Lienzer Dolomitenhütte - Laserzwand

Access to starting point:
Through the Karawanks Tunnel, we drive to Austria, and then we continue driving towards Spittal and onwards 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 direct us left onto a local road. The road then crosses the Drava/Drau river over a bridge and brings us to the village of Lavant, where we continue right in the direction of the village Tristach. Between the village Lavant and Tristach we will come to the next intersection, where we continue left in the direction of "Lienzer Dolomitenhütte". We then follow this road, which starts ascending more steeply, to a large parking lot near the mentioned mountain hut. The road is a toll road (July 2009 7€).
To Lienz we can also come if instead of through the Drau Valley we drive through the Gail Valley (Korensko sedlo, Hermagor, 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, by 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 - 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 small junction.
We continue straight past the trough with water (left upward to Weißtein Alm) on the road, which after a few minutes of further walking brings us to the small alpine pasture Instein Alm, where we notice a small 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 small wooden shelter. At the shelter we leave the road again and continue the ascent through a gently sloping high-alpine valley surrounded by high peaks. The gentle path running along the torrent brook higher turns right and ascends steeply for a short time. We follow this panoramic path all the way to the mountain hut Karlsbader Hütte (next to 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 a few tens of meters along the road, then we notice numerous mountain signposts directing us right onto a footpath. After just a few steps of further walking, the path forks into two parts. We continue left towards "Roter Turm and Laserzwand" (right Sandspitzen) on the path which first ascends gently, then traverses 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 Laserzwand. There follows 15 minutes of steep ascent on an occasionally exposed slope (besides slip risk there is also very high risk of falling rocks), after which the path flattens slightly (here an unmarked but less steep path joins from the right, ascending 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 arrive at a poorly marked junction. We continue left (straight steeply upward to Roter Turm) on the path which almost completely levels out and after a few steps of further walking brings us 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 right (straight to Kleine Laserzwand 5 minutes) on the path which starts turning to the left. There follows traversing steep slopes below the summit of Schöttnerspitze (possible snow patches), then the path leads onto the gentle summit slopes of the mountain. Only a few minutes of easy walking remain, and the path brings us to the expansive and panoramic Laserzwand.

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