Pfaffensattel - Geiereck

Access to starting point:
From the border crossing Šentilj we continue driving on the highway towards Graz / Graz and further towards Linz and Salzburg. We soon leave Highway A9 and continue driving slightly to the right towards Vienna / Wien, proceeding on expressway S35. From this expressway, we then merge onto Highway S6, still following the signs for Vienna. We leave the highway after the Spital / S. tunnel and then take the exit for Semmering. We continue following the signs for Steinhaus and Spittal / S., and shortly after, we turn left towards the settlement Birkfeld and the mountain pass Pfaffensattel. We keep following the signs for the mentioned mountain pass, where we park.

Path description:
From the mountain pass, we head to the western side of the pass in the direction of the mountain hut Alois-Günther-Haus, where for a few steps we walk on a macadam road, then the path splits.
We continue right on a footpath (straight ahead the path continues on the road, and when the road is open, you can drive to the top for a fee), which leads us past a cross. A little further, we cross a poor macadam road leading to a smaller quarry, and then we continue through the forest for some time. Higher up, we reach the macadam road leading to the summit, but we follow it only briefly, as the signs from the road direct us sharply left onto the mountain path, which we continue on. Further on, we partly walk through the forest, partly over shorter panoramic sections, higher up the forest ends.
We continue with nice views extending to the nearby Wechsel group, towards the south we see Mount Masenberg with its highest peak Pongratzer Kogel, in front of us opens the view to Stuhleck.
When we get quite close to the macadam road leading to the summit, we also reach the eastern ridge of the Stuhleck summit, from where the view opens to the eastern peaks of the Northern Limestone Alps. This is followed by about 15 minutes of moderate ascent and we arrive at the Alois-Günther-Haus hut, a few steps further to the panoramic summit, which is the highest peak of the Hills east of the Mur.
From the Stuhleck summit we continue on a marked path that starts descending from the summit towards the southwest and along which there are signs for the Rosegger Haus hut. During the descent, the path first leads past the upper station of the cable car on Stuhleck, then past the turn-off of the ski touring route towards the settlement Rettenegg. The descent ends at the Schwarzriegel saddle, where a marked path from the settlement Rettenegg joins from the left, along which the planet educational trail also runs.
We continue straight in the direction of Mürzzuschlag and Roseggerhaus and gradually reach a belt of sparse spruce forest, where the terrain levels out and we continue along the path over a shorter swampy section, where the path runs on wooden boardwalks.
We quickly leave the mentioned section and arrive at the wind farm park, in front of which there is a warning sign that there is a life-threatening danger of falling pieces of ice from the power plants.
Soon after the first power plant we cross a macadam road, before the second power plant we go left and return to the road which we crossed a little lower. We follow the road to the right, and in a few minutes we reach the indistinct summit Grazer Stuhleck.
This is followed by an easy descent on the macadam road, and we continue with nice views among the wind power plants. When the descent ends, we start ascending again and in a few minutes of moderate ascent we reach the pasture fence, which the road also crosses. Here near the pasture fence is the highest point of the Geiereck summit.
Pfaffensattel - Stuhleck 1:15, Stuhleck - Grazer Stuhleck 1:00, Grazer Stuhleck - Geiereck 0:15.
Description and pictures refer to the condition in May 2023.

On the way: Stuhleck (1782m), Schwarzriegel (1593m), Grazer Stuhleck (1635m)