Greibühel-Figerhorn-Tschenglopf (14.07.2016)

Note that this track has been created a posteriori, i.e., from memory, not automatically recorded.

Trip Summary

We started from the Spöttling-Taurer houses a bit above Kals am Grossglockner. We first followed the road towards Kals a bit (to the place called Burg). Right before the bridge over Burgerbach, we turned left and followed a forrest road, leading into the valley of Burgerbach. Only a bit into this direction, the path turns right and crosses Burgerbach---from there on, it leads upwards towards Geierspitz (2102m). From there, the path extends over nice mountain meadows towards Greibühel (2247m). This place offers wonderful views, especially towards south, across Ködnitzvalley and towards Schönleitenspitze, etc. At this place, we split into two parties, of which one continued along this meadow-path, descending towards Lucknerhaus in Ködnitztal. The other two of us continued towards Figerhorn (stepply up in northern direction). The path upwards over Greiwiesen is steep but easy to step. We got to see a lot of Murmeltiere (as well as sheep) along this ascent. For the last view meters, one steps up the southwestern ridge of Figerhorn (and up on it towards the summit). Figerhorn is not a very prominent mountain, clearly dominated by Freiwandspitze not far away, but still the views are amazing from there. Towards the east, one looks almost vertically down into Ködnitztal; towards the south one enjoys marvelous views towards Schönleitenspitze and the surrounding mountains; towards the west one finds gently looking slopes down to Tschenglkopf; and to the north, if the weather permits, one can enjoy views towards the kind of all nearby mountains, Grossglockner! From Figerhorn, we then decided to try descending via Tschenglkopf, even though we could not see any path there on the map---mostly, because it looked so very inviting! :-) First, everything was nice and easy and we proceeded quickly down the slopes of Figerhorn. At about half the way down towards Foledischnitz, however, we came to a place, where a little bit of climbing was necessary to cross over to the other side (we weren't 100% comfortable with this, but managed without troubles). Then, again, walking further down towards Tschenglkopf was easy and very enjoyable---this ridge is, in fact, so very nice as it looked from Figerhorn! :-) Approaching Tschenglkopf, we enjoyed the views, both towards the north (Tschernitztal, Bretterspitze, etc.) as well as to the west and south (and also back to Figerhorn!). In addition to the views, we also found many Edelweiss up there---quite a special experience, also! At Tschenglkopf, as expected, the next little challenge emerged. We had already seen that most probably a continuation via Airaswiese (in the south of Tschenglkopf) would be best. But we had also seen that a comparably uncomfortable step stretched across Airaswiese, mostly in parallel with the ridge that we had walked down. With a little bit of back and forth, however, we quickly found a good place that enabled us to cross this step safely. Airaswiese is another gem along this path! Extended stretched of nice and steep mountain meadows extend all the way under the ridge between Figerhorn and Tschenglkopf! Stepping down across Airaswiese, we eventually conneted back to "civitlization" (a path) and followed this one back to the parking place between Burg and Taurer. From there, then, it was only a few steps back to the Spöttling-Taurer houses. All in all, this hike across Figerhorn, and especially the descent via Tschenglkopf, was one of the nicest hikes in a long time---wonderful hiking near Kals am Grossglockner, indeed!! :-)

Photos

Selected photos are available as Google+ photo album.

Useful Resources

Web page Hikr.org has a page about Figerhorn (with trip reports, etc.) as well as one about Greibühel.
Web page Tourenfex.at has a page about Figerhorn, also.
Web page Bergsteigen.com describes a similar tour up Figerhorn and web page Glocknerspur.at describes also a similar tour up Figerhorn.