I tried it again, almost with the same bad decision-making from 2 years ago. To keep it short, it’s not a nice drive up to Schierke in the Harz when temperatures are below zero and its snowing wildly. Last time I headed there in December 2022 during a snowstorm. We already were in two buildings on this trip (Sanatorium Hohentanneck and Sanatorium Knappschaftsheilstätte) earlier that day. Both were located rather in the south of the Harz, although the snow there also became more and more tremendous. With little to no doubt we decidided to head to the FDGB Erholungsheim Hermann Duncker just below the Brocken in Schierke. This was the beginning of the most challenging and nerve wrecking drive of my life this far. All those steep and narrow roads weren’t cleared, you couldn’t even see it anymore. Yet there we were and the snow didn’t stop coming down. After losing grip more a dozen of times and nearly sliding off the road on a declining curve, we finally got there. However we had been so slow that it now was getting dark, not good for taking pictures of course. So we had to come to the conclusion that this was all in vain and headed back. Another agonizing 2 hours of driving uncleared forest roads.
Now in 2024 I wanted to go there again, and of course in winter-ish weather. I think that’s the best setting for pictures in the Harz. Although it seemed to be extremely stormy and rainy today, the temperatures stayed above zero, thank god. Otherwise it would have been exactly the same struggle from two years ago. The vacation home is in very bad shape now, a lot of it has collapsed or is close to doing so. But that in combination with the melting snow, the blowing wind and the water dripping everywhere makes the best atmosphere. I hope I could capture some of that in the pictures I made today. This surely was experiencewise one of the best explorations since a long time. An atmosphere I will remember and surely not to surround me anytime soon again. Pictures will be up soon!