DAY 3: Westfalen Haus to Franz-Senn Hutte.
Bad weather still. In drizzle and with heavy clouds covering the peaks, we descended 700 metres on an easy trail down to the valley with a hotel/restaurant at Lusens. Here Steve did a planned drop-out by walking down the road 2km to the bus stop at Praxmar. The bus timetable had been posted in the Westfalen Haus.

Service in the hotel was too slow so we gave up on the idea of coffee and cakes as we had a long way to go still to the next hut. 

We had in front of us  a steep 1200 metres up to the Horntaler Joch at 2819 metres.The first part was over steep grass with some nasty drop-offs The last part of the way to the pass was over steep scree.

At the top of the pass I had a short walk to the right partway up the Schafgrubler, a 2922 metre peak. The trail looked to be easy and well marked but the weather was poor and I went back after a while as I did not want the rest of the group to get chilled waiting for me at the pass. On a nice day the views from the top of the Lusener Ferner to the south-west must be very fine.

After the usual steep initial descent from the pass the going became easier. There were some nice views for a while on when the clouds cleared for a while and we stopped to admire the view. Far below we could see the Franz-Senn Hut (2147m). The Franz-Senn hut is big, modern, clean, has email, free hot showers and good food. There were lots of climbers there.

Dagmar and Anne relaxing after a steep climb. On our way to Franz Senn Hutte....
(click on picture for enlarged version)

More Pictures on the way to the Franz-Senn Hutte:

• Robin hiking up.
• This was a long day .....lots of scree...Yuk!
• Grethe and Robin on their way down from the pass.
• The clouds cleared on the way down - great view!
• On our way down to the Franz-Senn Hutte.
• At last we can see the Franz Senn Hutte below....it took over an hour from this point...but the clouds ad cleared for a while and the view was great.