Winter walk through the Kötschachtal: From Bad Gastein to Prossau
Bad Gastein, a picturesque town in the Austrian Alps, is known for its healing thermal springs and historic buildings. But beyond 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 arrive in the Kötschachtal by car, you can park it in the car park near the Hotel Grüner Baum. Your adventure begins from here. The car park is right at the beginning of the village. You can also reach the valley on foot via the Kaiser-Wilhelm-Promenade hike from Bad Gastein here.
The Way to Prossau
The hike starts at the former holiday village "Grüner Baum". The path takes you through the idyllic Kötschachtal, one of the four dead-end valleys in Gastein. You follow a wide path through the high forest and enjoy magnificent views of the Tischlerkar group.
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 cash, you can also a horse-drawn carriage 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 sled. The path is constantly straight and slightly uphill.
Along the way, you may encounter some of the more than 100 red deer that live in this area and their feeding places along the way.
The Luis Trenker Trail, named after the mountaineering legend, takes 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 shrine commemorating the avalanche disaster of 1951, you finally reach the HimmelwandhütteUnfortunately, the snack bar was 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 ourselves up with a 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, as well as apple strudel or curd strudel.
For the way back we take the same route, but this time it will be much easier to pull the sled as it is continuously downhill.
For the entire trip you should plan on about 3 hours of walking time and an hour's break. In winter we had a real winter wonderland.
Afterwards we return to the Straubinger Grand Hotel Bad Gastein.
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