Bad Gastein, a picturesque town in the Austrian Alps, is known for its healing thermal springs and historic buildings. But apart from relaxation Bad Gastein There are also wonderful opportunities for winter hikes, one of which is the tour from Kötschachtal to Prossau.
Tour information:
- Distance: 10.85 km
- Duration: About 3 hours
- Ascent/descent: 174 hm / 174 hm
- Difficulty: Easy
Directions and parking
If you are travelling to Kötschachtal by car, you can leave it in the car park near the Hotel Grüner Baum. Your adventure starts from here. The car park is located at the very beginning of the village. You can also get there on foot via the Kaiser-Wilhelm-Promenade hike from Bad Gastein here.
The way to Prossau
The hike starts at the former "Grüner Baum" holiday village. The trail takes you through the idyllic Kötschachtal valley, one of the four valleys in Gastein. You follow a wide path through the high forest and enjoy magnificent views of the Tischlerkar group.
In winter, a tractor presses the snow onto the road to create an optimal hiking trail. You can explore this path either on foot or, if you have the necessary equipment, you can also comfortably a horse-drawn carriage use. In 2024, you will have to pay around €120 for this.
In any case, we decide to take the footpath and pull our 4-year-old behind us on the toboggan. It's steadily straight uphill to slightly uphill.
Along the way, you may come across some of the more than 100 red deer that live in the area and their feeding stations along the way.
The Luis Trenker Trail, named after the mountaineering legend, leads you to the charming Malerwinkel with its old farmhouses, which are impressively overlooked by the Himmelwand and the Tischlergruppe. Passing historical sites such as the wayside cross donated by Luis Trenker and the wayside shrine in memory of the avalanche disaster of 1951, you will finally reach the Himmelwandhütte. Unfortunately, the snack bar was closed during our visit due to illness.
You continue through the forest along the Kötschacher Ache.
After about 1.5 hours you will reach the Alpengasthof Prossau at 1,278 m, a perfect place for a cosy break. Here you can fortify yourself with local specialities and enjoy the breathtaking scenery. We would have loved to warm ourselves up with some soup after the hike, but unfortunately, to our disappointment, they don't serve any. However, they do have roast pork, farmer's feast, cold platters, smoked trout, fresh trout in summer, venison in winter and apple strudel or curd cheese strudel.
We take the same route for the way back, but this time it is much easier to pull the toboggan, as it is continuously downhill.
You should plan around 3 hours walking time and an hour's break for the whole excursion. In winter, we had a real winter wonderland.
We then return to the Straubinger Grand Hotel Bad Gastein.
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