Hiking route Stage 21 From Glacier to Wine North Route Mürzzuschlag - Pretul Rosegger Schutzhaus - Touren-Impression #1 | © Steiermark Tourismus/Harry Schiffer Hiking route Stage 21 From Glacier to Wine North Route Mürzzuschlag - Pretul Rosegger Schutzhaus - Touren-Impression #1 | © Steiermark Tourismus/Harry Schiffer

Stage 21 From Glacier to Wine North Route Mürzzuschlag - Pretul Rosegger Schutzhaus

Open
On this stage of the hiking route "From Glacier to Wine" we are on historical tracks in several respects. While the first part of the hike takes us along the UNESCO World Heritage Semmering Railway on the railroad hiking trail of the same name, towards the end of the tour we reach the Stuhleck, the first Alpine peak to be climbed on skis in 1892 and thus considered the cradle of skiing. The first section to Spital am Semmering is quite leisurely, then it's almost 1,000 meters of altitude uphill to the highest peak in the Eastern Alps, the Stuhleck, to finally march the last kilometers leisurely over the alpine pastures of the Fischbacher Alps downhill to the Pretul.

In Mürzzuschlag, one is not only on the historical tracks of the mountain rescuers - as described on the 19th stage of the hiking route "From Glacier to Wine" - but also on those of the ski pioneers. Max Kleinoscheg, Toni Schruf and Walther Wenderich were the ones who climbed the 1,782-meter summit on skis of the Stuhleck on February 13, 1892, and also organized the first ski race in Central Europe in Mürzzuschlag on February 2, 1893. They also organized a winter sports exhibition in 1894, thus popularizing skiing in the Alpine region. Therefore, we also find the FIS Winter Sports Museum in Mürzzuschlag with the largest number of winter sports historical exhibits in the world.

We also move here on a stage of the circular tour BergZeitReise, which leads through the wildly romantic mountain landscape of Hochsteiermark.

Characteristics

Skill
Fitness
Experience
Scenery

Best season

January
February
March
April
October
November
December

The tour in numbers

medium
Level of difficulty
21,4 km
Route
8:00 h
Time
1410 hm
Uphill
490 hm
Downhill
1779 m
Highest point
671 m
Lowest point

Map & downloads

More information

Detaillierte Informationen zur Anreise finden Sie hier.

We start our tour in the small town of Mürzzuschlag, beautifully situated at the foot of the Semmering. If we want to shorten the tour a bit, because we want to visit one of the museums in Mürzzuschlag, there is the possibility to take the Semmeringbahn from Mürzzuschlag to Spital am Semmering or to take the public bus - here we find the timetable (train and bus).

In Mürzzuschlag we first head towards the train station to reach the Obere Bahngasse through an underpass in front of it. From here the hike leads us to Spital am Semmering on the southernmost section of the Styrian railroad hiking trail, which is managed as a theme trail. Peter Rosegger (1843 - 1918), the worldwide known poet, writer and critical zeitgeist, accompanies us here on this section and meets important contemporaries such as Viktor Kaplan, the inventor of the water turbine, or the actor and poet Otto von Sommerstorff, who died in Spital am Semmering in 1934. Thus, a small, informative cultural history about the Styrian part of Semmering opens up along the way. Via the district of Edlach we reach Spital am Semmering, always slightly uphill, along the railroad line and past viaducts. Before we reach the tranquil town, which is one of the largest vacation resorts in the Mürz valley, especially with the Stuhleck ski area, we get the opportunity to delve deeper into the history of the region. Above our route in the middle of the dense forest we find the robber caves. The Great Robber's Cave with two still visible fortifications can be reached via a somewhat hidden path in 5 - 10 minutes. According to the legend, the robbers lived in it. The only sure evidence of this is a document dating back to 1220, in which these robbers are mentioned. In the 17th and 18th centuries, according to several sources, there were several groups of disarmed soldiers in the cave, who chose this cave as their hideout and harassed the surrounding countryside from there.

Back on our main path, we turn right above Spital am Semmering at the idyllic Zatzka church at the foot of a small rock face to get to the train station and past the Hotel Onkel Fritz directly into the small center of the village. At the town hall we cross the main road and walk past the church with its beautiful vicarage in the direction of Stuhleck. By the way, the name of the village goes back to a hospice (hospital) that was founded here in 1160 on the site of the parish church by Ottokar III. After the church we turn right and follow the Stuhleckstraße for about 200 meters. Immediately after a long left-hand bend we keep to the left in order to enter the beautiful woods of the Hocheck via the Lärchenwaldweg (larch forest path) - nomen est omen - passing under the Stuhleck quad chairlift beforehand. The rest of the way takes us past the Gaißschlager farm over the Hocheck to the Karl Lechner Haus (only open from June to the end of October on weekends and holidays, winter room is always available, tel. +43 1 2902409 or +43 676 4464643 on days when there is service).

