The plan was actually to do the Alpenvereinsteig today. Luckily (or not), we had a Carinthian with us again, who suggested we could skip the “boring hike” and take another route instead – “just a little longer.” As we all know: in Carinthia, elevation gain and steep hills simply don’t count as such.
So we ended up climbing about 700 meters on the Wachthüttelkammsteig, only to descend again via the Teufelbadstubensteig (we’d rather not dwell on those 430 m down). Once at the bottom, the real goal started: the Alpenvereinsteig – another 800 meters up, and we (almost) enjoyed every step of it.
At the top, we split up: Chris ran back to the car through the Kesselgraben, Zita took the cable car to wave at the kids (of course, they didn’t see her…) and then slid her way down the Gsolhirnsteig. The “remaining” men stayed at the mountain station (and later at the valley station), balancing out their electrolyte levels with one (two, three…) large beers.
Summary:
• Distance: 17 km
• Elevation: 1540 m up, 1590 m down
• Time: 7h 30min (including breaks, pretty brisk!)
• Route: Wachthüttelkammsteig ⬆️ – Teufelbadstubensteig ⬇️ – Alpenvereinsteig ⬆️ – Höllentalaussicht – Bergstation – Gsolhirnsteig ⬇️ – Hirschwang