Lünersee

Last weekend, Joey and I did a weekend getaway (friday till sunday) at the scenic Lünersee in Austria. From the place where we stayed in germany, it took us around 3.5 hours to reach the place. Coming from germany, we had to buy an "entrance sticker" for our car, which cost 9.90€ for 10 days (nope, they don't have anything lesser) that allowed us to drive into Austria. Guess we didn't get to utilize it with our 3-day stay. 

We stayed at a cosy hut called Schattenlaganthütte which was privately owned and run by an austrian couple. Think we spent overall about 50€ per person per night. The only hassle was that this hut is situated below the cable car and a few KM away from Lünersee  itself. And the ticket of the cable car wasn't cheap - 21.50€ for to and return. What bothered me the most was the cable car stopped at 5pm. So the next time I would prefer staying "up" the mountain - ideally at Totalphütte.

After a day of driving around scenic routes and taking pictures, we decided to challenge ourselves with the toughest trail at Lünersee - a 10,5km hike and over 1300m elevation to Schesaplana, peaking at 2964m above sea level, the highest peak around Lünersee.

scenic view of Lünersee with mountain ranges at the back. Swimming not allowed but fishing yes.

All the trails at Lünersee are clearly marked (same as many other hiking trails in europe). What I find useful is that the signboards also indicates the difficulty and duration of the hike. Also, one can't really get lost as the internet connection was surprisingly stable despite the elevation - shame on you, Germany!

The trail to Schesaplana was at the start of the hike pleasant. As we ascended higher and higher (luckily we did not experience any altitude sickness), the trail started to become snowy. We managed to hiked up to Totalphütte without any hiking sticks and gloves but had to stopped there as the snow were too much for us to handle.

Totalphütte (2385m)

Even the snow almost reached my knee level at Totalphütte (2385m). 

We were told by the lady working at Totalphütte that it would take us another 2 hours of hike to reach Schesaplana. Upon hearing this we decided not to continue because 1. it was lunchtime and we were hangry  hungry 2. even if we managed to hike up to Schesaplana, we wouldn't been able to catch the last cable car on our way back.

that knee-level snow

Despite that, it was still a memorable hike. One that would definitely wanna do it again - this time with more planning and preparation to hike up Schesaplana. Maybe in 2024. Stay tuned!