Round and about Groβglockner:

A week’s circular trek
with family and friends, goats and Austrian hospitality

by Diana Rayner

Zell-am-See is a busy place and it’s not hard to see why. The beautiful mountain-ringed lake, a choice of beds, and good rail access made it ideal for our party of six (me, Bernard, two friends – Eiluned and Paul - plus our son Ollie and his friend Billy, who were both 16 at the time) to relax for an evening before accessing the Kaprun valley by bus to start the trek. But it didn’t start well.

Only a short way up path 724 towards the Brandlescharte (2372m), Billy threw up in the bushes. In fact, neither boy was on top form. After a short discussion, the other three continued up the hill while the boys and I retraced steps to surprise the owner of the B&B. While the lads slept off their hangovers, I thoroughly enjoyed a day of unexpected leisure!

Thanks to the brilliant Postbus system, the blip in plans didn’t cramp our style at all. After a cosy night in the Gleiwitzer Hütte, the others joined our bus in Fusch. Happily reunited, off we went up the many hairpins of the Groβglockner Hochalpenstraße. The road, built in the 1930s along an old trading route between Germany and Italy, arrived at a viewing area for the Pasterze Glacier which, at 5 miles, is the longest in Austria. Having found a hostel (Matratzenlager), we stretched our legs in ice-chilly wind, following the Gamsgrübenweg along the moraine edge and excited to be face-to-face with the mighty Groβglockner .

Next day we skirted the Margaritzenstausee which collects meltwater from the Pasterze Glacier and feeds the Stausee (reservoir) Mooserboden above Kaprun through the 11.6 km Möll pressure tunnel. On the Wiener Höhenweg we rounded a spur high on the grassy hillside and contoured along to the Salmhütte for a bowl of hearty soup. It was a short afternoon’s walk down to the Leiterbach footbridge, then up to our night’s stop. The Glorer Hütte (2642m) sits at a pass, the Berger Törl. Cold weather had deterred visitors; with a lack of bodies, the stove (unusually) struggled to warm up the Gaststube, but we made the most of a delicious cheesy pasta Bergsteigeressen and retired to our bunks wearing woolly hats.

We’d allowed ourselves a hotel in the valley at Kals for the next two nights. The following day we scrambled through a boulder field on the flanks of Kastenegg to the level green Peischlachtörl (2484m), then stayed high up before zig-zagging steeply down to town for a welcome ice cream. A small hotel (Eiluned managed three hot baths), a birthday with luscious chocolate cake and plenty of wine made for a lovely evening while we planned tomorrow’s pack-free outing. We’d appreciated the easy start, but we were looking forward to the next three days which were going to be longer, higher and more exciting (well I was anyway!)

Early next morning, the chairlift carried us up to the Sudetendeutsche Höhenweg (such hard work!) After an initial climb, the path gently rises along the western side of a ridge including Vordere Kendlspitze (3085m) and Gradötz (3063m). We were followed by a herd of too-friendly goats, so we pushed on to lose them before picnicking. The terrain was becoming a bit steep for a sit-down lunch so we stopped and, at the first rustle of a bag, the goats’ heads popped up over the hill just behind us! They were a persistent bunch, so we scoffed our food quickly and carried on. The hillside became steeper and rougher, and we gratefully used the cables alongside the path, with dark clouds all around and a light flurry of sleet. Eiluned suddenly decided she still had picnic food stuck in her teeth and announced a need to dig in her rucksack for some dental floss – which she did, while we waited, feeling vulnerable on the loose approach to the pass. It felt surreal at the time, but we often laugh about it now! We reached the rocky cleft of the Dürrenfeld Scharte (2823m) and carefully lowered ourselves down the rocks to cross scree and snow patches to the Sudetendeutsche Hütte (2650m). This DAV hut was super-welcoming and warm, and we were soon laying out our inner sheets in the lovely carved-wood bunks, and anticipating supper.

The morning dawned, cloudy and cold again. Full of rolls and jam, we crossed the bleak bowl of rocks and scree above the hut to reach the ridge (2826m) overlooking the deep Dorfertal north of Kals. We were stunned by the fantastic view of Groβglockner in rapidly improving weather, a vision which remained with us all along path 517 high on the eastern flank of Großer Muntanitz, winding through pastures, round stony spurs, dipping into V-shaped valleys and clinging to cliffs, but always out in the open. Eiluned, thirsty, showed me her credit card-sized water catcher – just a gulp at every convenient trickle, a wheeze she’d learnt from her mountaineering Dad. The path finally meets the valley floor above the treeline, and climbs through rocky outcrops to the Rudolfshütte (2315m) after a great 7-hour walk. This hut/ hotel is served by cable car from Enzigerboden, and serves a worthwhile purpose as an alpine training centre with an entertaining climbing wall (and ceiling).

The last day to the Mooserboden dam was to be another long one, and Eiluned and Paul succumbed to the temptation of the cable car and the Krimml Falls. We pulled their legs but wished them a happy day as we set off towards the Tauernmoossee on a varied route with handrails, a very narrow plank across a river, then a wilderness of blocks and boulders which was once the Torkees glacier. There is no path here and we played “spot the waymark” whilst negotiating the maze. After the narrow, rocky Kapruner Törl (2639m), it was all downhill across an extensive snowfield and along the crest of a lateral moraine to the side of the Mooserboden reservoir. The water capacity of the reservoir is 89.9 million cubic metres, two-thirds of which flows under the mountains from the Pasterze Glacier where we’d been a week ago. It was a fabulous day’s walk and we made it to the dam for the last shuttle to the Lärchwand open inclined lift, which descends 431m and is the largest lift of its type in Europe. In Zell am See, the circle completed, we were together again for a final celebratory evening.

Groβglockner from high above the Dorfertal
Photos by Diana and Bernard Rayner

Crossing the Leiterbach

Groβglockner and Pasterze Glacier from Kaiser-Franz-Josefs-Höhe

Grateful for waymarks approaching Kapruner Törl

Descending to Mooserboden

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