Calanda Huette / Haldenstein Calanda

This is the first large group hike I organised. I knew that some of the participants were able to hike on steep terrain for long distances, while some of the others only had limited capacity. There were also a lot of constraints on the dates. So I ended up selecting Calanda Hut as the interim goal. The idea was for the weakest people to go up to Vazer Alp by taxi, and then walk to the hut by themselves. They should still be able to descent with us from the hut the next day. The stronger people could walk to the hut: we had, after all, plenty of time. I was planning for 6 hours, with a margin of 2 hours for dinner time.

 

In the end, the weakest members refused to take a taxi, even though I repeatedly told them that they should probably take one. However, after about 20 minutes, they decided to go back and take a taxi. Normally we should have pre-arranged it, but we were lucky and there was something available. Out of 9, 6 of us made the way to the hut.

 

We took the middle path, which has moderate steepness and is in the shade, which was nice given the unseasonably warm weather. One member of the group refused to remove extra layers of clothes, even with the heat. I had taken a bit of extra water, which came in handy. I tried to have plenty of breaks, and we made it in 5 hours. We met the rest at the hut: the taxi apparently raced all the way there, so they didn't walk at all after they went back to Haldenstein.

 

Next morning, after sleeping partially, 3 of the group decided to try for the peak. We made it all the way to the start of the ridge walk at 2600m, which was mostly a slog through an even path in grass and sleet. However, they started feeling shakey about a peak. It is true that the SE side is steep, but the path is mainly on the smoother NW side. However, those which I felt had been the strongest hikers in the group turned out to not have a good head for heights. The 3rd one thought he might try, so I told him to follow me, and if he felt like turning back, no problem. In the end, he managed it quite well and found the rocky bits more fun. There was only a couple of steps to descend, and the rest was basically walking in mildly exposed grounds. All in all, this is a classic T3 hike, even though for some reason there are white-blue-white marks on the last part of the path near the peak.

 

Upon reaching the peak, clouds had formed on the SE side, but our view to the previously hidden NW side was unimpeded.

 

We slogged down the way we came (obviously not going through the alternative T4 path). After a quick lunch, we all went down the least steep path. I gave my poles to the weakest member, trying to coach him on their use a little bit, and he seemed to be doing fine. At some point I got distracted and we ended up on the steepest path down, but fortunately the group stayed together. This time I had a lot of short breaks than fewer long ones, and the group remained happy and in conversation in pairs or larger groups all the way down. There was a minor ankle sprain, and some foot blisters, toes and knee pains, but nothing major. But perhaps I should size up my boots a little bit..