Bad Gastein, a picturesque town in the Austrian Alps, is known for its healing thermal springs and historic buildings. But beyond relaxation, Bad Gastein also offers wonderful opportunities for winter hikes, one of which is the tour from Kötschachtal to Prossau.
Tour Information:
- Distance: 10.85 km
- Duration: Approximately 3 hours
- Ascent/Descent: 174 hm / 174 hm
- Difficulty: Easy
Access and Parking
If you arrive by car in Kötschachtal, you can park it at the parking lot near the Hotel Grüner Baum. Your adventure starts from here. The parking lot is located at the very beginning of the place. You can also get here on foot via the Kaiser-Wilhelm-Promenade hike from Bad Gastein.
The Way to Prossau
The hike starts at the former holiday village “Grüner Baum”. The trail takes you through the idyllic Kötschachtal, one of the four dead-end valleys in Gastein. You follow a wide path through the high forest, enjoying magnificent views of the Tischlerkargruppe. In winter, a tractor compacts the snow on the road to create an optimal hiking trail. You can explore this path either on foot, or, if you have the necessary small change, you can comfortably use a horse-drawn carriage. In the year 2024, this will cost about 120€.
We decide to take the footpath and pull our 4-year-old on the sled behind us. The route is consistently straight to slightly uphill.
Along the way, you might encounter some of the over 100 red deer that live in this area, and their feeding stations along the roadside.
The Luis Trenker Path, named after the legendary mountaineer, leads you to the charming Malerwinkel with its old farmhouses, impressively overshadowed by the Himmelwand and the Tischlergruppe. Passing historical sites such as the wayside cross donated by Luis Trenker and the Marterl commemorating the avalanche disaster of 1951, you finally reach the Himmelwandhütte after about 1.4km or a brisk 20 minutes. Unfortunately, the snack station is closed during our visit due to illness.
You continue hiking through the forest along the Kötschacher Ache.
After about 1.5 hours, you reach the Alpengasthof Prossau at 1,278 m, a perfect place for a cozy stop. Here you can fortify yourself with local delicacies and enjoy the breathtaking landscape. We would have loved to warm up with a soup after the hike, but to our disappointment, they don’t serve any. However, they do offer roast pork, Bauernschmaus, cold platters, smoked trout, fresh trout in summer, deer in winter, as well as apple strudel or Topfenstrudel.
Für den Rückweg nehmen wir dieselbe Strecke, doch dieses Mal wird es wesentlich leichter, die Rodel zu ziehen, da es kontinuierlich bergab geht.
For the complete excursion, you should plan for about 3 hours of walking time and an hour’s break. In winter, we experienced a real Winter Wonderland. Afterwards, we return to the Straubinger Grand Hotel Bad Gastein.
