We had planned a day out to Pfelders, a place I have only ever been to in the winter to ski or sledge. Pfelders is a popular place for winter holidays, a quaint car free Alpine mountain village that could easily be used as a picture postcard of winter in the Alps.  A typical Alpine winter location with lots of snow and skiing fun.  So a summer trip was always going to prick my sense of interest.

First stop was to take the cable car up the mountain, the interesting point here is that the cable car starts at 1624m, which is the altitude that Pfelders sits at.  To put this into comparison, Ben Nevis the UK is 1345m.  With two kids in tow, first stop once off the cable car is the restaurant for a coffee and hot chocolate.  From here it was which route to take, do we take the panorama trail or try the more adventurous Spronserjoch trail to the various mountain lakes.  This was always going to be the least favourable option given my son and daughter were really looking forward to the big adventure of the mountain carts and the SpronsorJoch trail is a 6 hour round trip.  So, the panorama trail won out.

It turns out it is a very easy trail, undulating and not at all steep in places, easily manageable for the average fit person.  Even if you are not slightly unfit, it is still not at all challenging.  The benefit with this is that you can spend time looking at the end of a closed valley, Pfelders is surrounded by mountains that provide it with plenty of snow in winter and a very cool breeze in the summer.    Following the trail, leads you to various mountain alms or restaurants.  Alm is always a word I struggle to translate; it’s a hut that serves food.  Here we stopped at Falschnal Alm for a bit to eat and a drink.  Given that the Coronavirus is still within our minds, you would not have known it even existed given the full house at the Alm.  This was pleasing to see because the Alms survive off the summer tourism.

Following the lunch, a quick walk following the trail back down to Pfelders.  This proved to be a very interesting 40 minutes. Walking along talking with my daughter we happened upon a herd of Haflinger horses roaming in the forest.  Now the Haflinger is not a very big horse but is big enough.  An excited young girl who was recently horse riding was difficult to keep quiet, but these horses are very approachable and gentle.  Patting the horses was the highlight for my daughter at this moment.

Back down in Pfelders, time to leave the rucksacks in the car and book the Mountain Carts.  This is done at the base car cable station and you book for the hour or two if you like.  So a booking for 2 adults and 2 children for one hour and we were good to go.  Taking the cable car up you have to fill out the disclaimer that you are responsible for the cart and your own safety.  At the top, grab your cart, helmet go.  The track is 3.5km give or take, arriving back down at the base cable car station.  We managed 3 runs, the second run being a race between my son and me.  A few tight corners and long straights to get up the speed, smiles all around.

At the bottom, it was time for a drink in the village before heading home for pizza.  So, if you would like to combine an easy mountain walk with a more adventurous mountain cart addition, give Pfelders a try.  You can also stay over in one of the many hotels Pfelders has.  For more information, look at their website, www.pfelders.info