Tonnerhütte - Zirbitzkogelhütte (winter path)

Access to starting point:
A) Via the Ljubelj border crossing, we drive into Austria and follow the signs for Celovec / Klagenfurt am Wörthersee. In Celovec, at McDonald's, we turn right onto the south bypass / Südring, at the next major intersection we turn right again towards Velikovec / Völkermarkt and Mostič / Brückl. We soon leave the road towards Velikovec as shortly after the Obi store we turn right towards the highway and Mostič. We then go past the Ikea store, where we follow the signs for Mostič and past the on-ramps to the highway. When we arrive in Mostič, we follow the signs for Svinec / Eberstein and Hüttenberg and then Mühlen, which is already located in Steiermark. We reach Mühlen by turning right off the main road, and through the settlement we follow the signs for Jakobsberg and Tonnerhütte mountain hut, higher up only the signs for Tonnerhütte mountain hut, where we park on the paid parking lot (4 EUR personal car, June 2020).
B) Via the border crossings Jezerski Vrh, Holmec or Vič, we drive into Austria, then we follow the signs for Velikovec / Völkermarkt, from there the signs for Mostič / Brückl. When we arrive in Mostič, we follow the signs for Svinec / Eberstein and Hüttenberg and then Mühlen, which is already located in Steiermark. We reach Mühlen by turning right off the main road, and through the settlement we follow the signs for Jakobsberg and Tonnerhütte mountain hut, higher up only the signs for Tonnerhütte mountain hut, where we park on the paid parking lot (4 EUR personal car, June 2020).

Path description:
From the parking lot, we walk above the mountain hut, where the path splits, and we choose the right panorama path / Panoramaweg (left Zirbenweg). At first we walk on the road, which ascends diagonally to the right, only a little after the left bend we leave it and continue right towards Zirbitzkogel. The path ahead leads us along the edge of the ski slope route, when the ski slope ends the path flattens temporarily. We follow the marked path, which through a strip of forest brings us to extensive pastures, where we quickly reach the viewpoint Herterhöhe, where panorama panels are located.
We continue straight towards Zirbitzkogel, where with ever better views we reach the next marked junction, where to the left a path branches off towards the peaks Kreiskogel (2306 m) and Wenzelalpe (2151 m) and hut Winterleitenhütte (1782 m), we continue straight ahead. A fairly even ascent follows, offering nice views, before crossing the first stream we leave the usual marked path and continue slightly left onto initially easier pathless terrain, where we follow the winter markings (wooden poles). A traversing ascent to the left follows, where in a few minutes we reach the pond Hirschnlackn.
The pond, where a traceable little path appears, we bypass on the right side, a little further we pass another smaller pond. A steeper ascent follows, where we follow the path, accompanied by occasional winter markings. Higher up the path starts to disappear, we follow the winter markings, which lead us steeply upwards along the slope. When the slope flattens, we quickly reach the marked path, which we follow to the right (left Scharfes Eck and hut Winterleitenhütte), then in a few minutes of traversing ascent we reach the Zirbitzkogel Hütte hut.
Starting point - Herterhöhe 0:40, Herterhöhe - Zirbitzkogelhaus 1:45.
Description and pictures refer to the situation in June 2020.

On the way: Herterhöhe (1800m), Hirschnlackn (2010m)

Trip can be extended to: Scharfes Eck (Seetal Alps) ( 35 min) , Zirbitzkogel (Seetal Alps)