The plan for the first part of the day was to
catch the double cable car from next door to the hotel up to the top of the
Penken hill and then walk along the ridge to Wangelspitze. This we achieved. The
cable car ride was fun especially as it hangs up so high off the ground. The
walk however was a big disappointment because the hill has been ravaged for the
skiiers.
Question: why is skiing like golf.
Answer: they are both a good walk spoilt
(although not in the same way)
I'd been expecting this as far as the top of
the ski lift from Finkenberg but I'd not foreseen the damage being done to
Wanglespitze. The problem is that they are putting in a new ski lift and much
the hill is a building; unfortunately this includes the summit. A great
shame this as the one unspoilt section is really lovely hinting at what has been
thrown away. A reminder of the old John Denver song; "they tried to tear
the mountains down and bring in a couple more/More people, more scars upon the
land"
We carried on to the far side of Wangelspitze
but were so dispirited that we dropped plans to continue along the ridge.
Instead I found a nice path that contoured back around the building site and we
returned to the Finkenberg chair lift.
This was plan B. To walk back from Finkenberg
down its gorge to Mayrhofen. This was nearly spoilt by rain but this proved
short lived. It happened whilst we were at the Devils Bridge, a typical covered
Tyrolean bridge across the gorge. It was a good spot to shelter.
The walk back was lovely although the gorge
was too deep for good photos. In many ways the path was very like an English one
(if you didn't pay to much attention to the buildings!!)