Innsbruck – Hike from the Olympic City into the Mountains

Your mountain week will kick off with a beautiful hike in the Brenner mountains near the Italian border.
A scenic drive through the Wipptal will take you to the trailhead of our tour. The trail takes us through sparse, light larch forest and beautiful alpine meadows up to the Lichtsee (“bright lake”), nestled below Trunajoch at  2100 m above sea level. Wonderful views of the Brenner mountains, of the Tribulaun mountains and especially of the imposing Olperer in the South will take our breath away. The peak of the Rötenspitz (“red peak”) is only 300 meters above the beautiful lake.
We’ll descend to Kastnerbergalm and on to Obernberg.

Beautiful Stubai Valley is the place for today’s hike. We’ll start our tour at the impressive Grawa waterfall and follow the spectacular Wilde Wasser Weg (“wild water trail”), at first a rather steep ascent to the beautiful high valley of Sulzenegg and then more leisurely to the Sulzenauer hut. “Sulz” referes to the old snow in spring time. We’ll hike past several moraine lakes to the Niederl, a notch-like passage on the way to Nürnberger Hütte, before descending via said Nürnberger hut back down to the Stubai Valley - a quite long walk. The road will take us back to Innsbruck.

This is a city tour of another kind! The official city limits of Innsbruck include the area the ragged peaks of the Nordkette („northern range“) and the city area stretches all the way to Scharnitz on the Bavarian border!
We‘ll ride the Hungerburg and Seegruben cable car, which takes us directly from the city center up to the Hafelekar at 2300 m. We’ll then hike the Goetheweg („Goethe’s trail“) along the upper slopes of the Nordkette dropping off steeply into the Inn valley. Once we arrive at the Gleirschjöchl, we’ll descend northwards in a gully full of scree. We‘ll plunge into the wilderness of the Karwendel with its rugged limestone peaks. We‘ll follow the trail to Möslalm through the Gleirschtal. After a well-deserved snack at the small alpine dairy, we’ll hike . through the wild gorge along the Gleirschbach (stream) on trails and overfootbridges to Scharnitz.

Today’s destination valley the Tuxer Alps. A taxi will take us via Wattental and the military camp „Walchen“ to the beautifully situated Lizumer Hütte. First, we’ll hike up the valley, through beautiful alpine pastures, then hairpins take us up into the so-called Geiermulde („vultures‘ hollow“) and further to Junsjoch at 2484m.
A few more hairpin bends will take us over a ridge and the panoramic Geierjoch to the popular skiing mountain Geier („vulture“) at 2857 m. An imposing metal vulture on the top eyes the breathtaking surrounding mountain langdscape.
Up close to the north, the Lizumer Reckner rises in front of us. We‘ll trek down into a saddle and follow the trail to the foot of the summit. An easy climb would take us up.
Continuing our panoramic round tour via the Sonnenspitze („sun peak“) and the Klammjoch („gorge saddle“) we’ll soon arrive back at Lizumer Hütte.

The so-called Wettersteingebirge („weather rock mountains“) lies between the Karwendel and the German Zugspitze. The Gehrenspitze is a classic panorama mountain and one of the most popular hikes in the Leutasch valley.
The stand-alone peak of the Gehrenspitze (2367 m) towers proudly over the entire Leutasch and offers breathtaking panoramic views. The narrow trail starts out in dense forest and takes us up to the Puitegg. Here the forest opens up into beautiful alpine pastures. We‘ll hike through sweeping alpine meadows, lone gnarled trees and erratic boulders, the steep, grey north face of our summit to the left above us. After climbing up to Scharnitzjoch (saddle, 2048 m, approx. 2 h), we’ll trek further to the southeast past the unstaffed Erinnerungshütte (“anniversary hut”) to the summit (approx. 1 h). This section of the trail is narrow and rocky, taking us over steep meadows and through a little more challenging terrain. Sure-footedness and a head for heights are required. After a summit rest we‘ll return to the Joch (saddle) and descend through the Scharnitz valley to the Wettersteinhütte. After a break at the hut, we‘ll hike back to Leutasch on the root-covered trail through the Gutwald forest („good forest“).

The grande finale of our hiking week will be the climb of legendary Serles, also called „the altar of Tyrol“ in the Stubaier Alps.
We’ll take the road through the Wipp valley to Matrei and then continue on a small toll road up to the monastery of Maria Waldrast („Mary’s rest in the woods“). This idyllic and serene place is also known for its mineral spring, said to have healing powers and famous well beyond the Tyrolean borders.
First, we’ll follow a narrow trail uphill through sparse spruce and larch forest, then we’ll cross the upper forested regions covered by dwarf montain pine. Soon, we’ll reach high alpine meadows and a beautiful hollow area, which we’ll traverse on our way to the saddle.
On the last 400 meters of our climb we’ll climb barren terrain covered with scree in a truly great alpine ambience. Despite easy terrain, surefootedness is required. The sweeping summit panorama over the Stubaier Alps all the way to the Karwendel is unparalleled – and the reason why Serles with its imposing cross is called the "Altar of Tyrol".
We’ll descend the same path to Maria Waldrast to stop for a bite to eat after the impressive hike. After some relaxing, we‘ll hike back down through the sparse larch forest to Koppeneck, the top ski lift station of the village of Mieders. The last part is a lot of fun: we’ll ride down the summer toboggan run back to the Stubai valley.