Sporthotel Maltatal - Großer Hafner

Access to starting point:
From the highway Beljak/Villach - Salzburg, we head to the exit Gmünd and follow the road ahead towards the Maltatal valley. A well-marked road brings us after a few kilometers to the settlement Malta, and only a little further to the spot where toll is paid. The steep and occasionally narrow road, with the help of tunnels and traffic lights, brings us to a large parking lot by the artificial lake (the dam at the end of the lake is 165 m high). While driving, we can observe numerous waterfalls, which, because of a lack of parking spaces, we can view only from the car.

Path description:
From the parking lot by the dam we continue on the road to the signposts at the crossroad. We go right towards the upper parking lot (direction Kattowitzer Hütte). At the upper parking lot then signposts point us to the left on a macadam road on which we are then ascending. After a few turns the road ends, and we continue on a footpath which in gentle descents and ascents crosses slopes towards the southeast. On the path we cross also a few streams and after approximately one hour of walking from the starting point, the path turns slightly to the left through a meadow and crosses a stream. Here the path for the first time starts ascending a little steeper and soon brings us to a crossing. We go right in the direction of Kattowitzer Hütte. Immediately after the signposts follows even a little steeper ascent and we also get help from some ropes, which are not urgently needed. The path brings us to an indistinct saddle and on the right side we will notice the peak Gamsleitenkopf (2346 m) to which we have from the path only a few minutes of walking. From the saddle then follows crossing in a gentle descent all the way to the mountain hut Kattowitzer Hütte.
At the mountain hut, we continue left upwards in the direction of Großer Hafner. The path which ascends over grassy slopes and past smaller streams brings us to a crossroad with signposts. We go left in the direction of Großer Hafner. The right path runs towards the notch Lanischscharte and ahead past lakes Lanischsee. The path from the crossroad then becomes steeper and brings us on the main ridge of the mountain from where a view opens up towards the north. Already after a few meters of walking on the ridge we come again to the signposts. We continue straight on the ridge, while left leads the path past glacier Wastlkarkees and then towards lakes Rotgüldensee. The path then becomes a little more demanding and we also get help from some ropes, which we can use for self-belaying. The demanding part of the path is relatively short; the path on this part leads us on the northern slightly exposed side of the ridge over some smooth rocky slabs and then the path becomes gradually less demanding and brings us on a wide ridge. Here we will notice a specialty of this mountain, namely numerous upright rocks. The majority of the rocks on the mountain are narrow and elongated in shape, and mountaineers who walk past then put them upright. Only a shorter ascent on the wide ridge to the summit follows.

On the way: Kattowitzer Hütte (2321m)