Boderhike Austria-Italy – Tour Introduction

9. September 2025

 

 

For certain reasons, I have to be out of my flat for 5 days. And for quite some time I was struggling with the question of what I could do during that period. My desire for hut-to-hut hiking tours in the Alps had faded a bit. Visiting my friends in Germany was something I would do later anyway – or they would be away during that time. A new city or some other place didn’t appeal to me either – especially not alone. Not even with Couchsurfing. I grumbled – but then I thought: OK, another hut tour, just as I had originally planned. That way I’d be more or less done with it. Next summer I’d want to spend elsewhere anyway..

 

But then my grumbling started again. I thought, in September the holidays would be over and I’d practically find half-empty huts. Wishful thinking! With everything I looked into, there were bottlenecks with fully booked huts, and even by changing the routes I couldn’t solve it. On top of that, I had some extra limitations: no dotted trails because of potential fear of heights I didn’t want to face alone, and no long days – meaning preferably no more than the indicated 6 hours of hiking (which I often exceed anyway, thanks to my slowness).

 

On top of that, I also wanted to travel by bus and train, and only stay at Alpine Club huts (anything else is too expensive for me). I got stubborn and persistent. And so I spent a lot of time on the internet, planning tours, discarding them again, following suggestions that I also had to dismiss, finding routes and then abandoning them because the huts were too full again. Until I finally found something – although I had to add (or rather shift) a day before the actual tour, otherwise the overnight stays just wouldn’t work out. Feelings: a) grumpiness that it’s soooo hard to find something, b) relief at finally having found a tour, and c) amazement at my own persistence.

 

The “waiting list” option, which some huts also offer, didn’t appeal to me. I did find Slovenia attractive atmosphere-wise, but it’s very difficult to find something really suitable just through the internet. In Austria, the hut websites always list the neighboring huts – and that already makes research much easier. Unfortunately, in Slovenia that’s not the case

 

So I ended up finding something in the Carnic Alps, right on the Austria–Italy border, although all the huts are on the Austrian side. I just hope I haven’t overlooked any spots that could trigger my fear of heights – but otherwise, I’ll always have enough time to either find help, turn back, or descend. Here’s the tour with the huts:

 

 

And here is the elevation-profile:

 

 

Doesn’t that look great? A gentle ascent, then staying up high – and then unfortunately a rather quick descent – but after that my knees can rest anyway. The hiking stages may be a bit on the short side, but in principle I’ve always found that more enjoyable on my past tours than having to walk forever. And besides, you can always take little strolls afterwards. And if it rains, I don’t really feel like hiking all that much anyway. At least I don’t.

 

 

After three tours with friends, I’m now going again – like on my very first tour – on my own. I actually enjoy hiking alone, but being alone among lots of people in a hut isn’t really my thing. I’ll probably invest a little of my backpack weight in a book. People often say that when you travel alone, you meet others more easily and are more open to encounters and so on. All I can say is: not me. Maybe at some point I can ponder why that is.

 

Unfortunately, that also means I won’t really get photographed, and so once again there will be fewer pictures of me in the blog. But that doesn’t really matter anyway. Instead, I’ve been thinking whether I might give filming short clips another try.

 

So let’s see how this trip is going to be!