Etappe 4a: Alpina Antica Trail | ET4a: Kössen - Gasteig

From the starting point of the stage at the event centre or the tourist information office in Kössen you hike about 50 m west to the roundabout. Here you turn left and follow the road through Kössen to another roundabout. Go straight ahead over the roundabout, but now take the right smaller of the two roads to the south. At the next fork at the Grünbacher apartment, choose the right of the two small streets (path no. 12 towards Schwendt). Soon the small road becomes a dirt road, which - taking the dirt road straight ahead at a fork - takes you through fields and over a short steep upswing to another small asphalt road. Turn left here until you reach a larger asphalt road, which you cross. At the next fork in the road, keep right (No. 67 “Schwendt”) until the next junction. Here, turn left towards Unterberghorn – Niederhausertal (No. 70). Follow the road and the signs to the entrance to the Niederhausertal valley (wooden barn on the right).

Follow the alpine road to the first sign for “Alter Lackweg”. Either stay on the alpine road – or take the shorter, more scenic route via the “Alter Lackweg” through a beautiful beech forest to just before the Lackalm, whereby you will have to cross the alpine road several times. Continue to the next fork in the path. Here, keep right towards Schnappen – Lackalm No. 71. You will soon reach the Lackalm, which is open in summer.

From here, head south-west, initially across alpine meadows and later along a path, to the highest point of the stage. Here the path joins the alpine road, where you keep left towards Stubenalm – (Lower) Schnappenalm No. 71. The views of the northern slopes of the Wilder Kaiser and even the glaciated three-thousand-metre peaks of the Hohe Tauern and the Reichenspitz Group are breathtaking! Passing the Lower Schnappenalm, which is partially open in summer, you continue your descent towards Kohlental (No. 72) until a hiking trail branches off towards “Stubenalm” (No. 72).

This is where the shorter main route and the longer variant, which takes you to the Stubenalm, diverge:

The shorter main route leads straight ahead at the aforementioned fork along the alpine road at the same altitude and later descends into the Schnappengraben and ascends again on the other side until a hiking trail branches off to the right towards ‘Sprissleralm’ (No. 23) on the right. Follow this path downhill to the Sprissleralm,.

Here turn right for a few metres up towards "Hinterberg/Gasteig", then without loss of altitude over alpine pastures and finally descend through forest to an alpine road. This alpine road soon descends into an asphalt road and leads through the scattered settlement of Hinterberg to a right-hand bend and the hikers' car park.

Opposite the car park, turn left and immediately right again on an alpine road towards "Gasteig/Kirchdorf". Follow this for quite a while until a hiking trail branches off to the right in the direction of "Gasteig/Kirchdorf" (centuries-old rock carvings have been found in the forest nearby, which testify to a very long settlement of Hinterberg). Partly very steep down this hiking trail until the hiking trail branches off to the right in the direction of Gasteig, which leads very steeply to the first houses of Gasteig. Here the paths branch off for the last time: You follow the right path past a beautiful old farm and now descend across the meadows to Gasteig to the end of the stage at Café Hautz (between Erikastüberl and Jagdschlössl).

Highlights of the mule trade: Lovely alpine landscape around Schnappen-, Stuben- and Sprissleralm (47.59442840405117, 12.405595225655237)
Admittedly, this highlight has nothing to do with hemming. But the mountain landscape with its partly managed alpine pastures is always a highlight!

Hinterberg (47.57290898898472, 12.422357034645989)
An ancient agricultural settlement in a high valley, which until a few decades ago was only accessible by footpaths.