Gschnitz - Kalkwand (zahodni pristop iz Gschnitza preko Pinnisjocha)

Access to the starting point:
From Ljubljana, take the motorway past Salzburg towards Munich. At the Dreieck Inntal multi-level junction, take the A93 towards Innsbruck/Kufstein/Brenner. On your return to Austria, continue to the Innsbruck-Mitte exit. Here, do not turn towards Innsbruck, but continue on the A13 motorway towards the Brenner Pass. Continue on the motorway until Matrei am Brenner, where you take exit 19-Matrei. Continue on the B182 to Steinach am Brenner, where you take the first exit at the roundabout in the middle of the town and continue on a slight uphill climb past Trins, through the picturesque Gschnitz valley to the eponymous village of the same name, where you'll soon see a relatively small free parking lot behind the church, which is reserved for visitors to the Innsbrucker Hütte.

An alternative is to drive through northern Itali: in this case, from central Slovenia, take the A2 motorway to one of the border crossings with Austria and continue to Lienz. Here you continue on the 100 road and pass the Prato alla Drava crossing into Itali. In Itali, follow the SS49 all the way to the junction with the A22 motorway in the direction of the Brenner Pass. After the pass, continue in the direction of Innsbruck, but only until you reach the exit for the B182 near the Brennersee. Continue on this road to Steinach am Brenner and from there follow the directions described above.

Path description:
From the parking lot, follow the clearly marked and marked, initially fenced path towards the Innsbrucker Hütte, which soon begins to climb gently along the edge of the cultivated land. Above the village, the narrower path continues through sparse woodland, occasionally affording fine views of the picturesque Gschnitztal valley. For some time we climb moderately along a path that winds its way up the steep slopes of the Habicht Group. A little higher up, with increasingly fine views of the southern part of Stubai Alps, where the Pflerscher and Gschitzer Tribulaun are particularly prominent, we pass into an open world of high mountain meadows. The path, which is sometimes a little precipitous, crosses the group to the west high above the valley in a wide arc below the walls of the Habicht peaks. Along the way, a few ravines are crossed, where a slightly more cautious step is required. In the last part of the way towards the hut, the path climbs again a little steeper to a grassy edge, beyond which you enter the high mountain world between the Habicht and Kalkwand walls, where you first see the Innsbrucker Hütte. Below the western edge of the Kalkwand massif, we descend slightly with the help of some fixed safety gear to the cross-route between the two mountains, where we gradually join the paths from the Feuerstein Inn and from the Stubai Valley.
From Gschnitz it takes about 2. 30-3 hours to reach the Pinnisjoch saddle near the Innsbrucker Hütte. The trail is not particularly difficult, but it is quite steep and in places a little precipitous, and in winter it is very prone to avalanches. The approach from the Feurstein Inn is slightly shorter and easier, but slightly less scenic.

From the saddle, continue eastwards along a fairly level track below the west face of Kalkwand, which hosts, among other things, a training ferrata and a small climbing area. Soon we reach a short belayed section, where we climb up a steep (less difficult) step with the help of a rope. Afterwards, we climb uncomfortably over a steep scree slope to the pass between the east and west faces of Kalkwand, where we get a magnificent view of the Gschnitz valley deep below us, which will follow us from now on all the way to the summit.
We continue along the narrow and sometimes quite precipitous path that winds under the Kalkwand summit high above the Gschnitztal. Soon we find ourselves in front of a rock jump, over which we are guided by the reliable fixed safety gear, and after which we follow a narrow path up to a crossroads below the Kalkwand summit. The trail continues to the right towards Ilmspitze (following this trail, easy access to the Kalkwand summit is also possible a little later), and our trail turns left directly towards the summit. Follow the well-marked trail for a few minutes to the pole at the summit, and from there, in just a few steps, you will be at the cross at the highest point of Kalkwand, which offers a magnificent view of its more famous neighbours, Habicht and Ilmspitze.

The climb to Kalkwand is a rewarding, if in places somewhat exposed and neglected, hike that can be done during a multi-day hike to Habicht or in passing on the way to Ilmspitze. Due to the rock, which is solid in places, there are a few climbing routes in the western part of the massif and a short, attractive training ferrata, which reaches C/D-D difficulty.

On the way: Innsbrucker Hütte (2369m)

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