I spend the last week on holiday in the german Alps. My parents, brother, husband and I went to the small village of Oberstdorf from where we embarked on long hikes each day. After the many hours of hiking we rewarded ourselves with delicious bavarian food and lots of beer in one of the traditional german restaurants in town. Obviously I didn't get any of my usual training routines in but we all burned tons of calories every day and even tried to fit in some core training during our hikes as you can see in the picture.
Somehow my brother, husband, and I thought that it was a good idea to hike to the top of the highest mountain in the area on the last day of our vacation. My parents opted to stay in town when we started our 10 km (6 mile) long journey to the summit of the "Nebelhorn". Oberstdorf is situated at an elevation of 828 meters (2716 feet) and we had to climb 1396 meters (4580 feet) to the summit. We did basically follow the cable car that brings tourists up and down the mountain. The first stop of the lift is at 1280 meters (4199 feet). There's another station at 1932 meters (6338 feet) before it reaches the summit at 2224 meters (7296 feet). On the sign in Oberstdorf it said that it would take hikers 5 hours to get all the way to the top. Off we went with our semi-professional hiking gear. I was the only one wearing hiking boots while the two guys put on their regular running shoes. The first part of the ascend was a so called "Geological Teaching Path" and it was situated right next to a waterfall. It was misty and wet and we had to jump over big tree roots and climb rocks and ladders that had been installed so that one could cross the stream. This part of the hike took us up to the station at 1280 meters from where we continued to walk on a well maintained hiking path that was wide enough for cars to drive on.
You cannot see the summit of the mountain in the picture since it's to the left of the frame. The path continued to go straight for a little while before it would then wind its way up in very steep slopes.
From that point of the hike on it was nothing but up up up. We would soon be above the timberline and I fell behind my husband and brother.
It was a tiring walk but it didn't feel different from a run at first. I was sweating and my heartrate went up and as usual I was slower than the guys.
As we got higher up I started taking rests after each serpentine to catch my breath for the next slope. And then something that I had only read about to this point happened to me. I was bonking. When an endurance athlete bonks the glycogen stores in her liver and muscles are depleted. This condition causes sudden fatigue and loss of energy. That is exactly what I experienced- the key-word being "sudden". My legs started to shake and I felt the need to just sit down. By that time we were about 10 minutes away from the station where they had restaurants and shops. I knew that I couldn't just stay at the side of the road and I also knew that eating something would fuel me up again. I obviously made it to the restaurant and in record speed ingested a pretzel, an apple, two candy bars and an energy drink. Another record was the prize the mountain-restaurant charged for this snack... Before we left in the morning all I had was one bread roll and I had really underestimated the strain a hike like this would put on my body. After this much needed food break (the boys ate something as well) we continued our trip to the summit. By now we were on a rocky road that took us all the way up.
Despite our break it only took us three hours to reach the summit and the beautiful view was well worth the effort. Since we came back from our tour and descended the mountain by cable car, I have researched a little online and I found out that they do a run up the mountain every year. It took the winner just under 53 minutes to get all the way up in 2011. Now that is impressive!
