In August 2019, we spent 3 days in the Austrian National Park “Hohe Tauern” and did, besides Packrafting the Salzach, also a short 2-day hike from the town of Krimml, up to the Warnsdorfer Hütte (day 1). On day 2 we had a long hike from Warnsdorfer Hütte via Richter Hütte down to the Tauernhaus.
It all started with the Krimml Waterfalls, which we detected by accident since we didn’t even know they exist. But they seem to be a “big thing” for Austria tourists - over 400’000 people are visiting them per year.
After we left the waterfalls behind us, the amount of people you meet rapidly drops. But there are still some hikers and bikers you will meet on the nice way up to the Warnsdorfer Hütte. Once you leave the Krimml Tauernhaus behind you, you will probably be on your own. On the Warnsdorfer Hütte, we were lucky: we got our own room so a peaceful sleep was possible (don’t forget to make reservations for all huts!).
The next day we climbed up to the Birnlücke, passed by the Birnlückenhütte and crossed the mountain pass Krimmler Tauern. From there, it’s quite a distance to the Richterhütte where we did a short break before we finalized this extensive day by hiking down to the Krimml Tauernhaus.
The whole trip does only contain 2-3 sections where you get a little bit exposed, but all in all it’s a great trip which can easily be done without a huge amount of mountain experience. Be aware that normally people plan 3 days for this trip, unfortunately we had to do it in 2 days since there was no sleeping space left in the Richterhütte. But the altitude meters should not get underestimated.
The DAV has an extensive PDF about parts of this trip which runs under the name “3-Länder-Tour am Alpenhauptkamm”. It contains all information you need for people that don’t want to plan the trip on their own.
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