Ehrwald - Hochfeldern Alm

Access to starting point:
Through the Karawanks Tunnel, we drive into Austria, then continue driving towards Spittal and further towards Lienz (somewhat after Spittal the highway ends). Further, we drive on a relatively nice and wide road through the Drau Valley, which brings us into Italy. The road then leads past the places Dobbiaco / Toblach and Brunico / Bruneck. We continue further on the main road and then join the highway towards Austria (direction Brenner, Innsbruck). In Innsbruck, we continue on the highway, which runs westwards along the river Inn (at the highway junction, direction Innsbruck-West). We leave the highway at the exit for the Fernpaß pass. We continue driving over the mentioned pass and when the road starts to descend, we continue right towards the town of Ehrwald (at the exit there are also signs for Zugspitze). When driving through the town of Ehrwald, we turn right towards the Ehrwalder Almbahn cableway. Further on, the road starts to ascend, and we follow the signs for the mentioned cableway all the time. We park at one of the parking lots at the lower station of the cableway.

Path description:
At the lower station of the cableway, we first continue right along the road, then after some tens of meters continue left onto the gravel road following the signs for "Ehrwalder Alm".
From the junction, a relatively level road runs along the forest and soon brings us to another junction. At the junction, we continue straight along the road, while to the right a more demanding path (Immensteig) branches off towards the lake Seebensee.
The road further runs along the ski slope at the edge of the forest and leads us past the lower station of the chairlift and a small hut along the path. At the hut, where a view opens towards the summit Westliche Plattspitze, we continue slightly left and begin to ascend somewhat more steeply. The road then takes us into the forest and continues ascending quite steeply. Higher up, we reach the left side of the circular cabin cableway and continue ascending through the forest. When we emerge from the forest back onto the ski slope, our path turns right and then runs along the right side of the cableway. The road further always runs near the cableway along the ski slope. Such a path, from which increasingly beautiful views open up, soon brings us to the hut on the alpine pasture Ehrwalder Alm, where the upper station of the circular cabin cableway is also located. The alpine pasture can otherwise also be reached by cableway in the summer months.
From the upper station of the cableway, we continue along the gravel road, which quickly brings us to a junction. We take the left road, while straight ahead the path leads to the nearby inn Gasthof Alpenglühn and further towards the lake Seebensee and the hut Coburger Hütte. After just some tens of meters of walking, we reach another junction. This time, we continue slightly right along the gravel road and follow the signs for the alpine pasture Hochfeldern Alm.
Further on, we walk for some time along a fairly level gravel road, which runs eastwards the whole time. After approximately just under half an hour of walking from the alpine pasture Ehrwalder Alm, the path brings us to another marked junction.
We turn left onto the footpath (Max Klotz Steig) towards the alpine pasture Hochfeldern Alm, while straight along the road a slightly longer path leads to the same alpine pasture and a path towards the Gaistal valley. From the junction, we first ascend the grassy slope along the ski slope, then the path takes us into the forest. The well-trodden path through the forest first ascends somewhat more steeply, then gently ascends across the slope towards the east. Such a path soon rejoins the gravel road. From here, only a short ascent along the road remains to the hut on the alpine pasture Hochfeldern Alm.

On the way: Ehrwalder Alm (1502m)

Trip can be extended to: Knorrhütte (2 h 10 min) , Sonnalpin (3 h 40 min) , Zugspitze (5 h 10 min)