The Hohe Fürleg (2570m) Crossing

Technical difficulty: 8/10
Fitness: 7/10
Objective danger: 9/10
Landscape: 8/10
Busy: 2/10 (except for Hundskopf - 7/10)

A technical ridge crossing a bit off the beaten path across the Karwendel front range, crossing the summit of Hohe Fürleg and many others.

Starting point: Parking Walderkapelle
Ending point: Parking Walderkapelle
Length: 17km
Vertical: 2100m
Speed: Very slow going for the most apart. Runnable the last 5km,

Route:

We start north-west from the parking lot along a forest road following the signs to Halltal. After few hundred meters, a small trail disconnects and starts climbing steeply north towards the Alpensönnehütte. We climb higher and higher through the forest, until just before the hut, we leave the trail leading to it and continue slightly north/north-east ever more steeply upwards. We eventually leave the forest and the trail gets more rocky and technical, ascending through the Merkel couloir (“Merkelrinne”) until we reach the summit ridge and eventually the summit of Hüttenspitze (1858m) - the first summit of the day.

Here things start to get interesting. After a short and steep descent to a saddle, we start climbing again, keeping north, towards (and eventually through) a prominent couloir between Kleine and Grosse Wechselspitze. We climb over few technical steps and some fixed ropes and pass underneath a large stuck boulder. Eventually we reach the summit of Kleine Wechselspitze (2099m). The route is well marked, but relatively easy to lose so pay attention and backtrack your steps if you lose the markings. In fact, you can follow this rule for the whole day.

We continue north/north-east and have to traverse the east face of Grosse Wechselspitze. The trail is well visible here but chose smartly, as there are lose rocks to spare. The trail leads us through the bottom of a large cauldron and up a scree field on the other side. The ascent to the next summit looks really unappealing from here. Trust your instincts.

After battling up through the scree field, we start ascending through the face. The climb is technical and exposed with plenty of lose rock all around. Be really careful if you meet someone descending against you. There is a large risk of falling rocks. The trail seems never-ending but eventually flattens out and we are standing on top of Hohe Fürleg (2570m). Here most of the elevation gain is behind us so take a breath and enjoy the view.

Our trail turns east and we follow a very obvious ridge slowly descending and crossing more summits along the way. We cross Walderkampspitze (2565m) and Trattenspitze (2510m) across an exposed air-y ridge with great 360 views of Innsbruck and Karwendel national park. The last summit of the ridge is Hundskopf (2243m) and has a small easy via ferrata to the summit.

After enjoying the summit, we start of the technical decent down the scenic east ridge of the mountain and down toward Hinterhornalm. There are many options to get down from the hut, we pick the one with most trails. It starts of, ironically, on the paved toll road for about 1,5km until we reach the turn-off on a trail traversing back towards Halltal. The trail leads us across until the ruin of the old Halltaler Hütte. Here it turns steeply downhill and leads us south-west on small trails through a lovely forest back to the parking lot.

Pro tip: The whole ridge is without water so bring enough to get you through.

Photos by @the.running.nomad and @bennibru