5th Stage - Great success on Grossglockner

Nevertheless, we don’t want to forget that the toughest part of our Aids Awareness Expedition still lies ahead of us. Today, however, much concentration is required to tackle the highest mountain in Austria: Grossglockner.

We reach the village of Kals on Tuesday that, despite only having 1300 inhabitants, has 17 mountain guides to offer us. Add to that, sunshine in mid-October and a heart full of love. The reception here was kind and hearty. We want to tackle Grossglockner in two stages. Therefore, we make ourselves at home in our overnight accommodation, a wooden hut, 2802 metres up. After a short night, we set off for the summit at around 3.30am. Almost straightaway, we are fighting our way through hail showers and snow storms. A good four hours later though, our flag is waving on the top of Austria. It reminds us of every one of the more than 20,000 individual destinies in this Alpine republic that are HIV-positive or suffer from AIDS, yet are not registered.

The way back is shrouded in fog, and the peak soon disappears from our sight. Anyway, we don’t really have time to look back: our troop is already heading towards Garmisch-Partenkirchen. Zugspitze awaits!