Discover Hüttschlag: National Park, Hiking Trails and Via Ferratas

Hüttschlag can be discovered in many different ways: with a hike to a lake that is not filled all year round, along a section of the Hohe Tauern Panorama Trail, on via ferratas or by gaining insights into the cultural landscape. When looking for a holiday apartment, the key question is therefore which experiences should shape your holiday. Nature observation, longer hikes, sporting challenges and culture can be given different emphasis.

Landscape between the national park and an intermittent lake

The Schödersee is a special natural attraction. It is an intermittent lake and fills up only after heavy rainfall or snowmelt. Due to underground drainage, it often dries up completely in summer. Anyone wishing to experience this changing landscape should take the natural conditions into account when planning their trip. The lake is therefore not a consistently unchanged excursion destination, but appears in different forms depending on the water level.

The Hohe Tauern National Park also shapes the area. One third of Hüttschlag’s municipal territory has belonged to the Hohe Tauern National Park since 1991, the largest national park in the Alps. Since 2008, Hüttschlag has also been one of the “Mountaineering Villages of Austria” selected according to strict criteria. This is a project of the Austrian Alpine Club as part of the implementation of the Alpine Convention.

Hiking with different focuses

The Hohe Tauern Panorama Trail runs along the northern side of the Salzach Valley to Hüttschlag and is designed as a route with 17 stages. Another hike begins at the National Park information centre near the Gasthof Talwirt, leads into the Schöder Valley and climbs to the Arlscharte, the pass crossing into the Maltatal valley. Along the hike to the Schödersee, around 50 information boards provide details about natural and historical features of the Großarl Valley.

This combination of exercise and information may be interesting for your day planning if you want not only to view the landscape but also learn about the background of its nature and history. The hike also includes a roughly 40-metre detour to Ötzlsee. Another destination is the Kreealm Waterfall: it can be reached in five minutes on foot from the turn-off to the Kreealmen and plunges around 80 metres into the depths. Such specific waypoints help you put together different excursion ideas for your stay without focusing on the same theme every day.

Via ferratas for active days

Anyone wishing to include via ferratas in their trip planning will find various difficulty ratings in Hüttschlag. The “Kupfergeist” via ferrata in the Hüttschlager Wand leads across 150 metres of vertical rock and has a difficulty rating of C–E. The “Gletschergoaß” practice via ferrata has a difficulty rating of A–C, is 150 metres long and 50 metres high. From Hüttschlag town centre, the “Kupfergeist”, “Gletschergoaß” and “Franzl” via ferratas can be reached in around 25 minutes. The stated grades and measurements provide a concrete basis for coordinating sporting plans with the other days of your holiday.

Culture as a complement to nature

The Hüttschlag Valley Museum presents the exhibition “On the Alpine Pasture – Between Heaven and Earth”. The focus is on the cultural landscape, alpine pastures and forests in the national park. The Hüttschlag parish church provides another cultural highlight; it was probably built in the 18th century under the influence of the Salzburg court building office. When planning your trip, you can therefore consider topics relating to the development of the landscape and the history of the area alongside hiking and via ferratas.

The right accommodation idea for planning your trip

When looking for a holiday apartment or holiday home in Hüttschlag, it is worth first deciding on your preferred rhythm. If long routes and the Hohe Tauern Panorama Trail are the main focus, your hiking plans will be the most important factor. If active days are to alternate with natural history, museums and local culture, a correspondingly varied daily schedule makes sense. For travellers with different interests, Hüttschlag therefore offers several starting points from which to develop an individual holiday plan.

More destinations for planning your trip

If you would also like to compare other places for your stay, you can view the listings for Lammertal, Sonnberg, Bischofshofen, Pfarrwerfen, Flachau, Wimm, Sankt Veit Im Pongau and Tenneck.

For the higher-level travel overview: Sankt Johann Im Pongau.