Hours of hiking in a green mountain landscape, where you will not meet anyone. Along mountain lakes, waterfalls and over steep rocks. Surrounded by green flower meadows and a radiant sun. And after hours of hiking there is a small, wooden hut to spend the night. Wooden beds with a thin mat and nothing else. Just the tranquility of the mountains around you. This is the real adventure in Austria. And you can do it too.
Hiking is the perfect way to clear your head completely. You feel refreshed with every breath of healthy mountain air that flows through your lungs. But if you want to combine this relaxation with a dose of adventure, The Green is for you.
Green Ring in Austria
Hiking route The Green Ring is the summer variant of The White Ring, a route that you can ski in the winter in the ski area of Lech. On skis you can do that within an hour, on foot it’s a different story. The Green Ring is a three-day hiking trail in the Austrian Lech region of Vorarlberg. In principle, these are hikes that you can complete in a day or part of a day, after which you return to your hotel or guest house. But on day two you can make that day’s hike even more fun, because then a small wooden hut is waiting on top of the mountain – a bivouac – where you can spend the night. You understand that I want to experience this adventure and together with guide Stefan I go on the road.
We start our hike in Zürs. In winter a real hotel village for winter sports enthusiasts, but in summer a ghost village. Everything is closed. Just outside Zürs a path goes up, which you should know is there. It is the beginning of The Green Ring and our hike immediately starts spicy. We climb non-stop for at least an hour and a half, surrounded by green flower meadows and waterfalls. The last remnants of snow are melting and with today’s summer temperatures it is going fast. The water comes down in wide streams in different places.
Zursersee
After an hour and a half it is time to stop for a drink, but Stefan knows a nice place for that. A few minutes later we look out over the Zürsersee. A beautiful, clear blue mountain lake at 2,160 meters altitude. Of course we stop to take pictures and enjoy the view. How beautiful it is here! It would be a great place for swimming or supping, but the latter is forbidden and given the layer of snow that is still on the water, swimming is not such a good idea at the moment. And so we sit in the grass for a while and just enjoy what we see.
We are not at the highest point yet, but we can already see it. On the last part to the top we come across a mailbox, in a place that only hikers can reach in the summer. It’s nice that you can send a card for free to whoever you want and of course I do that too. It may take a while before your card is delivered, because this special mailbox is only emptied once a year.
The last part of the climb is very difficult. Next to us are the ski slopes that are part of The White Ring and in my mind I see myself skiing down here. We see mountain marmots appearing on all sides, who are happy that their long winter sleep is over. But there is finally the top and we can high-five.
A bivouac on top of the mountain
However, the top is not the goal of our hike, that is the bivouac. A small wooden hut of which I got the key from the tourist office of Lech. There is only one bivouac and therefore only one key. Soon after the top we see the bivouac, on a steep hill right in front of us (and so we have to climb again…). The place of the bivouac is special, there is nothing around you but high mountain peaks.
Normally, a bivouac acts as a shelter for people who are looking for shelter during severe weather, but in this case it is exactly the other way around. You consciously go here to spend the night and in case of bad weather you have to go down again. By the time Stefan and I are upstairs, the sky is clear blue. Some clouds can be seen, but gray thunderclouds are nowhere to be seen. However, thunderstorms are forecast, so I can’t stay there. But the key is in my backpack, so we’ll have a look inside.
Back to basic
In the bivouac it is really back-to-basic. You sleep on a wooden bed and you have to bring every form of comfort yourself. And although the overnight stay is not comfortable, the view is really going to make up for everything. There is room for four people to sleep in the bivouac.
Without spending the night in the bivouac we start our journey down. And although I didn’t spend the night there, I can imagine what that will be like. Take food, drink and sleeping bags upstairs, bring friends and then make a campfire in the evening, play games and enjoy a clear starry sky. No one around you, just curious mountain marmots. Sounds like a great adventure to me.
The Green Ring
If you want to do the complete green ring, you need three days.
- Part 1 takes you to Zürs, a 3-hour walk that is not too difficult.
- Part 2 goes from Zürs to Zug, a walk of about 6 hours for the expert hikers.
- Part 3 goes from Zug to Lech, a 5-hour walk that requires you to be in good shape.
- There is also a Family Trail especially for families with children, where you can solve 14 riddles along the way with the kids.
About Lech village
The Green Ring is located around the Austrian village of Lech, in the province of Vorarlberg. You probably know Lech by name, it is the place where our royal family goes on a winter sports holiday in the winter. If you walk around Lech in the summer, you can fully imagine why the Oranjes choose this place. Lech is a sight to behold and every street, every corner could be in a magazine. Beautiful houses, flowers everywhere and also the location is great. A river that bears the same name as the village flows through the village. And even though winter is the cash cow for Lech, in the summer there is plenty of life in the brewery. Cozy terraces beckon and you will see cyclists, walkers and hikers everywhere. Vorarlberg in summer is simply a place for sporty people.
Together with Sankt Anton and Stuben, among others, Lech forms the Ski Arlberg ski area in winter. Work is currently underway on the new Flexenbahn, a ski lift that will connect Stuben and Zürs, making Ski Arlberg the largest contiguous ski area in Austria in the winter of ’16-’17. Good reason to go back to Lech next winter. And certainly also to do The White Ring!
