16^Nov Sat
09:00

CARPOOL

Schedule: Hike starts at 9am. Cars should leave Munich at about 06h30 am.

Drivers: add your car in carpool and put meeting point and time for it.

Passengers: Click on Carpool button. Read carefully all information about the car you join, check if there are any specific instructions. All the costs for the trip will be shared with people in the same car. Meeting point is decided by the driver, this information is in the "Carpool" button.

Hike Description

The Gottesacker and the Hoher Ifen offer a unique geological and botanical attraction in Europe. Even the Romans took their army from the long, striking rock faces, on their way across the Alps. The rock is made of Schrattenkalk, formed 120 million years ago, in the shallow waters of the Thetis, a primeval sea when all continents were still close together. Between the rock walls lie on both sides flat valleys. The name refers to the moonscape-like look of the plateau. A desert rock landscape with cracks, mysterious caves, deep holes such as the famous Hölloch, one of the largest and most demanding caves in Germany and rare mountain plants in this protected area. The Gottesacker Plateau is so wide, possible routes are so many, the crevices and crags obstruct the view so that you barely meet any other  party. Beyond the little valley you can see the giant step of the Upper Gottesackerwände, which are scaled on their eastern side where the view over the plateau are awesome. All scramble up the crags and down the crevices, you are forced to do many detours.

From here we can see the next target, the Hoher Ifen (2,230m). We can climb to its summit using fixed cables. The summit is a tilted plateau surrounded by a limestone rock face of differing height. Like a Table Mountain Hoher Ifen towers above the Kleinwalsertal valley. There are much higher mountains in Allgäu but its particular shape makes it really special.

The view is magnificent! From this balcony we can see the Gottesacker Plateau and further in the distance is the Bregenz Forest, the Rätikon mountain range and Lake Constance and on the other side the Lech range and many beautiful Allgäu mountains complete the panorama. From here we go down on the other side of Hohen Ifen till we reach through a ring tour the Auenhutte for a very well deserved refreshment with food and beer or we can stop in Oberstdorf for dinner! :)

Here a video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QBvJsdur05s 

The total hike lenght would be about 15 km ( almost 1200 m altitude gain) and most of them, if not all, will be in the snow. Estimated hiking time 8 hours. This hike is not for beginners and there will be a certain amount of snow so that people should have had previous experience already with hiking in winter conditions. I will update about conditions along the week by the way according to weather developments anyway.

I am not a professional guide. Everyone is responsible for him/herself.