Trail Running: Schneckenreits - Kaprun, Austria

 find your personal trainer and local guide in the area of Zell am See-Kaprun

The first part of the today's run - follow me through the Sigmunds-Thun Gorge in Kaprun 
I left the gorge and I continued my solo adventure taking the path to the left, through the rain. Trail running. Emotional run. Meditative run. Run for Life, if you want. 

"Almvirtschaft Schneckenreith" is an old farmer household which I discovered back mid of April, as I firstly run this trail and I found the fascination of the area!

The picture above: Mid of April.

The picture below: Begining of June.

On the left side of the picture you can see a zig-zag path. That is the Bürgkogel.

The Bürgkogel - a hillside at the end of the valley of Kaprun - is protected by the Sigmund-Thun-Gorge. It is that hill crossed by the zig-zag path. I climbed the hill in April from the other side, as the nature just started to get green, but it was still a pretty desolated landscape. Now I see the new perspective over the hill ..... I could have descend directly to the lake. The path along the lake on the other side of the lake is the path I run today on my way back.

Chapter: "Moments of Life":

I am for the 4th time on this probably nameless mountain ..... this is how it looks from the other side of it:

It seems not so high and not so steep indeed, but it is steep. I use to run-walk until the edge of the forest, where it seems to be a choice: a small path leading to the right and one to the left, but no other indications. 

I like wide spaces, open fields - so entering the forest in this area seems pointless for me ..... this is why this here is the last point where I turn back and descent on the same trail.

I am pretty sure, the hill belongs to the farmer here, because he keeps his cows on it.

The line downhill is the road between Kitzsteinhorn and Kaprun - only 7 km long.

Before I reached the highest point of my run today it started to rain. Still sticky air, warm water falling from the sky, so I didn't felt the urge to take my rain jacket I was carrying on the backpack. I missed my sun cap .... I never go running without head protection. When is it hot, it helps me to save energy, the head, the eyes, the face need calm and the shadow of the cap offers that calm.  When it's raining, it protect me also.

 I spend some time on the hill as I didn't want to return ....

but you always go back ..... always .....

This is an electricity gate, the cows know they cannot go further. It is a manner of keep control and avoid accidents, I suppose. The cows are free everywhere, but everything is managed and controled. Anyway, I am glad to see them living free and not kept closed all day and all seasons, as I saw in Low Austria :-( terrible animal cruelty!!!

passing through for humans .... if you are overweight, you have no chance to pass through

I decided to run a bit longer through the rain, so I followed the road descending to the right and crossing the river and then running back to the gorge, but on the opposite side of the lake.

looking back to the hill I just descended

Still raining, still beautiful, still energetic and medidative in the same time ... the forest road on the other side of the lake and along the road leads through a different landscape which I enjoy every time, again and again .....

An apparently simply, but efficient Fitness Parcours is included in this segment and I stayed some longer moments in the area ..... 

I actually never do the entire parcours, I do not have enough patience for it, but I find the idea simple excellent. You get a good opportunity to real strech after a good long run and now, as I write these words, I get appettite to go out and run and stretch again .....

As my life is still on slow-motion speed ..... I ask myself sometimes, when and if I will get back my "before" shape ....

or how it will be to meet me then again ....

 Many are missleaded about seeing me "running all the time" .... as in fact I just stagnate from several points of view, but growing from inside.

I find quite interesting to watch yourself going in a direction where you just came from - take the above picture as a huge symbolistic image and ask yourself: Where am I going to? Back or forward? You get the chance to see, once again, how relative everything is. In your life and around you. For you and for everybody else. Are you going back or forward is just a matter of the stand point, right?

I reached the gorge again .... and the tranquility inside the water force .... still raining ....

Still raining and me watching over an incredible beautiful water color ending into the Kitzsteinhorn Glacier ....

On my right the handmade waterfall wall ....

I finished the trail run for today - 10 km - still having about 1300 km to run (or walk) back to my car.  I looked once again to the water under my feet .... I was there, deep inside of the gorge just about one hour before ....

I run along the gorge, not through the gorge, on the opposite side as I always did - a new trail segment through the forest.

 Lush vegetation all over the place, marvellous green nuances and a lot of life inside the wet forest!

I started trail running back in 2012. Before trail running came into my life I used to say that "running on a mountain is like a blasfemy, because you don't have the time to enjoy the mountain and everything around you. Why would you want to run on a mountain actually?!"

But I tell you something, now, after 6 years of trail runnig, race or non-race runs:

You enter new dimensions, you meet new emotions, new perspective ..... you enter something you cannot imagine it exists and this brings you to different levels and impressions!

After 2 hours and 12 km I was finally tired :-), but happy!!!!!

Sigmund-Thun-Gorge in Kaprun, Austria - by daylight

 find your personal trainer and local guide in the area of Zell am See-Kaprun

After I walked by night through the Sigmund-Thun-Gorge it was clear, I have to see it by dayligt. And today was the perfect day!! 

