Karawanken wall at the head of the Bodental
10 KARAWANKEN
Shared with neighbouring Slovenia, Austria’s most southerly mountains are largely hidden from view by wooded foothills that rise from the Rosental valley. Narrow roads thread their way through gorges in the hills, emerging to alpine meadows interrupted by tiny villages and hamlets that bear little resemblance to the more ‘traditional’ picture-postcard communities found in Tyrol or Salzburg Land. Here in deepest Carinthia the Slav influence remains in both architecture and language, for villages and mountains often have two names, while the sun-bleached limestone crags, slabs and finely shaped summits provide a backdrop to trails seldom visited by British walkers, despite the close proximity of Klagenfurt’s airport making it one of the easiest groups in all the Alps to reach from the UK. Persistence is required to discover the best of the Karawanken beyond the forests, but once found, the unique beauty of the region is hard to forget. With Feistritz at its mouth, the narrow, steep-walled and heavily wooded Bärental is typical, for as you journey south through it, only the briefest of hints are given that the narrow line of abrupt frontier mountains are waiting ahead. The highest in the range erupts from a wasteland of screes, spreading its influence in four directions. At just 2237m, Hochstuhl cannot compete with major peaks of other regions included in this guide, but altitude is not everything. Hochstuhl, with its popular north-facing klettersteig and easy trail from the south, has its own undeniable appeal and some glorious summit views. The Klagenfurter Hut is one of very few huts in the Karawanken, but it makes an almost perfect base, not only for climbs on Hochstuhl, but for the 1959m Bielschitza above it, and for cross-border treks. It’s in a well-chosen position, for it can be reached from two very different valleys; that of the Bärental, the other being the glorious Bodental.
Karawanken wall at the head of the Bodental
The Bodental is approached by a spur off the Ferlach to Loiblpass road, with a bus service from Ferlach terminating at a large gasthof surrounded by meadows. Trails and tracks cut through the meadows, edging ever closer to the main crest of the Karawanken. At the head of one single-track road, a beautiful old farm-cum-gasthof, shaded by linden trees, has a distinctly Slovenian atmosphere and a tranquil outlook across gently rising meadows to the frontier crest.
The Loibltal, between Ferlach and the pass, boasts the wildly romantic Tscheppaschlucht gorge (fee to walk through) and the nearby Tschauko waterfall, but a less-travelled road southeast of town pushes through the valley of the Waidischbach for a little over 10km before twisting up into a high pastoral valley running parallel with the main mountain ridge. Zell-Pfarre nestles among the pastures, but above it to the south the few buildings of Zell-Koschuta stand either side of a minor toll road which becomes a track leading to the Koschuta-Haus, at the foot of challenging crags and peaks.
The Zell road continues eastward, but then forks at Zell-Schaida. One now descends northward and eventually runs alongside the dammed Freibach lake, while the eastward option climbs to the Schaidasattel at 1068m. From here a recommended trail sets out to make the ascent of the Hochobir, a tremendous vantage point from which to study not only the Karawanken on both sides of the border, but the low-lying country to the north, lit by the Drau. Over the Schaidasattel the road snakes down into more gorge-like wooded narrows before coming to Bad Eisenkappel on the Volkermarkt to Seebergsattel road.
| Location | In southern Carinthia, east of the Carnic Alps, from the Wurzen Pass south of Villach, to where the Drau enters Slovenia east of Klagenfurt. The mountains carry the Austro–Slovenian frontier. |
| Maps | Kompass Wanderkarte 61 Wörthersee, Karawanken West and 65 KlopeinerSee, Karawanken 1:50,000; Freytag & Berndt WK232 Volkermarkt, Klopeiner See, Turner See; WK233 Kärntner Seen, Villach, Klagenfurt; and WK234 Klopeiner See, Rosental, Klagenfurt 1:50,000; Planinska zveza Slovenije Karavanke and Kamnisko-Savinjske Alpe 1:50,000 |
| Bases | Ferlach, Bad Eisenkappel |
| Information | Ferlach Tourismus, 9170 Ferlach (e-mail: office@carnica-rosental.at; website: www.ferlach.at); Turismusverein Bad Eisenkappel, 9135 Bad Eisenkappel (e-mail: bad.eisenkappel@netway.at; website: www.bad-eisenkappel.info) |
| Access | By road from Klagenfurt (17km) to Ferlach; and via Volkermarkt to Bad Eisenkappel. Minor roads stretch into the wooded hills from both valley bases; infrequent bus services from Ferlach and Bad Eisenkappel link outlying villages. |
Ferlach (466m) This small town lies south of Klagenfurt above the Drau, and is at the hub of several roads. Despite being the largest base in the Karawanken mountain district, it has only modest facilities; among them a few shops and restaurants, a supermarket, tourist information, a post office, banks with ATMs and a limited amount of accommodation. The nearest campsite is at Gotschuchen, about 8km to the east.
Bad Eisenkappel (556m) A modest-sized village with spa facilities astride the Seebergsattel road which crosses the mountains into Slovenia, it is not immediately obvious as a base for a mountain walking holiday, but with your own transport a lot of options become possible. It has gasthaus, pension and hotel accommodation, several restaurants, banks with ATM, a post office, tourist information and basic shops.
Berta Hut (1567m) The westernmost hut in the Karawanken, it sits below the Mittagskogel southeast of the Faaker See. Owned by the Villach section of the ÖAV, this timber-clad Category I hut was built in 1963. It has 34 dormitory places, and is staffed from June until the end of September (tel 0676 4211377 www.alpenverein.at/huetten).
Eisenkappeler Hut (1553m) Accessible by road all the way to the hut, it is perfectly placed for an easy ascent of Bad Eisenkappel’s ‘house mountain’ Hochobir, northwest of the village. The hut has 15 beds and 12 dormitory places, is owned by the ÖTK, and is fully staffed from May to mid-October, and weekends the rest of the year (weather permitting) (tel 04238 8170 www.eisenkappelerhuette.at.
Klagenfurter Hut (1664m) Standing on the Matschacher Alm near the head of both the Bärental and Bodental, this Category I hut belongs to the Klagenfurt section of the ÖAV, and has a direct view of the Bielschitza and Hochstuhl on the frontier ridge. With 24 beds and 38 dormitory places, it is fully staffed from Whitsun to the end of October, Christmas and the New Year, and then at weekends (tel 0664 866 0608 www.klagenfurterhuette.at).
Koschuta-Haus (1279m) Owned by the TVN (Friends of Nature), this hut is approached via toll road from Zell-Pfarre, and looks onto the Hohe Spitze, Larchenberg and Koschutnikturm. It has 24 beds and 24 dormitory places, and is staffed from May until early November (tel 04227 7110 www.koschutahaus.at).
