Zettersfeld - Östlicher Sattelkopf

Access to the starting point:
Drive through the Karavanke Tunnel into Austria, then continue to Spittal and on to Lienz (the motorway ends a little after Spittal). We continue along a relatively nice and wide road through the Drava Valley. In the centre of Lienz, at the roundabout, turn right towards Matrei. After a few hundred metres, after a roundabout, take a sharp right and then a left over a bridge towards Thurn. Continue following the green signs "Zettersfeld Zentrum". Shortly before the ski centre, as the road starts to descend, you will see a dirt road on the left hand side of the road leading to the ski resort, which is closed to traffic. There are also yellow mountain signs along the road. Park in one of the smaller car parks nearby. There is also a much larger car park a little further along the main road.

Path description:
From the starting point, take the macadam road (route 9b) after the "Steinermandl" signs. The road, which is closed to traffic, climbs eastwards and leads to a ski slope where you soon reach a crossroads.
We continue to the left after the "Steinermandl" signs and continue for some time under the chair lift leading to the top of Steinermandl. The road then turns left and climbs slightly steeper. The road then becomes more sloping and leads past a large artificial lake, which is used for artificial snowmaking. Here the road turns slightly to the right and leads to a marked crossroads.
The road continues towards the top of Steinermandl and the upper station of the chairlift. We continue left up the footpath, which starts to climb up the grassy slope. The higher the slope becomes, the flatter it becomes.
A path joins us from the upper chairlift station on the right, a path leads straight ahead along the north side of the Goiselemandl summit (Goiselemandlweg Nord), and we continue left along path 913 after the "Goiselemandl, Schleinitz" markers. The trail continues north-westwards and leads to the base of the slopes of Goiselemandl. Here we come to a crossroads where the path to Goiselemandl branches off to the right. We continue straight ahead and cross the slightly steeper western slopes of the summit. When we reach the north side of the summit, the path continues to cross the slopes on the left side of the ridge, and in a short part we are also helped by some rocks. The path then leads to the right (north-east) side of the ridge and begins to climb gently. This path then leads us to a gentle grassy slope which soon leads to a marked crossroads.
To the left the path leads to the summit of Schleinitz, and we continue to the right and descend gently to the lake, which we can already see in front of us.
At the lake, we follow the marked path along the lake and are soon joined on the right by the path that runs along the north side of the Goiselemandl peak and the path from the Debanttal valley. We continue on the path after the "Östlicher Sattelkopf" signs and start climbing on mostly grassy terrain up to the ridge where the crossroads are. On the ridge where the view to the north opens up, continue to the right, and to the left a protected climbing route leads to the summit of Schleinitz. From the crossroads, there is a short climb up the ridge, then the ridge gives way to the right side and there is a short traverse with the help of a few ropes to a cross. The cross is located a few metres below the top of the Östlicher Sattelkopf.

On the way: Neualplseen (2438m)

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