A hot sticky day at the feet of the Glacier of Kitzsteinhorn today ... we are just about 10 km away from the glacier and at about 30-40 km away from other glaciers, Zell am See-Kaprun is really a valley surrounded by high rocky mountains, forest high hils - over 1.500 m high - and glaciers, the biggest and most known worldwide: Kitzsteinhorn, Großglockner, Weisssee and other names I still don't know.

The perfect day for me means:

# when everybody else means: "today is bad weather", so ...

# almost anybody is on the way outside and ....

# I can enjoy the landscape undisturbed :-)

Alone through the gorge and through the rain it was quite an experience today! 

As much as 32 meters deep and running 320 meters long through the Sigmund-Thun Gorge, the Kaprun Stream has left its mark on the rocky riverbanks, smoothing some rock surfaces and etching whirlpools and deep holes into others.

The access is free of charge if you own the Summer Card, otherwise it costs 5,50 Euros. Every Friday Evening you can hike through the gorge for 10 Euros, as it is seen as a special weekly event called "Lights of The Gorge" - I saw it once and it is enough. 

Over 30 metres deep and 320 metres long cuts the Kaprun Ache its way through the Kaprun Valley. And cutting is really the right term here. Relentlessly forces the Kaprun Ache its way from the glaciers high above the Kaprun Valley toward the valley. 

Steep drops and altitude metres accelerate the speed and release the pure force of the water. Nothing will stop this force, neither rock nor stone. It is this force with which the Kaprun Ache has shaped the Sigmund Thun Gorge just outside the town of Kaprun. 

The stream has cut the gorge into the rocks, shaped distinctive smooth sections and created potholes and scours. This process continues to this day and documents the latest period of the Kaprun Valley's history of origins.

Quelle: www.zellamsee-kaprun.com

Excursion destination with the power of water - Sigmund Thun Gorge Zell am See-Kaprun Salzburger Land

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"Roaring and powerful rushes the torrent toward us"

This is what Count Sigmund von Thun, a historically important governor of Salzburg, said originally. The sight of the gorge made him say these words, and he was right. 

The mass of water in the Sigmund Thun Gorge reaches powerful dimensions especially during the thawing period in spring. A fabulous water world opens its gates to visitors, families and fans of real natural spectacles once the winter closure of the gorge is over. 

You explore the gorge and immerse yourself in the history of origins of this natural spectacle on specially created boardwalks and bridges. 

Around 14.000 years ago, the Kaprun Valley was covered by a mighty glacier. Moving slowly down toward the valley, the glacier worked the hard limestone rocks of the Maiskogel and the Bürgkogel.

As the glacier melted it left a valley cut through which the Kaprun Ache run down toward the valley while shaping today's Sigmund Thun Gorge.

First settlers used this save place about 4.000 years ago. They came into the area because of the rich copper deposits. The hilltop site was used with interruption for a long period. 

From the Celtic time an earthwork exist. From the late antiquity ramparts were excavated. In the middle Ages a fortress was build. It was a previous building to the Castle of Kaprun. Afterwards the hill was an agriculture site. The gorge was also used to raft wood. Signs and figures hewed into the rocks are from this period.

Beside the agriculture the wooden wealth of the valley was important. Hence, the Sigumund Thun gorge was already used during the past centuries to the raft. In the gorge rock hewed signs and annual figures point to the work of the wooden farm-hands.

Everytime I go alone close to large amounts of water, such as big rivers or waterfalls, I feel a deep huge fear inside me. It is a sort of emotion that comes instantly and I need really a lot of courage and determination to ignore it. I remember about many situations ..... alone in the wildness hearing the terrible sound of falling waters .... 

It is like I loose the control because I cannot hear anything .... just the noise of falling water. This noise means a terrible force which put me in danger, this is the connection I probably do ..... and it have to has a deep reason .... but I never thought about it (!!)

It happend in summer 2001 as I came for the first time to the Alps and I lost the way by bike somewhere inside a gorge between Germany and Austria! I suddenly was in front of a huge, huge and high waterfall ..... I felt the stomach tremblend and I tried to keep calm, but finaly I started to run along the bike to get out from that area .... although it was gorgeous beautiful!

It happened in the Himalyas, in the second day in Namche Bazaar as I trekked alone, in December, for the acclimatisation and then again one week later, trekking alone to Gokyo Lakes in the higher Himalayas ..... wow .... I remember every single emotion and noise and sound and feeling ......

I sometimes decided to interrupt a trail and to return on the same path just in order to get away from that natural force of the falling waters ..... so, it is not a joke, it is something I carry inside since I remember  ..... and today it was pretty challenging, but ....

I forced the emotions and I did so, as I am not afraid at all! I reached the other end of the gorge taking pictures and then I decided to go back the 320 m and to walk again the entire trail filming every step!!! And it was a real emotional challenge, but .... I did it!!! (see the video above!)

On the other side of the gorge there is a handmade waterfall wall which I firstly saw two months ago 

I left the gorge and I continued my solo adventure taking the path to the left, through the rain. Trail running. Emotional run. Meditative run. Run for Life, if you want. 

Follow this link to see the second part of the today's Journey.
A similar, but yet very different trail I did last June in Low Austria (The Grand Canyon of Low Austria) and some years ago on Malta Island and Teneriffa.