The plan for the first part of the day was to catch the double cable car from next door to the hotel up to the top of the Penken hill and then walk along the ridge to Wangelspitze. This we achieved. The cable car ride was fun especially as it hangs up so high off the ground. The walk however was a big disappointment because the hill has been ravaged for the skiiers.

Question: why is skiing like golf.

Answer: they are both a good walk spoilt (although not in the same way)

I'd been expecting this as far as the top of the ski lift from Finkenberg but I'd not foreseen the damage being done to Wanglespitze. The problem is that they are putting in a new ski lift and much the hill is  a building; unfortunately this includes the summit. A great shame this as the one unspoilt section is really lovely hinting at what has been thrown away. A reminder of the old John Denver song; "they tried to tear the mountains down and bring in a couple more/More people, more scars upon the land"

We carried on to the far side of Wangelspitze but were so dispirited that we dropped plans to continue along the ridge. Instead I found a nice path that contoured back around the building site and we returned to the Finkenberg chair lift.

This was plan B. To walk back from Finkenberg down its gorge to Mayrhofen. This was nearly spoilt by rain but this proved short lived. It happened whilst we were at the Devils Bridge, a typical covered Tyrolean bridge across the gorge. It was a good spot to shelter.

The walk back was lovely although the gorge was too deep for good photos. In many ways the path was very like an English one (if you didn't pay to much attention to the buildings!!)