The walk up to the Jaufenpass, our next target, was going to take us up 800m along a roughly 4km ridge, then up another 300m before plunging us back into civilisation.

The walk, which looked promising on paper in terms of potential views, involved ignoring signs for the Panoramaweg which wanted to take us through the valley to the left of the ridge we wanted to walk along. The reason for this became clear around half an hour into our ascent. We had expected the way to be steep – we had to climb some 800 metres in not much horizontal distance. The path achieved this by including stretches that were almost vertical. The path wound its way up but sometimes needn't have bothered. Walking sideways along a vertical slope is not much easier than walking straight up said slope. This was the toughest ascent we had yet encountered – it was a good thing that we had stayed at the camp site the night before, giving us the whole day to make it up to the top. In fact, we had planned to make it to the ridge then walk back down to a village half way along in order to be a bit lower when we camped (and therefore a bit warmer). I really didn't want to walk back down ¾ of the height we had walked up to get to the ridge and have to do it all over again the next day. In the end, we didn't need to, but more of that later.

Lunching after two hours of really hard slog, I was concerned. It felt like the top of the mountain would never come. We couldn't see it and were taking a long time to get anywhere. Would our two days worth of food be enough? We pressed on, with bags so laden down that at one point, when I slipped and ended up crouching on the back of my legs, I was unable to get up. Equally, I couldn't turn over to get up with my hands and knees or lean backwards or forwards due to the angle of the slope. Luckily JP was able to help me up else I might still be there!

Some way up, we reached our first mountain meadow. It was a lovely sight – JP called it the loveliest place we never camped. It was perfect but we hadn't walked nearly far enough. At this point, the slope having decided that its angle was not going to put us off, the vegetation decided to try to convince us that we had taken a drastically wrong turning and were somewhere in the Amazon rainforest. OK, so I've never actually been to the Amazon rain forest (ask me again in five years time) and I doubt you get the sound of cow bells in the distance but clearly we were walking a part that had not been walked for a while, perhaps since last year – and was more like jungle, with something related to lilly pads covering the floor.

I was beginning to wonder what else could be thrown at us – were we about to have to wrestle a bear or would the Sphinx arrive, demanding the answer to a riddle before we would be allowed to reach the top of this flippin' ridge and its apparently promised lovely views? The part we now know was nearly at the top was particularly tiring as it would go flat just long enough for us to think that we might have reached the ridge and then would hurl itself upwards before us again. The thick wood ahead of us continually prevented us from seeing how far there was to go. And then, there it was. We burst through some more Christmas trees (they are everywhere here) and saw, no, not an amazing view, but a tiny sign which, after close inspection, informed us that we had reached the Gostjöchl – at 1799 metres, this was, more importantly, almost the highest point we would pass. J-P, who is 'funny' apparently, asked if I could jump a metre to make the figure round. This blog requires me to have made a witty reply, and believe me, I'm still trying to think of one but instead I gaped and him and then demanded to know where the views were. All I could see were trees and a lot of ants. It became clear, however, that we had hit the ridge proper and as the trees cleared, we could see snow capped mountains all around us. The views were every bit as stunning as the map had suggested and the hard slog turned out to have been completely worth it. Bizarrely, the ridge appeared to be trying to emulate Scotland – wide rolling meadows with heather everywhere. We didn't meet a soul all day and were so far from the bottom that it was almost silent. Thorough atheist that I am, I had to allow that if there is a god, s/he/it has very refined taste. If you had these

wouldn't you want to put them everywhere? I don't think I would have been as restrained as nature but the effect was stunning. No wonder this is a hugely popular walk during the summer months – it's just a mystery that we were the only ones up there at the time. The Austrians/Italians seem to stick to their season timetables (where summer starts at the end of June) very strictly. This may be sensible as the weather on the day of writing this blog post is foul and not one for walking.

Anyway, we bumbled along very happily from this point, exploring a hut and generally staring around us. The question of where we were going to sleep – being at the top meant it would be cold and there would be precious little protection from any wind – was luckily solved for us when we stumbled across another hut that had not been locked. It appeared to be some sort of summer eatery that had been badly treated by whoever had been there before us. Some floor boards had been ripped up and the toilet smashed. However, it suited our purposes and we slept on the floor indoors having had a very relaxing evening – the sun took ages to go down (well, we were 2 km up!) and were ready for bed much earlier than usual as there was little set up to be done). I spent part of the evening persevering with Catch 22. I brought it with me from Norfolk as J-P has two copies (and Annie another) so I figured one wouldn't be missed. I've heard about this 'classic' and knew about the catch but not much else. So far I am not sure what I make of it. The style of writing is extremely funny at times but I'm not sure there's a plot – I'm some 170 pages in and I'm still trying to work out where it's going. It appears to be more a collection of events with a lot of characters to keep track of. Lovers of the book, fear not, I shall keep trying but for now, all it gets from me is a 'hmm...'.