2022 Austria Day 10: Krimml Waterfalls, Hintetux Glacier

17 Sep 2022: Day 10

I had been anticipating for the arrival of this day as I was going for the hike to the Olperel Hut with a suspension bridge that overlooks the valley and turquoise Schlegeisspeicher down below. Unfortunately the weather continued to be bad and it even started to snow. 

We started the day with visiting Krimml Waterfalls. It thundered forcefully over four major drops on the Krimmler Ache. These waterfalls combined for a grand total of 381m in cumulative height, which also happened to be one of the tallest year-round waterfalls throughout Europe as well as reportedly Austria’s tallest. The first viewpoint is accessible via a 15-minute walk, another half an hour to middle. If f you want to walk all the way to the summit of the falls, it will take 2-2.5 hours to complete the 380 meters (1,250 feet) hiking trail, and then you’ll need to climb back down so factor in a 5-hour round trip. As it was raining, also we wanted to save more time for the hike to the Olperel Hut, we did not climb up to the summit.

We did not feel good when we were driving to the starting point of Olperel Hut hike. The weather turned really bad and we were worried that we could not do the hike, and even we could, the view would not be spectacular. We were blocked by traffic police as we were entering into Olperel. The road and including the trail were closed due to bad weather. With great disappointment, we asked them for alternative sightseeing places for visiting and they recommended Hintertux Glacier where we got to see snow. 

It was already snowing lightly on the ground. As we took cable car up to the summit, we got to see more snow covering the surrounding the mountains. We were very excited as it was our first time to see snowfall.

We got some warmth in a cozy bar after we got back down. The bar is called Hohenhaus Tenne Hintertux. To be honest we were attracted by its ambience rather than the food.

We drove to Innsbruck and wanted to check into Hotel Goldene Krone. To my surprised I was told they did not have my booking. Later I realized I wrongly booked another hotel with the same name in Germany. At this last minute it was really difficult to find another accommodation within our budget. Out of no choice, we decided to stay outside of the city at Kolsassberg, which is about 30-40min driving distance. We stayed in a spacious and quiet apartment, but its location was not easy to find especially at night when there was no light and the road was very narrow.