Freiungen Höhenweg
Technical difficulty: 8/10
Fitness: 8/10
Objective danger: 8/10
Landscape: 9/10
Busy: 5/10 (first uphill to Rosshütte 9/10)
A great and very varied loop with fast runnable start and end and a beautiful, technically-demanding alpine middle on Freiungen Höhenweg.
Starting point: Hochzirler Bahnhof
Ending point: Hochzirler Bahnhof
Length: 35km
Vertical: 2400m
Speed: Really fast trails until Seefelder Joch and after Solstein Haus. Really technical in between.
Route:
We start running following the Schlosssteig trail following the railroad in the direction of Seefeld. The trail crosses a gorge before it connects to a forest road and keep going until the village of Reith bei Seefeld. We continue by the railroad until about half-way to Seefeld, we take a forest road that starts climbing slightly uphill towards the slopes of Seefeld ski resort. Once we hit the slope, we follow a very busy trail towards Rosshütte. This is the first place we can stop for some food and drink.
We continue up towards the top station of the cable car. Here the technical parts start out. We follow the ridge through the summit of Seefelder Joch (2060m) and towards Seefelder Spitze (2221m). The summit is accessible from the cable car and it gets really busy as a result. We follow the trail southwards for a short downhill into a big bowl on the north side of Reither Spitze (2374m). We cross the bowl and ascend the norht-west ridge to the summit.
We continue following the ridge southwards downhill towards the Nördlinger Hütte, the second place we can take a break. The trail continues with a runnable downhill until Unspungsattel. Here is where the most technical parts start, following the Freiungen Höhenweg. The trail follows southerns side of the mountain ridge, generally quite close to the summit, varying between very technical and very VERY technical.
While it bypasses most of the true summits, it optionally tags the summit of Kuhljochspitze (2297m), with very long fixed rope section leading up to the cross.
We follow the trail for a while longer through similarly technical trails, before the trail eases off from the technical difficulties and descents down to Solstein Haus, the last place for having a rest. From here, the way back to the car is just downhill. First following the runnable trails down to Solnalm and a bit further until crossing the Oberbach river. Here the trail joins the supply forest road and leads down to the valley.
The road gets steeper and steeper the lower we get, before taking the trail the last few hundred meters to the Hochzirl Train station.
Pro tip: The tour is also accessible with public transport.
Photos by @bennibru and @the.running.nomad