From the Karl Lechner Haus we now continue uphill on our hiking route "From Glacier to Wine", initially through a shady forest towards the Stuhleck summit with the Alois Günther Haus (Tel. +43 3853 300) right next to it. The forest is soon replaced by the mountain pine fields and alpine pastures of the Stuleck massif. Through and over these, the path leads us just below the summit once again to a historical gem that lets us look back into skiing history. We encounter the remains of the walls of the Nansenhütte, the first ski hut in the Alpine region. Now it is only a few hundred meters until we finally reach the highest point on the eastern edge of the Alps, the summit of the Stuhleck with the Alois Günther Haus (Tel. +43 3853 300), where, by the way, a toll road also leads. This point is certainly one of the most impressive vantage points in the Eastern Alps, as on one side you can look towards the Alpine region with the Rax, Hochschwab and the mountain world in the south of Austria, but on the other side you can also look towards the hilly landscape of Eastern Styria and the Pannonian Plain behind it. From the Stuhleck we continue our hike along the ridge of the Fischbacher Alps to the Pretul with the Peter-Bergner Warte and the Rosegger Schutzhaus (Tel. +43 3170 522), to which a toll road also leads from the village of Ratten in the Joglland-Waldheimat region of eastern Styria. The next day takes us further through the Fischbach Alps to the namesake village of Fischbach at the foot of the mystical Teufelstein.

In the spring of 2018, a jury and the readers of a major Austrian daily newspaper selected Martina Traisch from the Enns Valley and Manfred Polansky from the Mürz Valley as two "super hikers" who hiked the north and south routes in the summer. You can read about their experiences and adventures at www.steiermark.com/superwanderer: From ideal photo spots to hidden wine cellars in mountain huts. Do you want to follow in the footsteps of Martina and Manfred and also become a "super hiker"? It's very easy: Register at www.steiermark.com/superwanderer and then post your experiences, videos and comments along the hiking route "From Glacier to Wine" - regardless of whether you hike the entire route or just one section. Every 5 stages also beckons a small reward!

Detailed information about arriving by ÖBB (Austrian Federal Railways) can be found at www.oebb.at or on the Verbundlinie Steiermark website www.busbahnbim.at

With Verbundlinie’s BusBahnBim route planner app, planning your journey has never been easier: simply enter towns and/or addresses, stop names or points of interest to check all bus, train and tram connections in Austria. The app is available free of charge for smartphones – on Google Play and in the App Store

In Mürzzuschlag there is a large Park & Ride parking lot behind the train station (access to the Südbahnmuseum). In the city center, please note the short-term parking zones.

Steiermark Tourismus

Tel. +43 316 4003

info@steiermark.com

www.steiermark.com/en

If you would like to hire a  tour operator, simply book with Steiermark Touristik, the official travel agency of Steiermark Tourismus:

Tel. +43 316 4003 450, 

www.steiermark-touristik.com

The Steiermark Touren app, available free of charge on Google Play and the App Store  (Android, iOS), offers detailed first-hand information: brief facts (length, duration, difficulty, ascent and descent/elevation gain, ratings), map, route descriptions, altimeter, compass, peak finder, navigation along the tour. You can also create your own personal lists of favourite tours and sites, store tours and destinations offline, use social media channels, and much more.

Gallery

What the weather will be like

Langenwang (637m)

Morning
cloudy
6°C
75%
5 km/h
Noon
sunny
13°C
5%
10 km/h
Night
foggy
8°C
75%
10 km/h
Rather dry after morning showers die away. Light rain will start again in the afternoon.
Morning
very sunny
5°C
0%
5 km/h
Noon
slightly cloudy
17°C
0%
10 km/h
Night
slightly cloudy
14°C
0%
10 km/h
The day starts sunny, but will be partly cloudy in the afternoon.
30.03.2024
sunny
7°C 22°C
31.03.2024
sunny
7°C 20°C
01.04.2024
cloudy
6°C 19°C

Nearby accommodation options

Continue to search

You may also be interested in

Recommended tours

Michlbauerhütte auf der Schneealm | Daniela Paul | © TV Hochsteiermark
Hochsteiermark medium Open
Route 15,7 km
Duration 5:15 h

Familientour zum Windberg im Naturpark Mürzer Oberland

Accessible by public transport
Blick auf die Rax | Andreas Steininger | © TV Hochsteiermark
Hochsteiermark medium Open
Route 15,2 km
Duration 5:30 h

Vom Preiner Gscheid auf die Hohe Scheibe im Naturpark Mürzer Oberland

Accessible by public transport
Raxblick | nixxipixx.com | © Nicole Seiser
Hochsteiermark medium Open
Route 11,5 km
Duration 5:00 h

BergZeitReise Tagestourentipp - Rax

Blick vom Altenbergersteig auf die benachbarte Schneealm | Daniela Paul | © Naturpark Mürzer Oberland
Hochsteiermark medium Open
Route 11,4 km
Duration 4:30 h

Über den Altenbergersteig auf die Rax im Naturpark Mürzer Oberland

Accessible by public transport
Der Siebenbrunnenkessel | Andreas Steininger | © TV Hochsteiermark
Hochsteiermark medium Open
Route 9,4 km
Duration 4:00 h

Über den Waxriegelsteig auf die Rax im Naturpark Mürzer Oberland

Accessible by public transport
Blick zur Hohen Scheibe | Andreas Steininger | © TV Hochsteiermark
Hochsteiermark medium Open
Route 17,2 km
Duration 7:00 h

Mit dem Bus zum Berg - Überschreitung der Hohen Scheibe