Turracher Höhe - Gillendorferalm

Access to starting point:
A) Via the Ljubelj border crossing we drive into Austria, then we follow the road towards Celovec / Klagenfurt. In Celovec at all crossroads we continue straight ahead, when the main road turns sharply to the right, we leave it shortly afterwards and continue left towards the settlements Dhovše pri Celovcu / Lendorf and Trg na Koroškem / Feldkirchen in Kärnten. When we arrive at the motorway junction we go left towards the settlement Trg na Koroškem, and when we arrive at the mentioned settlement we continue to follow the signs for the alpine pass Turracher Höhe. After approximately 90 km from the Ljubelj border crossing we arrive at the mentioned pass, from which we descend to parking lot No. 1, where we park.
B) Through the Karawanks Tunnel we drive into Austria, then we drive along the motorway to the motorway junction, from which we continue towards Špital ob Dravi / Spittal an der Drau and continue the drive on motorway A10. We quickly leave motorway A10 and take the exit for Osojsko jezero / Ossiacher See, at the nearby roundabout we take the third exit (if there were no roundabout we would go left) and continue along Millstätter Strasse. We drive along the mentioned road to the settlement Radenče / Radenthein, where we turn right towards the settlement Bad Kleinkirchheim. We continue through the mentioned settlement, a few kilometres further, in the settlement Patergassen we turn left towards the alpine pass and ski area Turracher Höhe. When we arrive at the mentioned pass there follows a short descent to parking lot No. 1, where we park. From the Karawanks border crossing to the starting point it is approximately 78 km.

Route description:
From the parking lot we first carefully cross the main road, then we walk to Hotel Hochschober, behind which we continue on the macadam road in the direction of lake Schwarzsee, peak Eisenhut and other peaks. At first a nice view opens up from the path on lake Turrachsee, then we gradually move away from the lake. Soon we arrive at the tourist settlement Meizeit Hüttendorf, where the last view opens up on lake Turrachsee and where the path splits.
A path branches off to the right towards lake Grünsee, we continue straight towards peaks Eisenhut and Schoberrigel and lake Schwarzsee, at the next crossroad we go slightly left towards peak Eisenhut (slightly right Schoberrigel and Eisenhut over the mentioned peak).
Next follows a shorter ascent on the macadam road and we arrive at the former hotel located at the southwestern part of lake Schwarzsee, and we descend in a gentle descent to the northern shore of the lake.
From the lake we continue on the marked road, which we continue to follow towards peak Eisenhut. On the road, which mostly leads with nice views, only occasionally through a short stretch of forest, we mostly descend easily, after crossing a somewhat larger stream the road turns north, where we already arrive at the lower part of mountain pasture Gesgeralm. Only a few dozen steps further, after crossing the grazing fence we leave the road and continue right, across the steeper slope. After a short ascent we quickly arrive at a smaller hut, and we ascend on a somewhat muddy and partially overgrown path to the upper part of the mountain pasture, where another hut stands on the right side.
Still before the hut, from the junction we continue on the slightly left road, which starts to ascend across. After a few minutes of walking on the poor road we leave it and continue right towards the marked path. The marked path leads us past a spring with an older trough, then at the marked junction at Engeleriegel, where there is also a logbook box with a book and stamp, we cross the road which we left shortly before.
We continue straight towards peak Eisenhut (right Gruft and Schoberriegel) and ascend for a short time longer, then the path goes to the other side of the side ridge, where it levels out, and on the marked section we cross the wire fence. Follows a gentle traverse descent on a somewhat harder-to-follow trail. When we reach the nearby forest the trail becomes clearer, the descent continues. Lower the forest thins out, the path crosses a few streams, at some places the trail is lost again, and we carefully follow the marks. In a moderate descent, then in a few minutes we reach two huts on mountain pasture Gillendorferalm.
Turracher Höhe - Schwarzsee 0:25, Schwarzsee - Gesgeralm 0:50, Gesgeralm - Gillendorferalm 1:00.
Description and pictures refer to the condition in 2019 (June).

Along the route: Hotel Hochschober (1763m), Meizeit Hüttendorf (1785m), Schwarzsee (pri Turracher Höhe) (1841m), Gesgeralm (1813m), Engeleriegel (1920m)

The trip can be extended to the following destinations: Wintertalernock (2 h 45 min), Straßburger Spitz (2 h 30 min), Eisenhut

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