KAT Walk Alpine stage 2: Listening to stories - On a path to the Alpine writer

View-packed Alpine hike. The route proceeds across easy to moderately difficult steep paths and forest paths, ascents are moderate and only somewhat steeper on short sections. However, with some 1,200 metres of ascent, this route requires a decent level of fitness. You pass countless Alpine pastures along the route. With a bit of luck you might meet the ‚Alpine writer‘, Sepp Kahn, at Untere Lärchenbergalm. In his diaries, he recounts the life of an Alpine dairyman. The highest point of the tour: the Lodron, with its 360° views – from the glacier-bedecked Hohe Tauern to the Wilder Kaiser – is one of the best viewing mountains in the Kitzbühel Alps.

The stage starts at the Raiffeisenbank in the centre of Kelchsau. Initially follow the signposts for Lodron, 3,5 h, path number 79. A short section takes you on the asphalt road down to Kelchsauer Ache. Now proceed across a bridge and continue in three bends up to around 1,090 metres altitude, before the forest thins out, and the path bends into the forest. Continue uphill on this path until a steep path on the left proceeds into a forest.

The road now proceeds uphill along a ridge (keep to the red-white- red ground markings and to follow the signposts for Lodron). The steep path continues across a short section through a deforested area, at whose upper end you come to a forest path (1,275 m). Continue to the right here on a forest path (Lodron, path number 79), passing the Vorder- and Hinterölbankalm, until, after around three kilometres, you reach Untere Lodronalm (1,486 m).

There is a short section with two bends on the forest path, bearing left on to a steep path heading to Lodron, Ramkarkopf. Through terrain that is forested throughout, then on open Alpine meadows, hike direct to the Lodronalm (approx. 1,700 m). Just before an Alpine pasture, bear right on a steep path, continuing to Lodronjoch (1,914 m). Pay careful attention to the ground markings in this section (some are painted red-white-red on stones or wood pegs). The terrain has been much trampled by cattle, which makes the route outline often quite difficult to make out. 

From Lodronjoch there is just a short section to the summit of the same name (1,925 m), with its impressive cross. Return to the ridge on the same path and follow the signposts for Westendorf, with a short section up on the mountain ridge.

The steep path now branches off to the left (Lärchenbergalm), with a section down along a pasture fence, and you are soon back in open Alpine pasture area again, on a consistently even route. Get your bearings here using the ground markings again.

After a short time you will come to Oberkaralm (approx. 1,700 m). At this point, bear left through a small trench (Steinberghaus, 79) and on the steep path on an even ascent, head to the next signposts for Lärchenbergalm, Steinberghaus. Continue now through Alpine terrain, steadily downhill to Untere Lärchenbergalm (approx. 1,480 m). Between the buildings on the Alpine pasture, continue left on a steep path that soon leads into the forest.

When you reach the forest path, follow it down in two bends, until just after Wallernalm (1,160 m), taking a left again on a steep path (Steinberghaus). Follow this path, in part down through forest, and the final 500 metres or soon a forest path direct to Steinberghaus.