Lienzer Dolomitenhütte - Teplitzer Spitze

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. A few kilometres before Lienz (near Unterdorf), you will see the signs for the Lienzer Dolomitenhütte hut, which will direct you left onto the local road. The road then crosses the River Drava over a bridge and leads to the village of Lavant, where you continue to the right towards the village of Tristach. Between Lavant and Tristach you will come to the next crossroads where you turn left towards "Lienzer Dolomitenhütte". Follow this road, which begins to climb steeply, to a large parking area near the hut. The road is toll road (July 2009 7€).
Lienz can also be reached by driving through the Zillian valley (Korensko sedlo, Hermagor, Ziljsko sedlo/Gailbergsattel pass) instead of the Drava valley, in which case you arrive in the Drava valley at Oberdrauburg.

Path description:
From the parking lot, continue along the road, which will take you to the Lienzer Dolomitenhütte mountain hut in 2 minutes.
From the hut, cross the fence and continue your ascent along the scenic road (a nice view of the jagged ridge - the highest is Spitzkofel 2717 m), which is exposed to falling rocks in the initial part. The road then crosses a short lane of wodland and after this leads to the undistinguished Premstall Pass (1625 m), where there is a small crossroads.
Continue straight on past the water trough (left up Weißtein Alm) along the road which, after a few minutes' further walking, leads to a small mountain pasture Instein Alm, where you see a small wooden hut and a chapel a little above it.
Continue along the road, which quickly leads to a marked crossroads, where you leave.
We continue our ascent along a wide mountain path, which begins to climb slightly steeper, through increasingly sparse forest. The path opens up very beautiful views, crosses the mountain road a few times and leads us higher to a small wooden shelter. At the shelter, we leave the road again and continue our ascent through a gently sloping high mountain valley surrounded by high peaks. The gently sloping path, which runs alongside a torrential stream, turns right at a higher altitude and climbs steeply for a short time. Follow this scenic route all the way to the Karlsbader Hütte mountain hut (there is also a Laserzsee lake next to the hut), which is reached after a few minutes of further walking.
The hut can also be reached by mountain road.
From the hut, continue to the right along the marked path, which first descends slightly, crosses a stream and then leads to an unmarked crossroads. Continue along the upper left path, which is marked with blue circles (the lower path leads to the Kerschbaumertörl saddle). The path ahead begins to climb steeply and after a few minutes' walk leads us to a slightly flatter area where a cross, visible from a distance, stands at the edge.
At the cross, the path gradually turns to scree and then descends a little higher. The path then turns slightly to the right and begins to climb steeply up a very steep scree slope to the left. The very steep path climbs higher and leads to the saddle Odkarscharte, from where a view to the south-west opens up. At the saddle, continue right (left Seekofel) along the slightly exposed ridge path, which takes us only slightly higher to the next crossroads. Continue straight on (left down Kerschbaumertörl) towards the steep tower, where the blue markings also lead you. After a few metres, the easy route ends and turns into a rather difficult and exposed climb, which reaches the second level of difficulty. After about 20 m of ascent, you reach one of the two (the third is a little further on) steep cols of the Teplitzer Spitze.

On the way: Instein Alm (1669m), Karlsbader Hütte (2261m), Odkarscharte (2596m)

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