Scenic hike with somewhat different “snack buddies“

Two small, dark button eyes look at me curiously and hungrily, as almost as if to say: “give me food, or I’m gone”. I hand him a piece of apple. The little animal comes a few steps nearer, sniffs my offering and snaps it with his long, yellowing teeth. So, have you guessed who my snack buddy is? Correct, a marmot, or as we call them here in Salzburg a “Manggei“.

Here, near the Bachlalm in Filzmoos, you can observe these animals in their natural habitat and with a little patience and peace & quiet even feed them. We arrived up here by “wandertaxi“ (price per person per journey € 5,50), which is really practical for us, as we can start our hiking tour to the Sulzenschneid (also called Eiskarlschneid genannt) from here.

After our little friend had munched enough of our snack, we head up towards the Sulzenschneid. Some 100 m beneath the Bachlalm the path turns off to the left, then we follow the continuously upward climbing trail up to the Sulzensattel. Here we follow the signpost to the right and then see the peak cross right in front of us.

Arriving at the top we sit down next to the peak cross and enjoy the view of the Bischofsmütze, the Rötelstein and the whole Salzburg mountain world. Our tummies rumble and remind us, that although the marmot snacked earlier, we didn’t. “Mhmmm with such a view food tastes even better“, says my friend and bites into her apple. “Oh yes“, I agree, smacking my lips.

The whole hike from the Bachlalm to the Sulzenschneid takes just over an hour and is really worthwhile. The path is easy and there are no exposed spots. We took the same route back as we parked our car on the Filzmoos main road. You could, however, extend the hike to the Sulzenalmen and the Hofalmen and hike back to Filzmoos. But we’re looking forward to paying the cute marmots another short visit on our return route.

Photo Credits: Katja Eggenhofer