Klösterle - Stifterboden

Access to starting point:
A) Via the Ljubelj border crossing, we drive into Austria, then follow the road towards Celovec / Klagenfurt. In Celovec, at all crossroads we continue straight ahead; when the main road turns sharply to the right, we leave it a little further on and continue left towards the settlements Dhovše pri Celovcu / Lendorf and Trg na Koroškem / Feldkirchen in Kärnten. When we arrive at the motorway junction, we go left towards the settlement Trg na Koroškem; when we reach the mentioned settlement, from the traffic-light-controlled crossroads we go right towards the alpine pass Turracher Höhe. After the settlement Himmelberg, we go left towards Osojščice / Gerlitzen and begin to ascend noticeably. When the road stops ascending, we follow it to parking lot 6a.

From the Ljubelj border crossing to the starting point it is approximately 73 km.

b) Through the Karawanks Tunnel we drive into Austria, then drive along the motorway to the motorway interchange, from where we continue towards Špital ob Dravi / Spittal an der Drau and continue on motorway A10. We quickly leave the A10 and take the exit for Osojsko jezero / Ossiacher See; at the nearby roundabout we take the third exit (if there were no roundabout, we would go left) and continue on Millstätter Strasse. We follow the mentioned road to a crossroads, where we turn right towards the settlement Arriach and the Gerlitzen ski area, continuing on Teuchen Landesstraße. We follow the mentioned road to parking lot 6a.

From the Karavanke border crossing to the starting point it is approximately 47 km.

Path description:
From the parking lot, over a wooden bridge we cross the Arriachbach stream, then we walk to the lower station of the Klösterlebahn I cable car, which we bypass on the right side. Behind the chairlift station we continue right, thus reaching the edge of the forest. When we enter the forest we notice the first marking, and the path splits a few steps ahead.

The marked path continues straight and leads to Wurzelpark; we go left, where after a few steps we notice a trodden pathlet which, after a short ascent, turns right and ascends transversely above the archery area. After approximately 5 minutes of walking on the unmarked path, we return to the marked path, reaching it where it runs along a gravel road (the path past Wurzelpark is approximately 15 minutes longer).

We follow the road left; along it we soon reach the edge of the ski slope, from where a beautiful view opens up, and the path turns right and continues along the road. Higher up we make a few hairpin turns, then return to the ski slope, along which we ascend for a while, after which the path enters the forest again, where we continue along a poorer road. After crossing the pasture fence, the path stays on the ski slope for longer and becomes steeper as it ascends straight up the ski slope. When we approach the upper station of the Klösterlebahn I cable car, we go right into the forest again. In the forest the road turns sharply left and takes us to the station of the mentioned cable car, where a few dozen steps before it we continue right uphill. We quickly reach the next road and continue along it amid ever finer views reaching to Austria's highest peak. There follow a few junctions where we follow the markings, then past the reservoir lake, from which a fine view of Wintertalernock opens up, we arrive at a junction near the Huaba Hittn hut.

Here we go right (left to Huaba Hittn hut 1 minute) and along the road begin to descend gently to the nearby stream. Beyond the stream the road turns right and in a slight ascent takes us to a junction where we go slightly left, soon reaching the Neugarten Almseehütte hut.

From the hut we continue slightly right (slightly left is one of the paths to Osojščica) towards Stifterboden. The path ahead first leads along a service road running along the ski slope, then the markings direct us right into the forest, where we cross a pasture fence. After crossing the fence we continue along a wide and easy path which quickly brings us to an asphalt road, up which we ascend to the Stifterboden holiday cottage settlement.

Klösterle - Huaba Hittn 1:40, Huaba Hittn - Neugarten Almseehütte 0:10, Neugarten Almseehütte - Stifterboden 0:30.

Description and pictures refer to the condition in 2019 (August).

On the way: Huaba Hittn (1605m), Neugarten Almseehütte (1620m)

Trip can be extended to: Gerlitzen ( 40 min)