MTB hut tour Winklmoosalm: King's tour to the Kaiserschmarrn Mecca Traunsteiner Hütte
Sissi Pärsch
· 02.07.2025
Achilles idolises Metallica. The tattoos on his right forearm bear witness to this. The left one is dedicated to FC Bayern. However, his Achilles tendon was once operated on by a lion - the team doctor of the Sechz'ger. Back then, when 1860 Munich was still a top-class football club and Marko Achilles was still a hotel manager. When his hair was still short and his tattoos were still covered. "It was a completely different life," says Mrs Achilles. Dani and Marko are both up and down - the latter at least in terms of altitude. Just in time for the coronavirus shutdown in spring 2020, the two gave up their 4-star hotel jobs and became the new hosts of the Traunsteiner Hütte on the Winklmoosalm. Up to this point, their life may not have been a Greek epic, but it has been a wild ride. More on that later.
Speaking of riding, we weren't carried up on a sedan chair today. Although that would have been entirely appropriate on this royal route, en route to the royal crown... The kingmaker himself is not called Huber like a Greek legendary hero, but simply: Huber. Andreas Huber. His profile: 37 years old, born and raised in Ruhpolding. Rode MTB races at UCI level. Took part in the 2012 Marathon World Championships. Discovered paragliding during a biking slump and flew away from everyone. Founded an IT company in Traunstein and thought along the way: Chiemgau needs a test like the Stoneman. The concept of rewarding the completion of a specially designated route with a trophy had already proven itself in several neighbouring countries, and so Andreas Huber quickly developed the Chiemgau King - a long loop in which the Traunsteiner Hütte fits in perfectly.
On the Chiemgau King, you bike through the Ruhpolding mountains on three levels of ambition, collect stamps at the checkpoints and thus secure a real metal crown. The entire King Tour covers 168 kilometres and 4629 metres in altitude. Crown aspirants ride it in three days for a bronze crown, in two days for a silver crown or in one day for the gold crown. For e-bikers like us, there is the e-crown and Andi has even made the route a little more challenging for us. A few kilometres less, but a higher proportion of trails.
It is a good 50 kilometres from Ruhpolding to the Winklmoosalm. There we will spend the night in the Traunsteiner Hütte, and on day two the loop will take us back another 50 kilometres. All in all, we will cover 2350 metres in altitude. On the official route, Andi now crowns hundreds of bikers as Chiemgau Kings every season - "... and they are all brutally euphoric from the experience and their performance." Andi can fill entire tour days with anecdotes about the Kini. With stories from the youngest daily finisher at the age of nine to a special trio of men:
They crept round our house at three o'clock in the morning, completely exhausted. They had actually started quite early - but they simply overestimated themselves and underestimated the tour. The classic ...
The ambition to complete the King's Round in one day is great for many. Maybe so. That's not the case for us. Our ambition is to maximise the enjoyment of the ride and the yield from the mountain pastures. The first, the Dandl Alm, is not long in coming. Shortly after the start in Ruhpolding, a feather-soft path winds its way between moss-covered boulders. "The fairytale forest," says Andi. "Highlight number one of around 100." We're not going to count.
Checkpoint three, which we can still remember, is the Dandl Alm. It sits beautifully on a wide alpine pasture in the Urschlauer Forst in front of the Gurnwandkopf and the rocky peak of the Hörndlwand. The beautiful is generally a thing of the past here - it's hard to escape the beauty. Even on the trail down through the Wappachtal valley to the Drei-Seen area, you don't stand a chance. Picture-book Bavaria wherever you look. The trio of Lödensee, Mittersee and Weitsee lakes are surrounded by mixed mountain forest. Pastureland extends to the shallow shore - and the water shimmers enticingly. But we stay in the saddle and cycle uphill on the opposite side of the valley to the Nattersbergalm.
The mountain hut "with the most beautiful hens in Chiemgau" is hidden above Seegatterl. The landlords serve impressively large and delicious portions in the cosy, rustic garden. We have now left the actual Chiemgau King Tour and - via lonely forest tracks and trails - have also left Germany. We cycle through Tyrol and over the Steinplatte into Salzburger Land. The highest point has been reached. Via the Muckklause (roughly estimated to be highlight no. 39) we return to the Bavarian idyll of the Winklmoosalm and the Traunsteiner Hütte - and thus to the heroes of our story, the Achilles family.
Dani and Marko met at the Hilton in Berlin. As hoteliers, they then travelled together to Sylt, Garmisch, Bad Aibling and Schwäbisch Hall. "We worked ourselves up," says Dani. "And still never went on holiday in hotels. We always went camping in flip-flops."
