Ladinger Straße - Speikkogel (Saualpe)

Access to starting point:
We leave the Klagenfurt am Wörthersee - Graz highway at the Wolfsberg Süd exit, then at the roundabout take the exit signposted St. Michael and Saualpe. Further on, at several junctions we keep following the left-hand directions; from the village of St. Michael we follow the signs for the settlement of Lading. Further ahead the road becomes narrower and starts climbing more steeply towards the mentioned settlement, where at several junctions we follow the main road or the signs for the Alpengasthof Gießlhütte guesthouse. From the guesthouse we continue driving a few hundred metres further to the marked parking lot next to the yellow hiking signposts.

Path description:
From the parking lot, we take the left path in the direction of the cottages Offnerhütte, Wolfsberger Hütte and Zechhütte (right along the road to Ladinger Hütte), where at the end of the parking lot the path enters the forest and then ascends diagonally. A few minutes higher we cross a macadam road (left along the road to Zechhütte and Reiseberger Hütte), a few steps further we cross another poorer macadam road, and then continue through the forest for some time. Higher up, the path leads us along the upper edge of a nearby pasture (here another path branches off to the left towards the hut Zechhütte), from where a beautiful view opens up that reaches all the way to the Slovenian mountains, and then a gentle path continues along the ridge of the peak Moarhaltberg. A few minutes further on we return to a wider macadam road, where the path past the hut Zechhütte joins from the left, and we continue straight ahead along the panoramic road.
From the road, quite inconspicuously to the right over a pasture fence, a path soon branches off towards the hut Offnerhütte, but we continue along the road which splits a little further on. Here too a path, or rather a road, branches off to the right towards the hut Offnerhütte, while we continue straight in the direction of the hut Wolfsberger Hütte and continue ascending along the macadam road.
Further on we ascend diagonally to the left, and at an altitude of approximately 1700 m the path splits once again. Here a slightly poorer road branches off gently to the left from the wider road towards the hut Pöllinger Hütte, while we continue along the wider road which becomes somewhat steeper. Higher up we bypass the hut Posseggerhütte on the left side, then follow an ascent in a few hairpin turns to the hut Wolfsberger Hütte.
From the hut we head onto the path towards the summit Speikkogel; for a few dozen steps it runs in the same direction as the path to Velika Svinja / Ladinger Spitz, then our path turns slightly left and higher up begins to ascend gradually diagonally to the left. The path ahead approaches the cross Zingelkreuz for a while but then bypasses it on the lower left side. A few minutes further on we reach the ridge and a marked junction, from which we take the slightly left path towards the summit Speikkogel (slightly right to the huts Druckerhütte and Steinerhütte).
We continue the easy ascent along a wire fence; higher up at the marked junction, where there is also a sign saying “peak left”, we quickly reach the panoramic and indistinct summit.
The starting point - Wolfsberger Hütte 1:45, Wolfsberger Hütte - Speikkogel 0:40.
Description and photographs refer to conditions in May 2008.

On the way: Wolfsberger Hütte mounatin hut (Saualpe) (1827m)

Trip can be extended to: Großer Sauofen (Saualpe) ( 5 min)