Klippitztörl - Gertrusk (Saualpe) (via Geierkogel)

Access to the starting point:
a) Drive through Border crossing Ljubelj into Austria and follow the signs for Klagenfurt am Wörthersee / Klagenfurt am Wörthersee. In Klagenfurt, turn right at the McDonalds onto the southern bypass / Südring, and at the next major junction turn right again towards Velikowiec / Völkermarkt and Mostič / Brückl. The road to Velikowiec is soon left, as a little after the Obi shop you turn right towards the motorway and Mostič. Continue past the Ikea store, following the signs for Mostič and past the motorway entrances. When you arrive in Mostič, follow the signs for Lead / Eberstein and Hüttenberg. Just before Hüttenberg, after Mösel, turn right towards Klippitztörl and Lölling. Further on, the valley of the Löllingbach stream begins to climb more visibly, and higher up, after the village of Lölling, you gradually move away from the stream. Follow this road as far as the Klippitztörl Pass, where you turn right and park in a large asphalt parking lot.

b) Take the Border crossing Jezerski Vrh, Holmec or Vič into Austria, then follow the signs for Velikovec / Völkermarkt and from there the signs for Mostič / Brückl. When you arrive in Mostič, follow the signs for Svinec / Eberstein and Hüttenberg. Just before Hüttenberg, after Mösel, turn right towards Klippitztörl and Lölling. Further on, the valley of the Löllingbach stream begins to climb more visibly, and higher up, after the village of Lölling, you gradually move away from the stream. Follow this road as far as the Klippitztörl Pass, where you turn right and park in a large asphalt parking lot.

Path description:
At the start of the parking lot, signs for Geierkogel, Wolfsbergerhütte, Forstalpe and other destinations direct you to a path that continues above the parking lot and leads south. At first you walk along a wide mountain path (not a road), which climbs only gently, but after crossing a dirt road the path gradually becomes slightly steeper and leads to a marked crossroads.

Continue left towards the Geierkogel summit (the right path bypasses the summit) and climb through increasingly sparse forest. A little further on, we cross the forest road once more, and then the path becomes steeper and climbs among the blueberry trees, with better views with every step. Higher up, the path leads to a wire fence, and to the right of this we reach the cross at Geierkogl.

From the cross at Geierkogl, we continue southwards, climbing a little at first, but quickly reaching the highest point, where we see a registration box with a stamp on interesting granite rocks on the right.

From here the trail gradually descends, and somewhere at the lowest point of the saddle we are joined on the right by a trail that bypasses Geierkogel on the west side.

Continue southwards and gradually start to climb. As we reach 2000 metres above sea level, we soon see an interesting natural window on the right, where the Forstalpe summit stamp is located. Continue along the marked trail and soon you will see a small rise on the left, where the highest point of the peak is located, and the peak is identified by the number 398.

From Forstalpe, the trail leads quite gently to the south-west and, after a grassy and partly marshy section, leads to the crossroads at Hafeneck, where you continue slightly to the right in the direction of Ladinger Spitze / Ladinger Spitz (Kleinhinterbergerhütte on the left).

The route continues without any major changes in altitude, the ridge narrows slightly further on, and the path leads us with a few short easy ascents and descents. Once we are fully approaching the grassy summit of Kienberg, the marked trail turns slightly to the right and bypasses the highest point, which is reached in less than a minute's walk from the marked trail.
Continue on the marked trail, which continues along the grassy ridge, and gradually reach the fence, along which you begin to descend to the saddle at the Eisernes Kreuz (1958 m), where you join the trail from the Weissbergerhütte hut.
Continue south and the road forks. Take the slightly left path (the right path bypasses the Gertrusk peak), which climbs along the ridge to the Gertrusk lookout in a few minutes.
Starting point - Geierkogel 1:00, Geierkogel - Forstalpe 1:10, Forstalpe - Kienberg 0:40, Kienberg - Gertrusk 0:45.

Description and figures refer to August 2020.

On the way: Geierkogel (Svinška planina / Saualpe) (1917m), Forstalpe (Svinška planina / Saualpe) (2034m), Hafeneck (2030m), Kienberg (Svinška planina / Saualpe) (2050m), Eisernes Kreuz (1958m)

We can extend the trip to the following destinations: Velika Svinja / Ladinger Spitze (Svinška planina / Saualpe) ( 35 min)

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