Even a hike in the Bavarian Alps on a bright and sunny Sunday in August can be a very lonely business.

Certainly oppressive summer heat is always a factor to keep the crowds away. Also the sheer difficulty of the tour of our choice, a walk over an unmarked ridge in the Allgäu Alps towards a peak called Seeköpfle, boasting a height of 1920 meters AMSL, hence not really intimidating at a first glance and supposedly rather unappealing for the more ambitious mountaineer.

Seeköpfle, August 10

When you set off in Oberstdorf, you have nonetheless to deal with 1100 meters difference in altitude, be it through the northern or southern valley (we walked through the northern Seealptal), with many ups and downs in between when you finally tackle the mountain from the east.

From the west it is more straightforward and almost entirely the hill up then straight ahead on the ridge, but without any water source along the way what can be of course a problem with temperatures in the thirty degrees range.

When approaching the peak from the east, there’s no water either, yet there are mountain huts nearby and you could descent towards the Seealpsee in case you run out of liquids, or in case you don’t want to proceed further on the ridge (but remember nothing is marked, so this might be not as easy as it looks from the top).

At any rate and even minus the heat, it is not a tour for beginners as we soon found out. Many places are very exposed, and at times you really have to struggle with the shrubs which obstruct the paths but otherwise spend no shadow whatever. 

But it is all worth the effort, the mountain scenery to marvel at is magnificent, and the pictures below may only give a weak overall impression. An unduly overlooked mountain tour.

Photo gallery