Wimbachbrücke - Watzmann Mittelspitze

Access to the starting point:
From Slovenia, take the motorway to Salzburg. Just before the city, take the Grödig exit and follow the signs for Berchtesgaden. In Berchtesgaden, head towards Ramsau (the road follows the Ramsau Ache river) and you will soon reach the starting point Wimbachbrücke. Park here in the pay parking lot. The drive time from Ljubljana is approximately 3 h 15 min.

Path description:
From the Wimbachbrücke parking lot, head towards the Watzmannhaus hut. The sign says 4 hours' walk, but at a moderate pace you will reach your destination after just 3 hours. The trail climbs at the beginning along the Wimbach stream. The trail is steep but well maintained, so you can attack it on a mountain bike. The path climbs in the shade of trees. After about an hour's walk, you reach mountain pasture, where you get a view of the north side. The path continues to a fenced pasture where cows graze and a hut stands. Here the path becomes steeper and rockier. After two hours of walking, you leave the forest and reach the next wooden hut - an emergency stop. Here is also the turnoff for the trail to Lake Königssee - continue towards Watzmannhaus. The path becomes even rockier and winds steeply towards the top of the ridge. There are a few more wooden steps to climb before the finish, and after more than three hours you finally reach the Watzmannhaus hut. We have climbed 1300 metres.
From the Watzmannhaus we continue along the ridge towards Watzmann-Hocheck. The trail starts to climb steeply. We climb in the keys on the right side of the ridge. The path is at times indistinct, but the markings are quite frequent. There are several different possible routes, which intertwine with each other. Follow the one that suits you best. After an hour's climb, you will reach the cable car. No self-protection kit is needed. Here we know that we still have half of the climb to go. We can see the Watzmannfrau on our left and the neighbouring Hochkalter on our right. After about two hours, we reach the summit of Hocheck, where two crosses (one with and one without Jesus) are erected. The summit is narrow and exposed. On the south side you can descend to a bivouac, where you can see the Mittelspitze.
The ridge trail starts at the bivouac, where there is plenty of space to prepare your equipment. Right away, we start the most exposed part of the route: descending a narrow ridge with a steel fence to support us. The path widens a little, the fixed safety gear disappear, and the markings lead us along the top ridge. The path starts to descend and soon we reach the lowest point of the ridge. From here onwards, we are once again greeted by a rope, which we use to climb over the smooth wall. Before the final ascent, there is a small descent. The whole route is well guarded (where necessary) and we reach the top of the Mittelspitze in less than an hour. You can return the same way or continue on towards the Südspitze.

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