Tonnerhütte - Zirbitzkogel

Access to starting point:
A) Via the Ljubelj border crossing we drive into Austria and follow the signs for Celovec / Klagenfurt am Wörthersee. In Celovec at McDonald's we turn right onto the south bypass / Südring, at the next major intersection we turn right again in the direction of Velikovec / Völkermarkt and Mostič / Brückl. We soon leave the road towards Velikovec because shortly after the Obi store we turn right in the direction of the highway and Mostič. We then go past the Ikea store, where we follow the signs for Mostič and past the highway on-ramps. When we arrive in Mostič we follow the signs for Svinec / Eberstein and Hüttenberg and then Mühlen, which is already located in Steiermark. We reach Mühlen by turning right off the main road, and through the settlement we follow the signs for Jakobsberg and mountain hut Tonnerhütte, higher up only the signs for mountain hut Tonnerhütte, where we park on a paid parking lot (4 EUR personal car, June 2020).

b) Via the border crossings Jezerski Vrh, Holmec or Vič we drive into Austria, then we follow the signs for Velikovec / Völkermarkt, from there the signs for Mostič / Brückl. When we arrive in Mostič we follow the signs for Svinec / Eberstein and Hüttenberg and then Mühlen, which is already located in Steiermark. We reach Mühlen by turning right off the main road, and through the settlement we follow the signs for Jakobsberg and mountain hut Tonnerhütte, higher up only the signs for mountain hut Tonnerhütte, where we park on a paid parking lot (4 EUR personal car, June 2020).

Route description:
From the parking lot, we walk above the mountain hut, where the path splits, and we choose the right panoramic path / Panoramaweg (left Zirbenweg). At first we walk on the road which ascends transversely towards the right, only a little after the left bend we leave it and continue right in the direction of Zirbitzkogel. The path ahead leads us along the edge of the ski slope piste, when the ski slope ends the path flattens briefly. We follow the marked path, which through a belt of forest brings us to extensive pastures, where we quickly reach the viewpoint Herterhöhe, where panoramic panels are located.

We continue straight towards Zirbitzkogel, where with ever better views we reach the next marked junction, where to the left a path branches towards the summits Kreiskogel (2306 m) and Wenzelalpe (2151 m) and the mountain hut Winterleitenhütte (1782 m), while we continue straight ahead. Next follows a fairly even ascent, which offers nice views, before crossing the first stream a winter path to Zirbitzkogel branches to the left (the junction is unmarked and harder to notice), and we continue across the stream and begin to ascend transversely towards the right. Further, we cross more streams, and on the southwest slopes of Zirbitzkogel we ascend to the south ridge, where there is a marked junction.

We continue left towards Zirbitzkogel (straight ahead over the fence and then left lake Lavantsee, right Fuchskogel), where we continue the path along the ridge. At first we still ascend moderately, then follow a few shorter steeper ascents, when we approach the summit the path leaves the ridge to the right, and then in a transverse ascent we reach the mountain hut Zirbitzkogelhaus, where a few more paths join.

Here we go left and past the stone chapel quickly reach the panoramic summit, from which the view extends all the way to the Slovenian and Italian mountains.

Starting point - Herterhöhe 0:40, Herterhöhe - Zirbitzkogelhaus 1:50, Zirbitzkogelhaus - Zirbitzkogel 0:02.

The description and photographs refer to conditions in June 2020.

Along the route: Zirbitzkogel Hütte (Seetaler Alpe) (2376m), Herterhöhe (1800m)

The trip can be extended to the following destinations: Scharfes Eck (Seetal Alps)

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