Klippitztörl - Zirbitzkogelhütte

Access to starting point:
a) Via the Ljubelj border crossing, we drive into Austria and follow the signs for Klagenfurt am Wörthersee by Lake Wörthersee. In Celovec, at McDonald's, we turn right onto the south bypass / Südring, at the next major intersection we turn right again towards Völkermarkt / Velikovec and Brückl / Mostič. We soon leave the road towards Velikovec as shortly after the Obi store we turn right towards the highway and Mostič. Continuing past the Ikea store, we follow the signs for Mostič and past the highway on-ramps. When we arrive in Mostič, we follow the signs for Eberstein / Svinec and Hüttenberg. Still before Hüttenberg, more precisely after the settlement Mösel, we turn right towards the Klippitztörl pass and the settlement Lölling. Continuing, we begin to ascend more noticeably through the valley of the Löllingbach stream, higher up, after the settlement Lölling, we gradually distance ourselves from the stream as well. We follow this road all the way to the Klippitztörl pass, where we turn right and park on the larger asphalt parking lot.
b) Via the Jezerski Vrh, Holmec or Vič border crossings, we drive into Austria, then follow the signs for Völkermarkt / Velikovec, from there the signs for Brückl / Mostič. When we arrive in Mostič, we follow the signs for Eberstein / Svinec and Hüttenberg. Still before Hüttenberg, more precisely after the settlement Mösel, we turn right towards the Klippitztörl pass and the settlement Lölling. Continuing, we begin to ascend more noticeably through the valley of the Löllingbach stream, higher up, after the settlement Lölling, we gradually distance ourselves from the stream as well. We follow this road all the way to the Klippitztörl pass, where we turn right and park on the larger asphalt parking lot.
c) We leave the Klagenfurt am Wörthersee – Graz motorway at the Šentlenart exit in the Lavanttal valley / Bad St. Leonhard im Lavanttal, then follow the signs for Zeltweg and Reichenfels. Continuing, we drive along Obdacher Straße, which after about 2 km we leave and continue left towards the Klippitztörl pass. This is followed by approximately 15 km of ascending asphalt road, which we follow past the Naturfreundehaus hut to the Klippitztörl pass, where we turn left onto the asphalt parking lot and park in a suitable spot.

