Almenland Teichalm Sommeralm

So here we are, back in Styria again. The Oldies realise now that I’m not prepared to just sit around on my window sill anymore, so I was brought along on an outing to the Sommeralm/Teichalm area, just 30km north of Graz. This is one of the largest continuous alpine pasture areas in Europe, very popular with hill walkers, climbers, paragliders, and of course, alpine and cross-country skiers. The Oldies are very lucky to have all this on their doorstep. In winter, the schools in their town regularly pop up here with the kids for a morning’s skiing and snowboarding. Sure beats what Her Ladyship says she did for outdoor exercise when she was in school: walking around the school grounds reciting the rosary.

I must say that it is rather a shock to the system to be at this altitude (1,400m+), having been at sea level all last week. The views are fantastic though.

The cattle seem to be very happy up here and are quite a friendly lot.

Her Ladyship, who, in her younger days (i.e. way back in the last century) did a fair bit of hill walking in Ireland, calls the Austrian version ‘hill walking for softies’. She delights in describing the hardships of her Irish hiking experiences: being laden down with stacks of food, flasks of tea and heaps of raingear, trying to follow inaccurate maps and non-existent paths, sinking thigh-deep into bogs, sitting in snow on an exposed mountain top eating half-frozen sandwiches, getting soaked umpteen times without any hope of finding shelter…

Hiking in Austria is a dream in comparison: well-trodden and well-marked paths, giving both distance and estimated walking times at regular intervals; benches at strategic points along the way to rest on and admire the views; restaurants and mountain huts everywhere, even at high altitudes, so hot food and cold beers are never far away. On some peaks where there are no serviced huts, there are emergency shelters, complete with benches, blankets, beer, a selection of soft drinks and a box marked with a polite note asking you to leave a contribution for what you have consumed. ‘Far too cushy!’ sniffs Her Ladyship, ‘You Austrians are a shower of wimps!’. Although I suspect that, underneath it all, she is quite happy to participate in deluxe hill-walking these days.

His Lordship is quick to point out that hiking in Austria is not without its dangers. He recounts the story of how, many years previously on this very Alm, he nearly got wiped out by a low flying cow.

He was traversing a steep slope (ok, what other type of slope is there in Austria?), when, suddenly, he heard a bovine bellow above him. He looked up, saw that a cow higher up the hill had lost her footing and watched in horror as she slid on her back at quite considerable speed towards him. Luckily, the cow missed him by a couple of feet, sliding on down the slope until she eventually hit a more level patch of ground. She slowly staggered to her feet, then meandered off as if nothing had happened. His Lordship, on the contrary, was more than a little shaken by this terrifying experience.

Luckily, there was a mountain hut – and a nerve-steadying beer – close at hand.