It’s been grey and overcast here for a while. Last Saturday I simply couldn’t take it anymore. Something had to be done! So I put on my hiking boots, and went up a mountain. If the sun didn’t come to me, I would just have to go and find the sun!

The Brünnstein is a not-terribly-high mountain nearby, peaking at 1634m. I picked it because a) I hadn’t been there before, and b) the relevant apps offered a tour that looked like what I wanted.

When I parked the car at the trailhead, everything was still depressively grey. Not so much weather, more like an absence of weather. The path soon led me into the forest, and took on a substantial grade.

what happens here?

There was still a lot of snow on the ground, and I was happy to have my trekking poles. The forest felt a little mysterious. Finally, I approached the upper edge of the fog that’s been plagueing us for weeks:

Hiking into the sunlight was magical. The rays on my face felt great after such a long time. And the view above the clouds was beautiful:

There are two routes to the summit. One is a very easy via ferrata. I had brought a band sling and a couple of carabiners, so I could improvise a climbing harness. But I’m not a very experienced mountaineer, and all that snow on the ground didn’t inspire confidence.

So I decided to save the via ferrata for spring, and took the easier – if slightly longer – path to the summit. This turned out to also be something of a climb. Not really dangerous or difficult, but interesting enough that the local hiking club had fixed a bunch of substantial steel cables to the rocks, so climbers could secure themselves.

Arriving at the summit was just perfect. I mean, look at this view!

The mountain has two peaks. The one that’s visited most is what you see in the picture, just by the little chapel. The actual, slightly higher peak (by maybe 2 meters, if that) is a little away over a ridge. I dithered whether I should risk the snow-covered, narrow ridge. In the end I decided that I would be really annoyed with myself if I didn’t. So I went, and it was fine!

I went home the way I had come. Only much happier. Mountains are good for the soul.