Path description:
From the parking lot, we head north, where we first carefully cross the main road and then continue on the footpath following the signs for Zirbitzkogel and Hohenwart. At first, we ascend diagonally through the forest. When we reach a cart track, we gradually begin descending diagonally. Lower down, we reach a macadam road, which we follow to the right. A little further on, we turn right onto a footpath that climbs above the road. After a short ascent, we reach another cart track, which we follow to the right. Next, we walk for a while along the cart track, from which we several times get a view of the rather distant Zirbitzkogel. We then gradually arrive on the slopes of Hohenwart, where at several junctions we continue straight or keep to the left-marked paths that have signs for Zirbitzkogel.
After a longer traverse, we reach the northern ridge of Hohenwart, from where we start descending more noticeably while continuing to keep left at the junctions. Further on, we walk for some time along a pasture. When looking to the right, a view opens towards the Packalpe mountain group. When the path lower down stops descending, we cross a somewhat wider macadam road.
We continue following the signs for Zirbitzkogel. After a short ascent, we return into the forest, which begins to thin out higher up. A little further on, we ascend moderately along a panoramic clearing. With beautiful views that extend all the way to the Julian Alps, we return into sparse forest. We pass an interesting hunting observatory and then continue easily along a gentle, indistinct ridge, where we almost imperceptibly reach the summit of Angerlkogel, which we recognize by the trigonometric point.
A little further from the highest point of the peak we leave the forest and looking to the left a view opens up that reaches all the way to Triglav and even further to the Italian mountains, while we start descending along a grassy slope towards a smaller saddle, where we cross a macadam road and then continue the ascent on a marked path in the direction of the Feldalmhütte hut. Next follows an easy ascent, at first still through sparse forest, higher up along a gentle grassy slope, with the path leading slightly to the right of the Pressner Alpe ridge. A little further ahead, among the blueberry bushes the path completely flattens and we arrive at the Pfannegger Kreuz cross, where the marked path turns right.
We continue right along a cart track that gradually widens into a poorer road, which mostly descends gently while traversing the slopes to the right. A little further on, the path turns left and quickly brings us to the Feldalmhütte hut.
We bypass the hut on the upper left side, then turn left from the road onto a footpath following the signs for St. Martiner Hütte and Zirbitzkogel, and ascend diagonally across the northeastern slopes of the Zöhrerkogel peak. A few minutes further on, we reach the northeastern ridge of the mentioned peak and at the same time a poor macadam road; we merely cross the ridge (left along the Zöhrerkogel ridge 20 minutes) and continue walking along the gentle road. Later we leave the poor road and head slightly left onto a footpath, which we follow diagonally to the northwestern ridge of the Zöhrerkogel peak (here an unmarked path joins from the left, leading over the mentioned peak).
We continue to the other side of the ridge and keep following the signs for St. Martiner Hütte; the path ahead descends diagonally to the left. Lower down, where the path temporarily stops descending, we pass three crosses, then continue along a panoramic slope from which a beautiful view opens to the nearby Krške Alpe, until we reach St. Martiner Hütte.
We bypass the hut and the auxiliary building on the left side, then cross a pasture fence and easily ascend over the last part of the pasture into the forest. In the forest as well, we continue for some time with an easy diagonal ascent to the left, following the marks at several junctions. When we leave the forest the path flattens; after a cross we begin descending towards a junction near Stoanahütte.
From the junction we continue straight in the direction of Zirbitzkogel (right Stoanahütte 3 minutes; it is also possible to continue towards Zirbitzkogel past the hut, which adds only a few minutes) and at first ascend moderately, then steeply higher up; in addition to the classic Austrian marks, winter markers also appear in the form of red poles. This is followed by approximately 30 minutes of fairly steep ascent; when higher up we reach the elongated southern ridge of Fuchskogel the path flattens and increasingly beautiful views open up in all directions. Later the path flattens even more, and from the right joins a path that leads past Wildsee lake, starting from Waldheimhütte hut.
The path ahead ascends moderately; looking to the right, a beautiful view of Wildsee lake soon opens up. A little further on, the path flattens again and we reach a junction where a fairly short path branches off to the right to the Fuchskogel summit (about 3 minutes). We continue left towards Zirbitzkogel.
The path gradually transitions onto a partly grassy ridge that connects Fuchskogel with Zirbitzkogel. At first we descend gently, then gradually begin to ascend along the southern ridge of Zirbitzkogel, where a path joins from the left – the one starting at Tonnerhütte hut.
We continue straight towards Zirbitzkogel (left Tonnerhütte hut, right Lavantsee lake), following the ridge. At first the ascent is still moderate, then come a few shorter steeper sections. As we approach the summit, the path leaves the ridge to the right, then in a traversing ascent reaches a cart track where the regular path from Waldheimhütte hut joins from the right.
We continue the ascent along the cart track, which quickly brings us to Zirbitzkogelhütte.
Starting point - Angerkogel 3:00, Angerkogel - Feldalmhütte 0:45, Feldalmhütte - St. Martiner Hütte 0:55, St. Martiner Hütte - Stoanahütte 0:40, Stoanahütte - Fuchskogel 1:35, Fuchskogel - Zirbitzkogelhütte 0:45.

On the way: Angerlkogel (1774m), Pfannegger Kreuz (1784m), Feldalmhütte (1751m), Zellkreuz (1718m), St. Martiner Hütte (1710m), Judenburger Kreuz (1764m), Stoanahütte (1748m), Fuchskogel (2214m)