Walking the Isar Day 1: where’s the source?

Day 1

Today was all about finding the source of the Isar and because the Isar is a mountain river, we travelled up and up. Starting in Scharnitz at 964m, we took a taxi (no laughing) to the Kastenalm at 1200m.it was a 9 seater bus and full, so my bad conscience was not too noticable. Since we had got up at 5am and hadn’t managed breakfast so far, we stopped at the Kastenalm for a pleasant Jausenplatte before starting the real search for the source. With the hiking boots firmly tied and the 6kg rucksack on the back, we began our ascent to the Hallerangeralm at 1774m. What a glorious sunny day with wonderful views.

So where is the source of the Isar?
Most people say that the source is to be found in Hinterautal not far from the Kastenalm at 1200m. This is an area with several springs which bring forth cristal clear water. BUT there is also the opinion that the Lafatscher Spring which has it’s source close to the Hallerangeralm at around 1800m is the true source. Two opinions, so of course we needed to check out both.
Back to our climb up to the Hallerangeralm where we experienced a lively Lafatscher Spring carrying plenty of water. Two and a half hours later we arrived at the Alm just before a heavy downpour. After leaving our rucksacks in our mountain hut, we set off to find the source. Unfortunately this was not so easy due to the thunderstorm and heavy rain but we persevered and declared the spring we found as the starting point of our adventure.

We switched on the Runtastic Programme on the mobile phone and registered just 3km walking distance for the first day before retiring to our room in the mountain hut. Obviously that was after we had tried out the homemade soup and Kaiserschmarrn in the Hallerangeralm.