Karnischer Höhenweg – Day 1: Versciaco to Sillianerhütte

Join us for Day 1 on the Karnischer Höhenweg, a high-altitude trail laced with memory, mischief, and a mounting climate crisis. In this episode of Marching Like Fools, four ex-military men — affectionately self-described as "The Fools" — begin a lengthy traverse along one of the most historically charged ridgelines in Europe. What begins with a lift from the car park at Versciaco (1200m) to the Helm station (2045m) soon becomes an exploration of war, wilderness, and warming.

This is more than just a walk. The ridge hiked was once the deadly frontline between Austro-Hungarian and Italian troops during WWI. Trenches, rusted barbed wire, and disintegrating gun emplacements still line the slopes, a haunting reminder of high-altitude warfare — where avalanches and exposure often killed more than bullets. Now rebranded as the Peace Trail, the route offers reconciliation through remembrance, with mule tracks and tunnels repurposed for walkers rather than warfare.

But peace is fragile. The episode explores how climate change is reshaping these mountains, with Alpine temperatures rising twice as fast as the global average. The treeline is creeping upwards. Alpine specialists are losing ground to generalist species. Melting glaciers, thawing permafrost, and bark beetle infestations are transforming not only the flora and fauna — but also the stability of the trail itself. Once again, the ridge is shifting, only this time from Nature’s hand, not mankind’s.

In this episode, we ascend (a little guiltily) via ski lift to Helm, sparing our knees but bruising our pride. From there, it’s boots on ground — a steady hike over narrow ridgelines and into the sharp reality of both effort and elevation. Along the way, the narrator observes dead spruce forests felled by Ips typographus, the notorious bark beetle. The trees stand as spectral silhouettes of what once was — a quiet forest now brittle and brown, a signal of ecosystems under siege.

Despite the heavy themes, the tone isn’t all bleak. In true ex-military style, the camaraderie and banter are sharp and often hilarious. The group pauses in a mountain restaurant to fuel their bodies and test their microphones — particularly the furry windshields called “deadcats,” which prompt the first of many irreverent exchanges. The narrator shares a grin-inducing story about one group member who lost an arm in a motorbike accident but heroically saved his Rolex, prompting laughs and admiration in equal measure.

Eventually, the group climbs to Sillianerhütte (2447m), perched on the ridge like a sentry post from a gentler age. After ascending 1247m from their starting point, the warmth of schnapps, soup, and camaraderie fills the dormitories — a welcome change from the icy bunkers of wartime. But even here, glaciers are seen to be in retreat, and snowfields are visibly thinner than they should be.

The episode closes with reflection and anticipation. Toasts are made to absent friends — fellow “Fools” unable to join because of injury — and to those with the resilience to laugh in the face of loss. With a twinkle in the narrator’s voice and the echo of a warming trail beneath their boots, we’re left with a teaser for Day 2: more trenches, more tales, and more terrain transformed by time, war, and weather.

Themes in this episode include:

• High-altitude WWI history and legacy
• Alpine climate change: rising temperatures, treeline shifts, bark beetle impacts, glacier retreat
• The ironic transformation from battlefield to Peace Trail
• Humour, resilience, and the military bond of “The Fools”
• Landscape change observed in real time

Next episode: Day 2 – Sillianerhütte to Obstanserseehütte. Expect crumbling bunkers, deeper discussions, and, as always, more laughter than is entirely appropriate.

A slow start, a long ridge, and a lot of foolishness ahead.

Welcome to Marching Like Fools — a podcast chronicling the journey of four retired military men as they walk the Karnischer Höhenweg, a remote, historic alpine trail tracing the old First World War frontline between Austria and Italy.

This is Episode 0: our prelude — recorded before we take a single step uphill.

In this opening episode, we introduce the group: a band of friends over 65, each with a military past — 1 PARA, 21 SAS, 22 SAS, and one who was once Regimental Medical Officer to the SAS. Together, we call ourselves The Fools — a name earned through years of rugged expeditions, half-planned adventures, and a refusal to act our age.

We begin in Versciaco, a small South Tyrolean town, where the ski lift will soon take us to Helm, and then onwards on foot to the Sillianerhütte, our first night on the trail. But before that, we take a moment to explain what this podcast is about — and why four men with creaky knees and more than a few scars would attempt a 150-kilometre, high-altitude walk with dodgy weather forecasts and even dodgier humour.

Expect history, honesty, dry socks, wet boots, ridge walks, brew stops, bunk beds, accidental introspection, and very few working knees.

In this episode:

• We reflect on the WWI military history behind the trail — the "Mountain War" between Austrian and Italian troops that raged through these peaks from 1915 to 1918, claiming thousands of lives in avalanches, frostbite, and long-forgotten skirmishes.
• We talk about the physical and emotional purpose of walking a long route later in life — and why friendship, distance, and age can become part of the same slow conversation.
• We introduce the podcast’s tone — light, humorous, but not flippant; open-hearted, but never sentimental. You’ll hear plenty of banter, but also the quiet rhythms of memory, loss, and laughter earned the hard way.

We also touch on the changing environment around us — how the Alps are warming twice as fast as the global average, how snowlines are rising and glaciers are shrinking, and how trails once carved by soldiers are being slowly reshaped by time, weather, and climate change.

Marching Like Fools isn’t just for ex-soldiers or hillwalkers. It’s for anyone who knows that time passes, knees ache, and friendships deepen when you’re sharing silence on a narrow trail.

So lace up your boots, grab your rucksack, and join us on the ridge.

The journey starts now — before the ascent.