Lienzer Dolomitenhütte - Kleine Laserzwand

Access to starting point:
Through the Karawanks Tunnel, we drive to Austria, and then we continue driving towards Spittal and further towards Lienz (a little after Spittal the highway ends). Further, we drive on a relatively nice and wide road through the Drau valley. A few kilometers before Lienz (near the settlement Unterdorf), we will notice signs for the mountain hut Lienzer Dolomitenhütte, which point us to the left on a local road. The road then crosses the river Drava over a bridge and brings us to the village Lavant, where we continue right in the direction of the village Tristach. Between the village Lavant and Tristach we will come to the next crossroad, where we continue left in the direction of "Lienzer Dolomitenhütte". This road, which starts to ascend more steeply, we then follow to a large parking lot near the mentioned mountain hut. The road is payable (July 2009 7€).
To Lienz we can also come if, instead of through the Drau valley, we drive through the Gailtal valley (Korensko sedlo, Hermagor, mountain pass Ziljsko sedlo/Gailbergsattel); in this case, we arrive in the Drau valley at the settlement Oberdrauburg.

Path description:
From the parking lot, we continue on the road, on which in 2 minutes we arrive at the mountain hut Lienzer Dolomitenhütte.
From the hut, we cross the fence and continue the ascent on a panoramic road (nice view of the serrated ridge - the highest is Spitzkofel 2717 m), which in the initial part is exposed to falling rocks. The road then crosses a short stretch of forest and brings us to the indistinct saddle Premstall (1625 m), where there is a smaller junction.
We continue straight past the trough with water (left uphill to Weißtein Alm) on the road, which after a few minutes of further walking brings us to the smaller mountain pasture Instein Alm, on which we notice a smaller wooden hut and slightly above it a chapel.
We continue further on the road, which quickly brings us to a marked junction, where we leave it.
We continue the ascent on a wide mountain path, which starts to ascend somewhat more steeply, through increasingly sparse forest. The path, from which very nice views open up, crosses the mountain road several times and higher brings us to a smaller wooden shelter. At the shelter, we leave the road again and continue the ascent through a gently sloping high mountain valley surrounded by high peaks. The gently sloping path, which runs along the torrent stream, higher turns right and ascends more steeply for a short time. We follow this panoramic path all the way to the mountain hut Karlsbader Hütte (near the hut there is also Laserzsee lake), which we reach after a few minutes of further walking.
We can also reach the hut via the mountain road.
From the hut, we descend some 10 m on the road, then we notice numerous hiking signposts that direct us right onto the footpath. Already after a few steps of further walking, the path splits into two parts. We continue left in the direction of "Roter Turm and Laserzwand" (right Sandspitzen) on the path which first ascends gently, then crosses the slopes to the left. After a few minutes of easy walking, the path ascends steeply and leads onto the very steep slopes of Kleine (Small) Laserzwand. There follows 15 minutes of steep ascent on an occasionally exposed slope (besides the risk of slipping there is also a very high risk of falling rocks), after which the path levels out slightly (here an unmarked but less steep path joins us from the right, which ascends over extensive scree). We continue on a somewhat less but still quite steep path, which higher brings us below the steep walls of Roter Turm, where we also arrive at a poorly marked junction. We continue left (straight steeply uphill to Roter Turm) on the path which levels out almost completely and brings us after a few steps of further walking to the saddle between Kleine Laserzwand on the left and Schöttnerspitze on the right (on the latter we notice a small cross).
On the saddle, we continue straight (right Laserzwand) on a well-visible but unmarked path, on which we ascend to Kleine Laserzwand in 5 minutes.

On the way: Instein Alm (1669m), Karlsbader Hütte (2261m)