UPDATE MTB hut tour Karwendel: On lonely paths by bike to the new Falkenhütte

The two-day MTB hut tour leads from Krün via Johannestal and Ladizalm up to the Falkenhütte and the next day via the Kleiner Ahornboden, the Karwendelhaus and via the Barmsee back to Krün. In total: 97.9 kilometres and 2542 metres in altitude.

Stage 1 new: With the E-MTB from Krün via Johannestal to Falkenhütte

• Length: 48.0 kilometres
• Uphill 1876 metres in altitude
• Downhill: 904 metres in depth
• Journey time: approx. 5 hours

Route description 1st stage

From Krün (875 m), it's straight into the sporty ascent to the Fischbach-Alm (1400 m). The trail descent on the "Soiernweg" to Vorderriß is flowy and easy to ride except for short, rough and narrow passages. Once you reach the banks of the Isar, a long asphalt ride awaits on the toll road to Hinterriß, where you turn off onto the gravel path into Johannestal (958 m) at car park P4. This is where the scenic ascent begins on the best forest road towards Schwarzlackenhütte. On an e-MTB, the steep ascent over wide hairpin bends to the Ladizalm (1573 m) loses its terror. From Spielissjoch (1773 m), it's just a few minutes to the Falkenhütte (1848 m), visible from afar.

Refreshment stops: On the first stage, you pass the Fischbachalm (Tel. 0172/9469734) after 500 metres in altitude. Snacks, cakes and drinks are available here - but only during the grazing season from mid-July to the beginning of September.

After 16 kilometres, you can stop off at the time-honoured Gasthof Post in Vorderriß. King Ludwig has already spent the night here. Charging batteries is no problem here. (www.post-vorderriss.de).
The last opportunity to recharge before the long, steep ascent up to the Falkenhütte is at the Hotel Post in Hinterriß (www.post-hinterriss.info).

Stage 2: From the Falkenhütte via Barmsee to Krün

• Length: 49.9 kilometres
• Uphill: 666 metres in altitude
• Downhill: 1339 metres in depth
• Journey time: 3 hours

Route description 2nd stage

We set off along the familiar route to the Spielissjoch. From here, take the wide track to the Ladizalm. Shortly afterwards, an inconspicuous path branches off to the left, leading through the Sauiss forest to a ford at the Kleiner Ahornboden. Keep left there and wind your way up the many hairpin bends to the Hochalmsattel and reach the Karwendelhaus (1771 m) five minutes later. The long but scenic ride through the Karwendel valley ends in Scharnitz. The route continues through the Riedboden to Mittenwald and through the humpback meadows over the Tennsee and on to the Barmsee (beautiful bathing spot!) before coming full circle in Krün.
Refreshment stops: Be careful, the battery has to last for the first 400 metres of altitude on the second day. After the Hochalmsattel, the Karwendelhaus awaits again with charging stations, a second breakfast and a rustic pub that is a must-see.
Back down in the Isar valley, there are plenty of restaurants and cafés in Scharnitz and Mittenwald to stop off at.

Information about the hut tour in the Karwendel

Travelling by public transport: The Karwendel has been perhaps Munich's favourite weekend destination since the 1950s due to its good train connections. Mittenwald is the starting and finishing point and can be reached from Munich's main railway station in around one and a half hours. Information and booking: www.bahn.de. Please note: Until 7 December 2023, there will be rail replacement services between Garmisch and Mittenwald. The transport of bicycles cannot be guaranteed. Tip: If you want to ride the tour described here, it is best to get off in Klais. Otherwise the first day of the tour will be even longer and energy management even more complicated.

Overnight stay at the Falkenhütte: The Falkenhütte is a managed hut of the DAV Oberland section and is spectacularly situated at an altitude of 1848 metres in the heart of the Karwendel. The 100-year-old mountain hut in the shadow of the Lalidererwände offers 130 overnight stays in double and multi-bed rooms as well as in dormitories during the summer season (starting as soon as the paths are free of snow, from around mid-June) until the beginning of October. Thanks to the good but long approach via Karwendelhaus or Kleiner Ahornboden and Johannestal, the Falkenhütte is a popular destination for mountain bikers. Especially for day tourers. You can book your overnight stay online at www.alpenverein-muenchen-oberland.de/huetten/alpenvereinshuetten/falkenhuette. An overnight stay in a double room costs 36 euros for DAV members and 65 euros for non-members. A camp site is available for members from just 15 euros.

General information: The three villages of Mittenwald, Wallgau and Krün have joined together to form Alpenwelt Karwendel (www.alpenwelt-karwendel.de). The Karwendel Nature Park is the largest protected area in Tyrol and the largest nature park in Austria. At www.karwendel.org you can find lots of information, tour suggestions and rules of behaviour.

The NEW You can download GPS data for both stages of the Karwendel Tour free of charge here - click now!

E-MTB report: Karwendel - against the current

This cutting edge is razor-sharp. And 800 metres high. I'm sitting on the Ladizköpfl above the Falkenhütte. Half past five in the morning. The 130 souls 70 metres below me are slumbering blissfully. Including my mate Manu. Nickname: Fux. The sun is just blinking coyly over the Hohljoch. It's strange: this vertical blade called "Herzogkante" has been cutting the world into white and black, day and night, every morning for millions of years. But the Falkenhütte down there has only been standing there for the blink of an eye. In our era: 100 years ago. And another 10 years earlier, a Munich native named Otto Herzog conquered this knife-edge that leads from darkness into light. At the time, the fifth degree of difficulty was the ultimate for climbers. A fine blade between omnipotence and suicide. Herzog's nickname: Rambo.

