Unterpirkach - Rudnigkofel
Starting point: Unterpirkach (636 m)
Starting point Lat/Lon: 46.7592°N 12.9249°E 
Time of walking: 4 h 45 min
Difficulty: partly demanding marked way, easy pathless terrain
Difficulty of skiing: no data
Altitude difference: 1647 m
Altitude difference (by path): 1650 m
Map: Kompass, Lienzer Dolomiten/Lesachtal 1:50.000
Access to starting point:
From Ljubljana through Karawanks Tunnel and then on the highway to Spittal. We continue driving in the direction of Lienz, and drive through the valley Drautal to Oberdrauburg, where we turn left in the direction of Kötschach and mountain pass Plöckenpass. Immediately after the river Drau and railway track we turn right (by the crossroad we notice many signs, among them also for mountain hut Hochstadelhaus), and then on a little narrower road we reach Unterpirkach. Next we drive past a bigger chapel and only a few meters ahead over the bridge across the stream Pirkner. Immediately after the bridge we turn left and park on the parking lot by the hiking signposts.
Path description:
From the parking lot, we continue on a gently sloping cart track which runs on the right side of the nearby stream. After a few minutes, the cart track splits into two parts. The left one after a few 10 meters ends by the stream and we continue on the right one, which gradually starts ascending steeper. The marked path soon leaves the increasingly poor cart track and continues to the right, where it ascends diagonally over occasionally somewhat steeper slopes. Higher, the path returns to the cart track, and we continue on it to its end.
The marked footpath continues in the same direction, and then after some time turns to the left, where the climbing path soon joins us.
We continue on a well-beaten path, which higher crosses a road (road is closed for public traffic), and then it returns into the forest and past Hilda's smoking bench, again brings us to a forest road. We leave the road immediately, higher the marked path again crosses the road a few times, or follows it for a short time. Higher the forest thins out, so we have nice views towards the eastern side, where we clearly see the river Drau and part of the Gailtal Alps. The path higher returns to the road, which we then follow all the way to the mountain hut Hochstadelhaus.
From the mountain hut, we continue slightly right (direction Hochstadel) and through a short stretch of forest we ascend to the mountain pasture Unholdenalm. Here we walk to the right side of the pasture, where at a few huts we again step onto the road. Follows a short gentle ascent on an increasingly poor road, and then we arrive at a marked junction.
We continue slightly right in the direction of "Hochstadel - path number 218, 3 h" and continue the ascent on a moderately ascending path. The path, which further runs over vast grazing areas, higher turns to the right and for a short time ascends steeply. The path soon turns to the left and almost completely levels out. Follows a gentle traverse ascent, which runs below the walls of 2283 m high Rudnigkofel. When the traverse ends, the path turns right and in a few zigzags ascends over steep and especially when wet slippery slopes. After a shorter steep ascent we step on a panoramic ridge, where the marked path turns sharply to the left, and we continue right on an unmarked trail, higher pathless, which we follow along and on the ridge to the summit, which we reach after 5 minutes of walking from the place where we left the marked path.
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