It is now difficult to imagine Marko as a buttoned-up 4-star hotel manager. His long hair is tied back in a bun, his tattoos are exposed - as mentioned at the beginning: James Hetfield on the right, Mehmet Scholl on the left. When he ruptured his Achilles tendon while playing squash and the team doctor from local rivals TSV 1860 Munich, of all people, operated on him, "... everyone really made the most of it," says Marko. Marko first had to turn forty on his way to becoming an innkeeper.
He celebrated this birthday at the Traunsteiner Hütte and became friends with the previous tenant, Jeanette. When she wanted to quit a few years later, she spurred Marco and Dani on. And they did. "We should have done it earlier," says Dani. But she also knows that life in a hut is no walk in the park. "In the first month, you're freshly in love," she says, "but you have to stay in love for another ten months." In any case, we enjoy Achilles' ongoing infatuation phase, her tender roast pork, the soft beds and the evening alpenglow on the terrace. The next morning, the mood to leave is slow to materialise.
But finally we pedal uphill a little to take the beautiful 11er path and then the forest road down into the valley. Past the Drei-Seen-Verbund, then kilometre after kilometre almost meditatively along. This is followed by a detour up to the Schwarzachenalm checkpoint (and coffee stop) and a few more kilometres until we reach the Zinnkopf - Andi's home trail area. The Fleischmann and Rotpunkt trails are really fun down into the valley, then the final 300 metres uphill on the other side via Maria Eck. Below the Mühlalpkopf, the Rabenstein trail is the crowning finale - although this is literally only in Ruhpolding on Andi's doorstep. The spikes of the crown, which the inventor of the Chiemgau King gives us, replicate the elevation profile of the route. We may not be heroes. But we savoured the majestic landscape and the princely catering with aplomb.
Information about the hut tour
This two-day tour from Ruhpolding via the Traunsteiner Hütte leads along the advertised Chiemgau King Route for long stretches (see info section), but this is a special tour. Hut tour variant with a total of 101 kilometres and 2430 metres in altitude.
Day 1: From Ruhpolding to the Traunsteiner Hütte
- Length: 47 kilometres
- Uphill: 1450 metres in altitude
Tour description
From Ruhpolding, you only have to warm up for a few kilometres before you reach the enchanted fairytale forest. After just 13 kilometres and hardly any metres in altitude, you reach the first worthwhile stopover, the Dandl Alm. The metres in altitude only follow when you change sides of the valley after the Drei-Seen area and pedal towards Austria via the Nattersberg Alm. The route leads through the Steinplatte ski area from Tyrol to Salzburger Land and back to Bavaria to the Winklmoosalm.
Day 2: Over the Zinnkopf back to Ruhpolding
- Length: 54 kilometres
- Uphill: 980 metres in altitude
Tour description
The second day begins at the Winklmoosalm with a fine, but unfortunately only short trail section - there are also many no biking signs in Chiemgau ... So it goes down the forest road into the valley and with sensationally beautiful views of the trio of lakes along the Seetraun river until you turn right at the Chiemgau Arena to the Schwarzachenalm. The route remains flat and Ruhpolding seems to be within easy reach, but then things really get going: the Zinnkopf is the trail area of the locals and offers some fine trails. Via Maria Eck and Rabenstein, the big loop finally turns back to Ruhpolding.
GPS data MTB tour Traunsteiner Hütte
BIKE subscribers can find the GPX data for this two-day tour to the Traunsteiner Hütte on bike-magazin.de under "My area" for free download
What you need to know
The Traunsteiner Hütte on the Winklmoosalm has been a DAV Alpine Club hut since 1925. It is situated at an altitude of 1160 metres and is open all year round except for November. You can spend the night in 4 double rooms with balconies (and views of the Loferer Steinberge) or in three dormitories, each with 5 to 7 beds. There are toilets and hot showers (with shower token). You can only stay overnight with half board. The old and now new tenant Jeanette Lorenz is famous for her particularly fluffy Kaiserschmarrn pancakes! E-bike charging station available.
Beware of confusion: In Berchtesgadener Land there are still the Alte and Neue Traunsteiner Hütte. The correct address for the hut on the Winklmoosalm is: traunsteinerhuette-winklmoos.deTel. 08640/8140 (closed on Wednesdays!).
Arrival
Ruhpolding is located between Munich and Salzburg not far from the A8 motorway in Chiemgau.
Chiemgau King
168 km, 4629 metres in altitude and eight mountain pastures - these are the data for the entire Chiemgau King route. You can complete it in one day or take two to three days to enjoy the scenery and stop off at mountain huts. The route designed by Andreas Huber starts and ends in his home town of Ruhpolding. The starter kit includes the GPS track, information material, some goodies such as socks and the stainless steel crown made by Lebenshilfe. The route presented here via the Traunsteiner Hütte is a variant specially designed for overnight stays in a mountain hut. Info: chiemgau-king.com
