The Rotwand tour is one of my favourite creative walks routes. It’s a relatively easy hike that takes you through a pine forest, past a couple of Alpine cabins and you even get to see a few waterfalls. You’ll be greeted by cowbells and cattle about thirty minutes from the summit too. As with any mountain path, the weather dictates the experience and memory of the route. I’ve walked up Rotwand in the early morning summer sun, and it felt like something out of Jurassic Park. But I’ve also scampered up it in the pouring rain and fog. With the wind howling in the trees, it felt like an Autumnal “Shining” (with the Rotwandhaus appearing in the mist, a Bavarian Stanely Hotel). The walking experience dictates the ideas, which is what makes creative walks such a unique working adventure. The visuality of the mountain, the scene it sets, the associations it forms in your mind all help to kick start the process of harvesting memories and combining them with facts, strategies and ideas.
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Creative Walks on the Rotwand – Fun and easy on the legs.
At 1.884 metres above sea level, the summit is reached quickly. It’s an easy walk, even for an office potato. We’ll park safely at the church car park and have a quick look at the Spitzingsee before moving on up into the first part of the walk. It’s a tarmac road used by the forestry. After thirty minutes we’ll pass a little cabin and then turn right into the forest and make our way slowly and steadily up the gravel road to the summit. Every so often the Mangfall Mountains will appear through the trees, and we’ll reach the first of three tiny waterfalls after half an hour. We should have a whole bunch of rough thoughts, memories and ideas scribbled onto Artefact Cards by now. We’ll spread them out onto a large boulder and sort them into sets of “good, bad and ugly”.
Upwards.
Creative Walks – Solvitur Ambulando!
We’ll walk through the electric cattle gate and hear the ring of the cowbells. This is Alpine country. We’ll pass the cabins and rest on a rock to sort our ideas, discarding the weaker ones and working on what we think will solve your problem. Onwards. Solvitur Ambulando!
The gravel road rises, and then the Rotwandhaus appears, it’s space age wind mill whizzing manically. Your heart will skip at the thought of a cold drink and maybe some food but I’ll point upwards, left of the house, to the cross on the summit and we’ll push on. A quiet will fall over us, and we’ll concentrate on sorting our thoughts and putting one foot in front of the other.
At the summit you’ll spend five minutes alone, just taking it in: listening to the wind, the birds and the cowbells and looking at the endless sea of mountains that spread out in front of you.
The Rotwandhaus is open all year round and serves a wicked lentil stew. We’ll sit in deckchairs and spread our notes, ideas and plans on the grass in front of us and chose the idea we want to work on during our descent. And when, two hours later, we’re back down by the lake I’ll leave you for alone for a while to look at the water and ponder the answer, the idea we found up on the mountain, and you’ll realise that this was probably the best days work that you have ever had.
Get in touch now if would you like to find out more or book your own creative walk.