Technical difficulty: 7/10
Fitness: 9/10
Objective danger: 6/10
Landscape: 8/10
Busy: 6/10 (can be very busy in the summer)

Stubaier Höhenweg is a classic long distance trail in Stubai Alps close to Innsbruck going through some amazing alpine terrain. This post describes the second half of the trail.

Starting point: Stubai Ski Area Parking
Ending point: Kampl See
Length: 41km
Vertical: 3000m
Speed: Mostly very technical trails. Last 12km downhill is fast.

Route:

We start from the parking lot at the Stubai Ski area and directly head steep up under the cable car lines towards the middle station at Dresdner Hütte. After around 500 vertical meters, we reach the hut and our trail turns of south-east as we join the Stubai “High-trail”, which we will follow for the rest of the day.

We start climbing into an increasingly technical terrain, at time secured by fixed ropes and eventually reach Peiljoch, the first mountain pass of the day. The Sulzenau valley opens up in front of us as we start our descent towards the Sulzenau Hütte. We pass some amazing lakes along the way. We can take a short stop at the hut, or continue directly upwards and eastwards towards the next pass.

The trail climbs first gently until a small beautifully coloured lake - Grünausee, and after starts ascending steeply towards the Seescharte. Another wide alpine valley opens up in front of us as we start our descent towards Nürnberger Hütte. The hut provides another opportunity to stop for some food and drink. If you don’t want to stop, you can skip the hut and start. ascending further east. First through a long valley and up an increasingly technical uphill towards Simmingjöchl with the old hut at the top of the pass.

We descent down the valley towards the Bremer Hütte. Highly recommend to have a break here before the next section. A deceptively long and very technical traverse section towards the next hut is nothing to underestimate. The trail winds along the the hillside and gains and looses a surprising amount of elevation along the way. Once we get over the last small pass, we will see the Alfaier See below us and Innsbrucker Hütte on the horizon.

From here, we only have a long downhill in front of us back to the civilization. We can finally lengthen the stride a bit and enjoy some faster pace on the forest road down the PInnistal.

Pro tip: Recommend ending the run with a jump to the lake at Kampl.

Photos by @the.running.nomad