The “Munde Runde”
Technical difficulty: 8/10
Fitness: 7/10
Objective danger: 7/10 (more with snow)
Landscape: 8/10
Busy: 2/10
A round starting from Telfs and traversing across the Hoher Munde massive from west to east. A great technical route with amazing views over Inn valley.
Starting point: Telfs Tennis Club
Ending point: Telfs Tennis Club
Length: 25km
Vertical: 2300m
Speed: Very technical trails. Expect slow going.
Route:
We start in the village of Telfs. The Telfs tennis club is as good a place as any and has a free parking. We start heading of west through the streets and trails north of the village. Just follow the GPS track, it is easier than describing all the turns. Eventually you will get to Thöni Aluwelten factory, where we leave the valley and start ascending. Turn northwards towards the mountains and follow the Zimmerbergklammsteig. We follow this trail steadily up the hill towards the Straßberghaus.
Once at the hut, there is a water source to fill up, before we start the steep uphill towards the ridge. About half-way through the 1000 vertical meters to the ridge, there is a signposted water source, the last one until we descend the other side of the mountain. Fill up if you need to and continue climbing to Niederer Munde (2059m)
At the ridge, the summits of NIederer and Hoher Munde open up before us. The vegetation disappears and the goings gets a lot more rocky and technical. Still the ascent is straight forward until the first false summit along the way. From here, the most technical part of the dat - the Hoher Munde west ridge - is in front of us. The ridge first descents a couple of hundred vertical meters on fixed cables. After that, we cross an airy and exposed traverse before climbing the same vertical meters up the other side, following another set of fixed cables and metal steps. Eventually the ascend flattens out and we reach the Hohe Munde Westgipfel (2662m). Here our technical difficulties are mostly over.
We continue along a rocky ridge, descending a couple of hundred meters, before a short ascend to the Hohe Munde Ostgipfel (2592m). Take a rest here and brace yourself for the long and steep descent down the east face of the mountain. The descend has some tricky footing, especially when wet or snowy, yet it is very mind-numbing so exercise caution. After around 1000m of descending, we reach the Rauthütte. This is our chance to have some food & drink, before the final 900m descent back to Telfs. We run across some beautiful smooth trails through charming pine forests. There is a ton of options here, but we recommend following the GPS track here as some of the trails can be overgrown.
# Pro tip: Snow makes this route VERY adventurous. Plan accordingly and know your abilities.
Photos by @the.running.nomad and @bennibru
