KAT Walk Compact stage 1: To the Hohe Salve - View-packed summit experience

By taking the Salvenbahn gondola you can get to the Alpine terrain beneath the Hohe Salve.
There is then an easy ascent up to the Hohe Salve, one of the best viewing mountains in Tyrol. Austria‘s highest pilgrimage church is located right on the summit. The descent via Salven- and Filzalmsee is via scenic steep paths. In Hochbrixen you can again take the gondola to descend further – or hike via a steep path down to Brixen im Thale, with its impressive double-towered church.

Take the Salvenbahn from Hopfgarten to the intermediate station (1,157 m).

Use the signposts for Rigi, Hohe Salve to get your bearings here and hike to the right, under the gondola cables, direct to Gasthaus Tenn. Above the guesthouse, the route proceeds on a narrow road to a third bend at the junction for Tennerwald 1,231 m. Bear right, on a short section on road to Salvenalm, Rigi, HoheSalve. After around one hundred metres, the route branches off left on a steep cart path.

Continue on this route, climbing through forest and pasture towards theHohe Salve, until you come to a wider forest path. There are now three bends through open Alpine terrain up to the Kälberalm and Alpengasthaus Rigi (1,537 m; 1 hour from the intermediate station).

Continue on a steeper forest path in several bends, past the ‚Speichersee Kleine Salve‘ viewing point, with sun loungers by the banks of the lake, up to the summit of the Hohe Salve with the pilgrimage church and the summit restaurant (1,829 m; 1 hour from Gasthof Rigi).

On the south-eastern side of the summit, the descent to Filzalmsee/Brixen begins via a hiking path, which proceeds down in several bends to Salvensee, which is always in sight. Just after the reservoir, bear left off the path and on to a pasture path that proceeds via a ski piste to Filzalmsee. Keep going down on this path, always heading to Filzalmsee, Brixen.

The lovely steep path soon leads into a section of forest and you then hike right past the little chapel Jordankapelle, from which a spring arises. Hike through open terrain again now, down to a forest road that proceeds initially to the managed Filzalm and the lake of the same name. From here it is just a few metres across to the mountain station for the gondola (1 hr 15 mins from Hohe Salve). Alternatively, from here you can take the cable car to the stage finish in Brixen im Thale.

On foot, continue until just before the station in Hof, Brixen im Thale and hike to the right on route no. 95 into the valley. Shortly after, the path leads into the forest, bear left on to the steeper but well-constructed hiking path to Brixen.

The path proceeds down through the forest, with a trench on either side. At the Oberkaslach junction at 1,013 metres, there are several routes to Brixen.

The route now proceeds to the left through the trench (get your bearings by following the signposts to Brixen featuring a cable car symbol). On the opposite trench area, hike down next to an area of pasture to the asphalt access road. Continue down on this route until you come to the village road Dorfstraße. Continue on the left and head into the centre of Brixen im Thale (1 hour from Hochbrixen mountain station).