The Bierkette
Technical difficulty: 2/10
Fitness: 7/10
Objective danger: 5/10 (alcohol and trails can be a weird combination. Know your limits :) )
Landscape: 8/10
Busy: 7/10
The best season-closing event of Innsbruck trail running season. A line across the south side of Nordkette. Have a drink in every hut along the way. 13 huts, 13 drinks, great day with friends!
Starting point: Buzihütte
Ending point: Romediwirt
Length: 32km
Vertical: 2500m
Speed: Variety of trails. The drinks make this a loooong and slow day. That’s the point!
Route:
The Bierkette (from “bier” and “Nordkette”) is an event happening every two years at the end of the running season, bringing together running, friends and beers in one big day around the Nordkette mountain range above Innsbruck.
The rules are simple. You have to hit all the huts on the south side of Norkette (the side facing Innsbruck) and have a drink (at least a small beer or a shot) at each of these stops to be considered a finisher. Not everyone has to finish (running or drinking), but everyone has to have a nice day out in the mountains with friends :).
I am not going to write up the whole route here as I normally would. There are infinite combinations of trails and you can pick whichever one you like. The only thing that counts is passing all the huts along your way.
The route from 2023 is shared above and parts of it are described in different posts on this blog. So here is the list of the huts along the way and some notes that might be relevant if you try to do the challenge on your own:
Buzihütte - generally close early in the morning. Bring your own drink if you want to finish.
Rauschbrunnen - only large beers available, opens at 9am.
Umbrüggler Alm
Höttinger Alm - only large beers available
Seegrube
Hafelekar - was closed due to water damage at the time of this writing. Bring your own drinks.
Bodenstein Alm - only large beers available
Arzler Alm
Enzianhütte
Rumer Alm
Vintl Alm - private hut, bring your own drinks
Thaurer Alm
Romediwirt - great food, fire outside. Perfect finish line. Parking lot a few minutes walk away.
How can I participate?
Much like the Barkley Marathons, the sign up process for the event is secret, so you will need to figure it out on your own :).
Pro tip: It is a good idea to bring a headlamp. It is a lot longer day out than it might seem!
Photos by @the.running.nomad, @benni.bru. @meid.bereit, @innsbruckalps, @joerg_zenkel and @sontschi2604
