Published via Ecency

I didn't hike much this year and I'm sure this hike will remain the longest I had in 2020.

From Sunrise till Sunset
^{Mirnock Mountain Range . Carinthia}

After an exhausting week at work I wanted to have a relaxing day in the mountains. Well, my plan has not been to hike that far, but after the first little peak I thought it's too early to turn back home and an hour later it was too late to turn back ;)

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Bu tlet's start at the beginning ... I got up at 3:30 and when I arrived at the parking lot in Verditz, which has been a small ski resort till 2012, it was about 5:00 in the morning. Actually I only wanted to hike to the Schwarz See / Black Lake where I have been a couple of weeks ago, take a few sunrise shots and then hike to the next peak which is called Palnock (1.901 m / 6,236.88 ft) before I wanted to hike back down to the car.

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Behind the hill on the left side there's the peak of the Palnock. In the photo below you can see the quite unusual looking summit cross of the Palnock.

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I have been too early at the lake for sunrise shots and when I got to the peak of the Palnock the sun has already risen. And from there I could see the peak of the Mirnock (2.110 m / 6,922.57 ft) which seemed to be quite close ... that's what I thought ;) It is the furthest peak in the photo above - looks close, doesn't it?

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There have been quite a few nice places with benches to take a short break for a breather.

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About half an hour of quite comfortable downhill walking later, I saw a short but quite steep slope which I had to climb, and after this one was another one ... and another one - the photos don't show how steep it was in reality, honestly ;)

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Of course, I didn't give up because of a slope and so I climbed a short time or better said about 1.5 - 2 hours later to the Rindernock peak (2.024 m / 1,257.65 ft) from where I had a very nice view. Down at the foot of this little peak there's a little pond with a wooden boardwalk and wooden deck chairs where you can have a rest and relax for a while after a long hike before you hike up to the next peak.

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The Rindernock is the peak on the right edge of the photos below and the Mirnock is the other peak you can see to the left.

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These photos show the summit cross on the Rindernock peak. Please don't ask me why there's the number 2015 and a goat on the cross. The number might mean the year when they have built the cross, but Rind means cattle or cow in German, so I have no idea why there's a goat ;)

Mirnock Mountain Hiking - Rindernock Peak Cross

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I can imagine that in Summer this would be a great place to have a relaxing afternoon at this pond or even go for a swim, but when I was there there it had ice on the water.

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Amazing views over the fog covered valley to the south and to the snow capped mountains in the west. Every single step I made showed me different and better views of our beautiful country.

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About half an hour later I was almost at my desired destination on the Mirnock mountain. Quite a few people, who have come there on other hiking paths, were making selfies at the summit cross, so I took a break a bit below the peak and waited till most were gone.

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I didn't have much time at the cross, because right after I had taken a photo of a couple in front of the summit cross on their phone and after I had taken a photo of the cross with my phone for me, I saw crowds of hikers hiking towards the peak from almost all directions.

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So I decided to walk back down to the place I have been before and take a time lapse video of the disappearing fog over the Lake Millstatt (Millstätter See). I started the time lapse too late, because a few minutes before, the whole area has been covered by fog.
This place where I have been out of the way of the crowds is at the rocks at the end of the stone wall in the photo below.

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The Lake Millstatt after almost all fog has disappeared. To the left of the lake there's the Drautal Valley, which is still covered by the fog behind a wooded range of hills.

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After the time lapse video and a few photos more I made my way back to where I have come from in the morning. It was easier to hike, because now I didn't have to climb the steep slopes up, but hiking downwards is something my knees don't really like, but I was lucky and they didn't moan too much ;)

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It wasn't that late when I came back to my car at about 4:00pm, but the sun was already setting behind the mountains and colorized the sky and clouds a little bit. The fog from the morning was still covering the valley.

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So, that's all for today - I had a hike from before the sunrise till almost sunset, and to be honest, it was exhausting.
This hike has showed me that I'm not in the good condition as I had thought I was ;) but the good time and the views I have had, have been worth every single step of the about 22 kilometers (13.7 miles).

I have made a few more photos and there's also the timelapse video I mentioned above. Depending on my time I want to share these in my next post which will probably be tomorrow or on Saturday.

Information

Location: Mirnock Peak on Google Maps

All photos were shot with the Canon EOS R and one of these lenses: Canon RF 24-105mm f/4 L IS USM or the Canon EF 70-200mm f/4 L IS II USM. I have also shot a few photos with my smartphone, the Xiaomi Redmi Note 5.

I leave all EXIF and IPTC information stored in the pictures.

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