Tipps für alle deren Reise bald losgeht:

T&TBerlin, Dienstag, 06. August 2013, 19:32 (vor 4127 Tagen) @ Marina204

entschuldigen, bitte, wenn ich so auf English schreiben, aber, noch ein Paar "tips":

1) Preparation is the most important. You need the right shoes, and the right equipment. Walking sticks (Stoecke), we found rather necessary for the snowy parts. Make sure your pack fits properly; make sure your shoes fit properly.

2) Weight is more or less a personal thing. I'm 1,98/110, so carrying 12-15kg (including 2-3 liters of water) wasn't a big deal; my wife is 1,52/52 so her pack weighed less. She also drinks less water than I, and carried less.

We had more shirts than people seem to think necessary (3-4), and we carried a couple of different jackets, feeling we could not anticipate good weather at every stage.

But if you take Point 1 into consideration: get the lightest Schlafsack possible--the silk one from the DAV, and wear your underwear to bed--everyone else does. Consider the route and whether you need to carry water each day, and how much; some places have lots of Einkehrmoeglichkeiten, others have none at all--you'll need an adaptive Trinksystem.

3) Booking ahead. Both guidebooks say you shouldn't bother, but you really should. There are/were SO MANY people underway, even in mid-July, that all of the huts were full. Even reserving three days ahead we could only get Lagerplaetze at some huts, while other huts refuse to take reservations without prepayment. A couple wouldn't take reservations at all. But reserve when you can; for me, this was a question of survival, as I am a very light sleeper and the Lager usually meant I got about four or five hours' sleep, tops.

4) Heat. We were not troubled, particularly, by the heat, save in the valleys and in the Laeger. It seemed only slighter hotter once in the mountains, and there were plenty of cool breezes, cold streams, and Huette. We did carry a small tube of suncream/lip balm, and I, being bald, went with a Kopftuch. But the heat shouldn't be an issue for most, I'd think.

5) Timing. We found the books to be pretty much right on; we're slightly slower than average (I climb poorly, my wife does not like going downhill), but we hit the times fairly well on the mark every day. We did, however, break our journeys more frequently than the Rothenfuehrer might have liked--and we tended to take the "easier" walking alternative. The green book, overall, was simply more friendly for the "average" hiker, we thought; the red book wanted you to push it. We mixed and matched.

6) Caveats. We only did 13 days, skipping the flat parts (Munich-Bad Toelz; Belluno-Venice) and a bit we'd done before (Bad Toelz-Karwendelhaus). It was still quite challenging, and we were NOT truly prepared.

A lot of people ask: "Can anyone do this?" My answer: NO. You have to prepare, you have to plan; you need the right equipment, and you need the right mindset. Physical fitness is not the most pressing question. Being properly equipped (within a reasonable weight limit of what you can carry) and prepared to endure some hardships (a blister, a mosquito bite, a bad night's sleep, a bit of heat, etc.) is most important.

The people on the trail were great: friendly, supportive, helpful in every way possible; in the end though, you do this on your own. You carry your pack, and you have to be prepared well to do it.