Overview
General | Hiking along moderate and marked trails |
Effort: | About 1000m/3300ft from Kühtai, 2-3 hours ascent, 2 hours descent |
Power: | 1/2 - Mostly hiking but some steep parts where it' s good to grab a rock. The route is never exposed. |
Psyche: | 1 - The route is never exposed and a nice walk | Orientation: | 2 - The hole trail is marked, but you may loose it here and there, especially if there is fresh snow and the marks are covered. But in this case orientation is obvious in most of the cases. |
This is the standart route from Kühtai and is an easy hike in a great area. The views of Finstertal reservoir are splendid.
Approach
The route starts at the damm of Finstertal reservoir. From Kühtai there are mainly three ways of getting there. All those trails start at or close to the church of the village.- Along the Finstertalbach, which is quite steep. I always used this for descent.
- Along the ski tracks towards Drei-Seen-Hut, which has a pretty steep beginning which isn' t that comfortable directly after leaving the car...
- Or the long way visiting every lake on the slopes south of Kühtai.
| Kühtai |
Route Description
After reaching the damm of the Finstertal reservoir you have to follow trail #146 along the artificial lake to its southernmost point. There is some danger of rock-fall at the southern end of the reservoir, so don' t take a break there. Here the trail to Kraspesspitze splits from the route to Sulzkogel. The place is marked with a sign. Turn left (south-east) towards Finstertalscharte.
Now the trail leads up into the small valley below Kraspesspitze. The first part is pretty steep which is quite a contrast to the comfortable walk along the reservoir. The area below the north-east ridge of Schartenkogel is pretty cold and may be icy. After passing a small pond the trail leads further up. If there is fresh snow keep on the right (north) side of the valley below the north-east ridge of Schartenkogel.
After reaching Finstertalscharte you firstly have the view towards Öztal Alps. The pass is a beautiful place for a little break. Now you have two options to continue to the summit:- descend over 150m towards Schweinfurter Hut and get back up to avoid steep and rocky ground. If you' re on skies this is your goal.
- Stay close to the west ridge of Kraspesspitze where a marker trail leads you around the difficult parts of the ridge. Choosing this option you don' t have to descent as much
| Upper part of the route |
Essential Gear
Hiking gear is sufficient during the summer months. The ascent to Finstertalscharte may be icy (especially in late autumn) and then some sections can get quite tricky. So if you' re unsure about the conditions you may think about having some equipment with you to deal with such conditions.
I think in winter it is quite impossible to get to the summit without snow shoes or skies. Be aware of the high danger of avalanches along the Finstertal reservoir.