This hike has a short, steep first day (9 km, 1450 m ascent), and a longer second day with much less ascent, but more descent. It involves 7 km extra (for at least one person) to buy tickets to visit the Eisriesenwelt. See also the reverse direction.

A nice loop around the Tennengebirge from Werfen, stopping at the Werfener Hütte for the night, which is run by a lovely family. I did this walk years ago, and I'm looking forward to the opportunity to do it again! See the directions below for logistics: it costs around €40 each by train, or €40 per car, meaning it looks cheaper to rent than for three people to take the train. Thanks, ÖBB!

If you're feeling touristy, you could visit Eisriesenwelt (a cool ice cave) too, but note that it's part of the second, longer day (15 km, 2000 m ascent), and the ticket office is below the cave, so you will have to backtrack by 3.5 km, 300 m ascent, to get to it, adding 7 km to the day.

I took the photograph of the hut from a light propeller plane back in 2015.

~ Charlie Harding