Klösterle - Gerlitzen

Access to the starting point:
a) Via Border crossing Ljubelj, drive into Austria, then follow the road to Klagenfurt / Klagenfurt. In Klagenfurt, go straight on at all junctions, but when the main road turns sharp right, leave it just a little further and continue left towards Dhovše near Klagenfurt / Lendorf and Trg am Carinth / Feldkirchen in Kärnten. When you reach the motorway junction, turn left towards Trg in Carinthia, and when you reach the aforementioned town, turn right at the traffic lights towards the Turracher Höhe Alpine pass. After Himmelberg, turn left in the route Gerlitzen and start climbing more visibly. When the road stops climbing, follow it to parking area 6a.
From Border crossing Ljubelj to the starting point is approximately 73 km.
b) Drive through the Karavanke tunnel into Austria, then follow the motorway to the motorway junction, from where you continue to Spittal an der Drau and continue on the A10 motorway. Leave the A10 quickly and take the exit for Ossiacher See, take the third exit at the nearby roundabout (if there was no roundabout, you would have gone left) and continue along Millstätter Strasse. Follow this road to the crossroads, where you turn right towards Arriach and the ski resort Gerlitzen, and continue along Teuchen Landesstraße. Follow this road until you reach parking lot 6a.
From Border crossing Karawanks to the starting point is approximately 47 km.

Path description:
From the parking lot, cross the Arriachbach stream over a wooden bridge and then walk to the bottom station of the Klösterlebahn I cable car, passing it on your right. After the chairlift station, turn right and continue to the edge of the forest. As you enter the forest, you will see the first signpost and the path forks a few steps further on.
The marked path continues straight ahead and leads to Wurzelpark, and we go left, where after a few steps we see a beaten track which, after a short climb, turns right and crosses over the archery area. After about 5 minutes on the unmarked path, we return to the marked path, which we reach at the part where it runs on a dirt road (the route past Wurzelpark is about 15 minutes longer).
Follow the road to the left and quickly reach the edge of the ski slope, where you will get a nice view, and the path turns right and continues along the road. Higher up, there are a few switchbacks, then back to the ski slope, which you climb for a while, then the path goes into the forest again, where you continue on a less favourable road. After crossing a pasture fence, the trail crosses the ski slope for a longer distance and also becomes steeper as it climbs straight up the ski slope. As you approach the top station of the Klosterlebahn I cable car, go right again into the forest. In the forest, the road turns sharp left and leads to the station of the above-mentioned cable car, where, a few 10 steps before it, you continue uphill to the right. You quickly reach the next road and continue along it, taking in the increasingly beautiful views, which reach all the way to the highest peak in Austria. There are a couple of forks where you follow the signs and then, passing a reservoir with a fine view of the Wintertalernock, you reach a crossroads near the Huaba Hittn hut.
Go left here (right Stifterboden) and in a few steps you will reach the aforementioned hut.
From the hut, continue straight ahead and walk along the dirt road, turning left at the nearby crossroads to return to the ski slope. When you reach the ski slope, you will see a water trough on the right, and the path leads you along a road which makes some long serpentines along the ski slope. The road turns into cart track higher up, which turns slightly to the right and leads to a marked crossroads, from which you continue left onto a footpath (straight ahead Neugarten Almsee).
After a few minutes of climbing, you reach the next crossroads, where you go right.
The path ahead takes you very close to the summit, but first crosses the slopes to the west, then descends gently to the Alpin Hotel, where you turn left and follow the asphalt road to the top of Gerlitzen, where the Gipfelhaus Hotel stands.
From the top, you can descend to a nearby viewpoint, which offers a fine view of Lake Osojsko / Osiacher See.
Klösterle - Huaba Hittn 1:40, Huaba Hittn - Gerlitzen 1:10.
Description and pictures refer to the situation in 2019 (August).

On the way: Huaba Hittn (1605m)

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