as expected — the views there were so underwhelming that I didn’t take a photo worth sharing. But that wasn’t my intent anyways.
## What now?
The next choice had to be made. At a junktion I had to choose between three different routes to continue (or go back). All of them started to be covered in rather deep snow now. I decided to follow the most southern way as I knew it would lead to a viewpoint and also as I saw a clear trail ahead so that I didn’t have to walk through deep snow. I was really really happy that several people had taken that route before. Otherwise I would have really missed the snowshoes! After watching a woodpecker doing his job for a while and enjoying the silence of the walk, I finally approached the viewpoint after a total of almost 2h.
Actually I wanted to go just that far, have a rest and return. But when I came there, I found already some people there which had the same idea, obviously. Hm. I didn’t even spend a lot of thoughts and continued further up. The hillside was party free of snow so I could have a rest higher up and also see how far I could go in the snow. And … then I saw two other hikers ahead and thought … let’s see how far THEY go.
## To The Summit?
And after a short bend in the shade and through snow, the trail went back to a south flanking steep section. I knew about that section before already as I had been there a couple of times. And it was pretty clear to me to cancel at this point if there would have been snow. A short section of the trail leads along a quite steep fall-off. Definitely dangerous if covered in snow! But I was lucky! Due to the sun, all the snow had melted and I felt absolutely save to continue. The sun had been strong enough so that the heather started blooming already! This was really a pleasant surprise! Even though I like winter hiking and despite not having had a snowshoe tour this season, I was happy to see the firt signs of spring along the way.
And finally, after not even 20min, I reached the summit — and also the other two hikers that I had seen before. I enjoyed the view for a while, had a quick chat with the guys about the path they chose and finally decided to go back down again after I had a small snack. The way down was unspectacular. Back at the viewpoint another couple took a rest and I had another small chat about our activities in the area.
Well, what goes up must come down again. And so I went almost the same way back that I had come up. On the photo you see the depth of the snow and the trail that I followed. Again, happy that I wasn’t the first one to walk it. And — after all — I also was glad that I left my snowshoes at home. Yes I could have made some use of them. But would it have been worth carrying them all the way up there? I doubt it. If I had gone one of the other trails at the junction mentioned before: then yes, for sure. But for that day, I was happy with all decisions I made!
## What a great Day It Was!
After a total of about 4:15h I returned back to the car. Happy about my decisions, happy about all that I had seen today and that I went even up to the summit! I admit: it turned out WAYS better than I had anticipated and I’m curious to come back again in spring or summer with my MTB to drive the forest road 🙂 But this will be another adventure .. so stay tuned. https://www.franzgraf.de/blog/2026/a-lazy-morning-turned-into-a-perfect-winter-hike/
