Kapellen - Windberg (northern path)

Access to starting point:
From the border crossing Šentilj we continue driving on the highway towards Gradec / Graz and forward towards Linz and Salzburg. We soon leave Highway A9 and continue driving slightly to the right towards Vienna/Wien, proceeding on Highway S35. From this highway, we then merge onto Highway S6, still following the signs for Vienna. We leave the highway at the Mürzzuschlag-West exit, then follow the road to the city center, from where we follow signs for the settlement Neuberg an der Mürz. Before we reach the mentioned settlement, we turn right in the settlement Kapellen towards the mountain pass Preiner Gscheid.
Immediately after the crossroad, we park in a marked parking lot by the church.

Path description:
By the parking lot, we notice signposts for the mountain hut Scheibenhütte and the peak Große Scheiben, but behind the church, we start on the road Dorfstraße, which continues through the settlement parallel to the main road leading further towards the settlement Neuberg an der Mürz. When we get very close to the main road, we turn right at the crossroad and continue on the road Am Waldrand, where trail blazes appear, and the road begins to ascend. Above a few houses, the road enters the forest and becomes a gravel path; higher up, at a few crossroads, we follow the blazes and signs for the farm Tatscherhof, which we reach after approximately 45 minutes of walking.
After the farm, we continue on a forest road closed to public traffic, following it for a few minutes; after a right hairpin turn, the blazes direct us left onto a forest path that soon crosses a cart track. We continue to follow the blazes, mostly ascending moderately through the forest on a footpath that leads us northward. Higher up, we return to a forest road that flattens out, and we continue for a few minutes without significant changes in altitude.
We quickly reach an area named Auf der Öd, where there is a marked crossing.
We continue straight toward Schneealpe (left Neuberg an der Mürz, right Altenberg an der Rax); at a small cross, we leave the road and continue ascending on a cart track, which, as it nears another forest road, turns left and becomes a gradually steeper footpath. Next follows a somewhat longer, relatively steep ascent, which we complete in several longer zigzags.
Higher up, we get very close to a drivable road leading toward the Schneealpe plateau and nearby parking lots. Here, we bypass a bench with a table on the left and continue ascending for a few minutes on a mountain path, which soon reaches another gravel road; following it, we arrive at parking lot number 2, and through a strip of forest, we quickly reach the last two public parking lots, numbers 3 and 4.
Above parking lot number 4, we continue on a gravel road closed to public traffic with a gate.
The path ahead ascends in a few hairpin turns, followed by a diagonal ascent, from where increasingly beautiful views open up on the massif of the Schneealpe mountain group and, across the valley, on the Rax mountain group with its highest peak, Heukuppe. The path later turns left and, after a further diagonal ascent, brings us to a ridge, which we reach at a small saddle.
Here, a short path branches off to the left toward a nearby viewpoint, but we continue right on the road, which ascends near the transmitters, which we bypass on the right side. A few more minutes of walking on the road follow, and then, on the left, we notice the mountain hut Kutatsch-Hütte, which is a few dozen steps off our path.
At the mountain hut or bivouac, the path splits; past the bivouac leads a slightly longer path that crosses the road a few times or partly follows it, but we continue straight and, a little further, veer slightly right off the road onto a marked path that initially descends gently through a strip of dwarf pines; when we reach the upper edge of a nearby gully, we ascend more steeply for a few minutes. Higher up, the path flattens and turns slightly more to the right; a little further, it merges with the previously mentioned path that partly runs along the road.
Here, the path splits again, and we continue straight (slightly right toward the mountain hut Schneealpenhaus), initially alongside the road, then on the road, following signs for Michlbauerhütte and Windberg.
We descend briefly, then veer slightly left off the road onto a marked shortcut, which, after a few minutes of descent, returns us to the road. Next follows an easy walk with minimal altitude changes, where the path leads us across relatively flat terrain, and we follow the road to the mountain hut Michlbauerhütte.
From the mountain hut, we continue on the road past a few other cottages, and then the path splits.
We continue straight in the direction of the summit Windberg (left Neuberg through Karlgraben and also the southern path to Windberg, but here for Windberg there are no other markers than in the direction straight), before the last cottage Tatscherhütte we go slightly left onto a footpath which starts gently at first, then ascends somewhat more steeply on a grassy slope. A little further, the path turns left and continues with moderate steepness to a marked crossroads, from which we proceed in the already known direction of the summit Windberg. The path ahead turns a little more to the left and continues along the gentle northern ridge to the top of the mountain.
Kapellen - Tatscherhof 0:45, Tatscherhof - parking lot Kohlebnerstand 1:30, parking lot Kohlebnerstand - cottage Kutatsch-Hütte 0:45, cottage Kutatsch-Hütte - cottage Michlbauerhütte 0:35, cottage Michlbauerhütte - Windberg 0:30.
The description and pictures refer to the condition in November 2024.

On the way: Tatscherhof (940m), Kohlebnerstand (1450m), Kutatsch-Hütte (1700m), Michlbauerhütte (1745m)