Technical difficulty: 2/10
Fitness: 3/10
Objective danger: 4/10 (a few exposed sections in the gorge)
Landscape: 6/10
Busy: 3/10

An easy round from Scharnitz. doable in early spring as well as in bad weather. Gleirschklamm is a nice bit of adventure along the way.

Starting point: Parking in Scharnitz
Ending point: Parking in Scharnitz
Length: 17km
Vertical: 900m
Speed: Mostly quite runnable single track and forest roads.

Route:

From the parking lot, start running west through the village of Scharnitz on the Feldweg street. You run past the ski jumping training area and few hundred meters after turn south to a forest road that shortly after turns into a trail leading to the Mühlbergklamm. The trail comes back to the forest road after a few hundred meters, which we will follow upwards towards the summit of Mühlberg.

From Mühlberg, the forest road turns into a trail and follows the ridge further towards the summit of Großer Mittagskop (1636m). The trail leads through lush dense forests. After passing the summit, we follow the trail further along the ridge.

The trail splits for a short time around the summit of Zäunlkopf (1749m). There is a nice view point before the summit and a small trail leads over the summit itself as well. Shortly after the summit, you join back with the other trail and head downhill towards Oberbrunnalm. A first place where you can have a break along the way.

From here, you head further north-east mostly on a forest road in the direction of Gleirschklamm (Gleirsch gorge). Don’t miss the turn-over to the gorge itself. Follow the river through downhill on narrow trails with few bridges and rope-secured sections.

After the gorge, follow the forest road on the left bank of the river back to Scharnitz. You will pass one more hut along the way (Scharnitz Alm), which offers a great spot for a celebration beer.

Photos by @the.running.nomad and @annikasuess