Falkenhütte. A name like a flap of wings high above the Karwendel valleys. And politically more innocuous than Adolf-Sotier-Haus. That was the name of the mountain hut back in 1939. This stately refuge sits enthroned on the Spießkopf like an eagle's nest. The first time I was up here was around 1992, 1993. As a devout disciple of Moser, not Moses. Elmar Moser had just published a handy ring binder in landscape format. Subtitled: "Off and away". In it, the Munich native described 50 tours, sorted from easy to difficult. It goes without saying that we youngsters were interested in the tours over 30 at the time. I was particularly interested in tour number 38: "From Mittenwald around the Karwendel peaks". With 68 kilometres and 1,838 metres in altitude, the tour was already more of a day's hike, but I couldn't get over a sentence from Moser: "A very interesting, but also more difficult extension of the classic Karwendel tour leads via the Falkenhütte." Another 500 metres of extra altitude. I had to do that. The first of the ten commandments, so to speak. After all, Moser had ennobled this huge tour with the addition "The perfect bike tour". With an exclamation mark.

A classic tour with the E-MTB against the current

Back to the present day. 26 became 29 inch. Tange Ultimate to carbon. Mag 21 to Fox Float. Muscle bike to electric bike. Six-pack to beer keg. What remained: the desire for mountain biking, the joy of newly discovered transitions and the desire to relive the wild tours from my own Sturm und Drang days. I've been riding the nostalgia wave for a few years now. And that includes the Karwendel. Over two hundred two-thousand metre peaks jostle for space over 30 by 30 kilometres in one of the largest nature reserves in the Eastern Alps. The need to protect the sensitive flora and fauna in combination with the topography - four mountain ridges running parallel from east to west with long valleys in between - naturally reduces the opportunities for bike tours. However, the few routes that do exist are long, full-day activities with a lot of altitude metres. I hadn't even said "cirque" when my mate Fux was already there. On his terms: Two days, overnight stay at the hut, zero stress. But new technologies require new routes: E-MTB or not - after 30 years, I was no longer in the mood for the creeping 20-kilometre uphill through the Karwendel valley up to the Hochalmsattel. Why not just surf towards the lemmings? So we quickly agreed: we would do a Karwendel switch.

Yesterday, Fux and I got on our e-MTBs in Krün and not in the classic starting point of Mittenwald. We didn't want to conquer the Falkenhütte via the large Karwendel valley, Hochalmsattel and Kleiner Ahornboden like everyone else, but through the back door. In other words, from the Rissbach valley. If you want to get there from the Isar valley, you will - how could it be otherwise - naturally find what you are looking for at Meister Moser. Tour number 29, around the Soierngruppe: "The high trail (...) becomes increasingly (...) narrower and finally becomes a real off-road course (...), on which three difficult slope slides (...) have to be mastered with the utmost care." Sounds like a lot of fun! The Soiernweg also demands your full attention. There's hardly any time to strain your head after the Schöttelkarspitze. Half an hour later, Fux and I roll into Vorderriß. My battery is already weakening. Is it because of the heavy payload? I ask at the Gasthof Post if I can refuel with electricity. And a beer. An hour later, freshly fuelled, we're cranking down the valley to Hinterriß at a 20 km/h pace. It's still early in the day and we're well on schedule. So we let it rip - and stop off again. This time not at the Gasthof Post, but at the Hotel Post. Here I treat my battery to another three-quarters of an hour of energising. One of my better ideas, as it turns out later.

Surprise one at the Falkenhütte: the new hut team is 30 years younger than expected. Surprise two: They now even serve burgers! Surprise three: The peace and quiet of the hut is still sacred here. The lights go out at ten o'clock sharp.

The Kleiner Ahornboden - a magical place of power

New day, new touring luck. Three quarters of six in the morning. I stroll back down to the Falkenhütte from my vantage point on the Ladizköpfl. My mate Fux is already on the terrace, so we're ready to go. It shouldn't be called Kleiner Ahornboden, but Grossartiger Ahornboden. There are many magical places in the Karwendel. This one is my favourite of all. Hundreds of ancient sycamore trees stand on the mountain meadow. So as not to disturb the ensemble of trees, a dark mountain hut is tucked away in the background. And next to it stands an obelisk. A monument to Hermann von Barth. In the summer of 1870, he climbed eighty-eight (!) Karwendel peaks single-handedly. Twelve of them were first ascents. Without a rope, but with nerves of steel. But even the strongest powerhouse cries out at some point: onwards now!

We manage the remaining 400 metres up to the Hochalmsattel in twenty minutes - and are amazed at the hustle and bustle that almost overwhelms us at the Karwendelhaus. I stop counting at the fiftieth E-MTB. Unbelievable! Karwendelhaus and Falkenhütte are like Stachus and Walachia at the weekend. I briefly show Fux the hundred-year-old parlour, then we quickly leave and roll out into the long Karwendel valley. An hour later we reach Scharnitz. The duty is done, now only the freestyle awaits: lunch in Mittenwald, between air paintings, violin-making workshops and posing Japanese. Then we whizz through the typical humpback meadows to the Tennsee. But it's gone. It's dried up. A fact that doesn't seem to bother the hordes of campers at the campsite. In the end, we finally get to cool off in the Barmsee. We stay here until the Karwendel rocks in the background start to glow in the evening sun and put Fux back in an explorer's mood: "Still cool, the old Moser routes. Maybe we should try the zigzag ascent to the Lamsenjochhütte soon? It should be rideable on an e-MTB by now...?"