Austria trip, week 2: Ebbs, Kufstein, and hiking in the Kaisergebirge Robert & Courtney Schafer June 2005 Click here to return to the main page After the choral festival in Innsbruck, Robert's parents flew back to Australia and we stayed with Robert's mother's cousin in Ebbs, a small village near the town of Kufstein. We actually got to stay in a really cute little cabin on their property, and Resi and her partner Helmut treated us like royalty while we were there, cooking us terrific meals and letting us use their hiking and climbing gear. Ebbs is right next to a range of the Alps called the Kaisergebirge, and we did several really nice hikes in this area as well as sightseeing in Kufstein and the surrounding area. Ebbs is the town where Robert's mother was born and grew up, and so we got to meet a lot of Robert's relatives, which was really neat.

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Robert and Resi in front of the cabin where we stayed in Ebbs	Rock cliffs of the Zahmer Kaiser, next to Ebbs	Inside the cabin	Robert gets ready for hiking	The city of Kufstein
Robert in the passage up to the Festung (fortress) Kufstein	Festung Kufstein	The very deep fortress well	A thick wall looms over one of the ubiquitous Austrian benches	The tower where noble prisoners were kept
Kufstein street scene	The Zahmer Kaiser provides a scenic backdrop to the village of Ebbs	Even tiny villages like Ebbs have amazing churches	The church organ	How's this for a local little church?
Morning sun as we start towards Pyramidenspitze	Abundant alpine wildflowers	Courtney on the trail toward Pyramidenspitze	A curious chamois checks us out	Just think - this is the Zahmer ("Tame") Kaiser!
Fixed cables provide protection for scrambling up the rock wall toward the peak	Courtney on the trail up the ridge	Courtney negotiates a set of iron rungs on the klettersteig	View from the Pyramidenspitze summit	The jagged skyline of the Wilder Kaiser is visible from the Pyramidenspitze summit
Looking down at the valley we came from	Robert and Courtney at the Pyramidenspitze summit cross	Looking down to Durchholzen, over 4000 feet below	Robert starts back down the klettersteig	View from below of the klettersteig route, which negotiates the cliffs in the center of the picture
Robert takes a break	Lovely little alpine flowers	My favorite flowers - spring gentian	Every Austrian cafe has a very large dessert menu	Robert enjoys the scenery on the bike path between Ebbs and Kufstein
The blue waters of Walchsee	Cloud fills the gap of Ellmauer Tor, in the Wilder Kaiser	A rugged ridge beckons	View into the valley beyond the Stripsenjoch saddle	Robert at the Stripsenjoch hut, after some tasty apple strudel and germknödel
Courtney ascends the Eggersteig route in the mist	Robert watches mist swirl in the valley far below	Approaching Ellmauer Tor on the Eggersteig route	Hikers cross the snowfield on Ellmauer Tor	Courtney on Ellmauer Tor; the Eggersteig route descends the gap below
Steep cliffs and spires	Descending back to the valley	Cliffs wet with rain and mist	Robert next to a short snow crossing	Courtney and Robert on the Eggersteig
The Wilder Kaiser	One of Resi's cats napping in the sun