»High & Holy«: Nine days of hiking over 11,000 meters in altitude

“We had to take a break after the first seven stages because of the severe storms in southern Austria, but we returned to the route in Matrei on the Monday after and finished the last two sections,” reports Franz Gasselsberger: about the Matreitörl to Kals and from there on to the well-known Glockner village of Heiligenblut.

The Oberbank boss’s hiking holiday began on the Dolomite High Trail, which, with its rugged rock faces, often requires you to wear a helmet and via ferrata set. “It was very hot at the time, so for tours in the Dolomites we can only recommend carrying enough water and electrolyte drinks with you,” says Gasselsberger. The hospitality in the huts and in the valley towns was just as overwhelming as it was a little later in East Tyrol.

The Gasselsberger couple started the newly designed pilgrimage route “Hoch & Heilig” in Lavant with a rather leisurely stage to St. Korbinian, the second day’s march led to the Carinthian pilgrimage town of Luggau. At 25.3 kilometers, the third stage is the longest of the entire long-distance trail and leads to St. Oswald, a mountain village with just 150 inhabitants. From there we went on to Innichen on the fourth day and on the fifth to the Maria Schnee pilgrimage church in Kalkstein. Via St. Jakob in Defereggental on the sixth day, the route continued over the Lasörling group with a view of countless three-thousanders to Obermauern. “We’ve been to mountains all over the world together, but since the pandemic we’ve appreciated the local peaks even more,” says Gasselsberger. who praises his wife Gerti for her incredible condition. The low-traffic mountain trail was “edifying and constructive”, planning for the next mountain holiday is already underway again.