Stage 09 From Glacier to Wine North Route Admont - Gesäuse Mödlingerhütte

Characteristics

Skill

Fitness

The tour in numbers

Level of difficulty medium

Route 14,7 km

Time 6:00 h

Uphill 1260 hm

Downhill 380 hm

Highest point 1542 m

The tour takes us into the world of the Gesäuse National Park, the youngest national park in Austria. But the Gesäuse also stands for alpine history, and everyone who sets out here will realize why as soon as they start. This stage of the hiking route "From Glacier to Wine" takes us from Admont via Kaiserau with the Klinke Hut to the Mödlinger Hut in the midst of the imposing Gesäuse Mountains.

For many centuries, the Gesäuse with its National Park and the Eisenwurzen Nature Park in the north of the region has been writing alpine history. In the beginning, it was hunters and herdsmen who climbed peaks, and farmers maintained the alpine paths - today's marked hiking trails. On our route, we are thus moving "in the footsteps of the cows and oxen". However, the mighty Gesäuse mountains soon attracted true pioneers of alpinism, primarily from the large cities of Vienna and Graz, to the Ennstal Alps. The opening of the Crown Prince Rudolf Railway in 1872 marked the beginning of the tourist discovery and development of the Gesäuse, which became one of the first and most famous tourist regions in Austria. One man in particular must be highlighted in this context: Heinrich Heß (1857 - 1946). Together with his long-time companion Andreas Rodlauer, he carried out numerous first ascents and, above all, pushed for the construction of secured climbing facilities by the Alpine Gesellschaft Die Ennstaler, the Viennese mountaineering group that later built the Heßhütte. But he made a name for himself not only as an alpinist, but also as an author of books and alpine guides. In 1884, the first Gesäuse guidebook was published, which in its year of publication was the first German-language guidebook for an alpine region ever.

Best season

January

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More information

In Admont there are numerous parking spaces available at the train station, among other places. Please note any short-stay parking zones.

A few meters after the start in Admont (Tourist Information Tel. +43 3613 2116010) in front of the Admont Abbey of the same name, we keep half-right to hike comfortably uphill parallel to the Via Alpina on the Kaiseraustraße along the Lichtmeßbach. At the Nagelschmiede Inn (Tel. +43 664 7930350) in the idyllic high valley of the Kaiserau, our path now branches off to the east and leads past Kaiserau Castle to the Klinke Hut (Tel. +43 3613 2601), which is beautifully situated at the foot of the Kalbling. The hut is a popular starting point for climbing the surrounding trio of peaks Kalbling, Riffel and Kreuzkogel. In winter, the area is not only popular with skiers who prefer a small and fine ski area, but there is also a toboggan run from the hut to the valley station.

From the Klinke Hut we now hike uphill in the face of the imposing southern walls of the Admonter Reichenstein via the Kalblinggatterl to the Mödlinger Hut (Tel. +43 680 2057139), our stage destination today on the hiking route "From Glacier to Wine", which leads from the glacier of the Dachstein to the wine country in the south of Styria. The double peak of the Admonter Reichenstein, located north of the Mödlinger Hütte, is one of the most popular photo motifs in Styria and should be enjoyed in the evening atmosphere of the Gesäuse mountains. The next morning our tour takes us to the next hut, the Heßhütte in the middle of the Gesäuseberge.

Sturdy hiking boots or good trekking shoes
Hiking backpack
Water bottle
First aid kit including blister plasters
Hiking map and smartphone
Snacks
Sunglasses
Sunscreen

You should also be well prepared for changeable weather.

Packing your backpack correctly makes things much easier:
Pack heavy items first. Your water bottle should always be easily accessible in a side pocket. Everything you need frequently, such as sunglasses, your smartphone, or hiking map, should be packed on top.

If you want it more alpine, take from Admont over the Kreuzkogel, the Riffel and past the summit of the Kaibling - details of the variant can be found here. Attention: alpine experience is a must!

Accessible by train and bus.

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 the Gesäuse region, you're mobile even without your own car during the summer months. Just one call to +43 3613 2100099 is all it takes: within operating hours, the Gesäuse shared taxi will take you to any destination in the Gesäuse — with no fixed timetable or stops.

Gesäuse Tourism Association
Hauptstraße 35, 8911 Admont, Austria
t: +43 3613 2116010
www.gesaeuse.at
Email: info@gesaeuse.at