Innsbruck Walking

Innsbruck Walking Options

For more general information about walking / hiking in and around Innsbruck, including practical information on how to get there, please click here.

Kompass map 036, Innsbruck und Umgebung covers all the hikes in this article.

Innsbruck & Umgebung. 036 GPS wp kompass

Walks / Hikes from Innsbruck Igls

Cable car coming up mountain with view of valley in background in summer

Waiting for the Patscherkofelbahn

Igls is a ski village to the south of Innsbruck and in the summer the Patscherkofelbahn (cable car) runs from late May and will whisk you up to 1,952m (6,404 feet). For more information, the best resource is the Innsbruck Tourist Office website.

To reach Igls from Innsbruck, you can catch the J bus that runs every 15 minutes between Nordkette and Igls. If you catch an Olympia Express rather than a Patscherkofelbahn bus, just get off at Igls Ortsmitte which is a couple of minutes walk from the Patscherkofelbahn base station. We did 2 great hikes from the Patscherkofelbahn summit station.

 

Mountain trail in summer with hikers & mountain top in distance

View of Viggarspitze from the trail

Viggarspitze This walk follows the Zirbenweg which is clearly signed through the gate to the left of the summit station. The Zirbenweg is a really picturesque trail that winds along the top of the tree line. There are lots of Alpine plants to look at and fabulous views of the Inn Valley & the Nordkette mountains. The trail for Viggarspitze turns off to the right after the Boscheben Hutte – we were concerned we would miss it, but it is really well signed. There is a good path to the top at 2,306m (7,565 feet). If you retrace your steps back to the summit station you will walk around 8km (5 miles) with a 350m (1,150 feet) elevation difference.

If you want to do a little more there are three good options. One, retrace your steps as far as the Boscheben Hutte and from there take the path that runs along the ridge to the Patscherkopfel summit at 2,248m. Two, retrace your steps back to the Zirbenweg and walk on to the Glunezer chairlift and drop down to pick up the bus in Tulfes. Three, the more taxing option is to continue along the ridgeline from the Viggarspitze summit on to the Glungezer Hutte at 2,600m and then Schartenkogel at 2,311m and the Tulfeinalm at 2035m. From there you can either retrace your steps back to the Patscherkofelbahn summit station or walk on to the Glunezer chairlift and drop down to pick up the bus in Tulfes.

View of mountain trails

View of Patscherkofe & the Adlerweg

Zirbenweg Trail The classic version of this walk runs from  the Patscherkofelbahn summit station to the Glunezer chairlift when you can drop down to pick up the bus in Tulfes. This route is around 7km (4.3 miles) with a 200m (656 feet) elevation difference. We wanted to do a little more, so hiked to the Patscherkopfel summit first and then followed the ridgeline down to the Boscheben Hutte, adding about 296m and 2.5k to the walk. The bus stop in Tulfes is easy to find – it is near the entry to the chair lift car park. There is a bus around every 30 minutes and you can pay the driver on boarding.

Hikes from Nordkette

You can reach the base station of the Nordkettenbahn using the funicular which goes from the Congress Centre Station in Innsbruck station, or using the J bus which runs from the centre every 15 minutes. For more information, see the Innsbruck Tourist office Nordkette website.

2 beers with wooden sunshades & a vew of mountain tops in the far distance

Staying hydrated in the mountains!

Hungerburg We did our first hike at Nordkette from the top of the Hungerburg  funicular (having visited the Alpenzoo earlier in the day). After you exit the funicular, take a right turn into a small lane and keep walking uphill through the forest. You will join up with the Rosnerweg. Stay on this trail until you see a sign for Arzler Alm, pointing uphill to your left. You will continue uphill on a really nice hike through the forest until you reach the Arzler Alm. From here follow the well marked path (more like a dirt road) on to the Rumer Alm. This portion of the walk has great views of the Inn Valley and Patscherkopfel. From the Rumer Alm you can either retrace your steps back to Hungerburg or continue on down into Rum where you can catch a bus back to Innsbruck. The first option gives a round trip of around 7km (4.3 miles) with a 400m (,1312 feet) elevation difference. the second has no more uphill but around 600m additional downhill and 7.4k to get into Rum.

View over scree slope to high mountain ridge

View of Hafelekar top station from Seegrube

Rum is very well connected to Innsbruck. You can catch one of two buses or a train depending on which is more convenient. You can pay the driver on the buses but must buy a ticket before boarding the train. There are lots of really good paths through the forest from Hungerburg. Next time we go back we will hike in the opposite direction to the Achselbodenhutte or the Rauschbrunnen and up to Seegrube.

Seegrube We had intended to hike the Goetheweg trail to Pfeishutte from the top station of the Nordkettenbahn at Hafelekar, but unluckily the top station was closed for maintenance and we could only get the cable car to Seegrube. We did consider hiking up to the Hafelekar top station, but the only route we could see looked like an absolutely grueling slog up a very steep scree slope so we decided to give it a miss. In the end we hiked along a ridge path to the Frau Hitt.

Trails leading off to a high mountain ridge

Ridge trails at Seegrube

This was an OK hike, but I think a better option would have been to have followed the lower path to the Achselbodenhutte or the Rauschbrunnen and dropped down into Sadrach to get the bus back to Innsbruck. Alternatively, having looked at the map, there looks to be a better trail up to the Hafelekar top station to the right of Seegrube that winds up the ridge. It still looks pretty steep though so I suspect it would be something of a lung buster!

 

Hikes in the Muttereralmpark

The Muttereralmpark has all manner of amenity, including a downhill cart racing track, swimming lake, adventure playground and all manner of hiking and biking tracks.

The Mutteralmpark has it’s own website with information on all the amenity and a walking / biking path map. It is in German but Google translate does a decent job if you’re concerned about translation. The Innsbruck Tourist Office website also has some information in English.

View of high Mountain summits & ski area in summer

View of the Axamer Lizum ski area & Marchreisenspitze from the Birgitzkopflhaus

Birgitzkopflhaus This hike was one of the highlights of our trip! You can get to Mutters by the tram number STB that runs from Innsbruck every 30 minutes. We made the mistake of getting off at the Mutters stop and had a lengthy uphill slog to the Muttereralm gondola. It is however, a much shorter stroll from the nearer stop at Nockhof. Doh!

From the Muttereralmbahn summit station, we walked along a good track to Gotzner Alm. From there we hiked up on a lovely trail through the forest to the Birgitzer Alm. We were sorely tempted to stop for a beer, but decided to push on uphill to the Birgitzkopflhaus. We stopped there instead and had a fabulous view of the Axamer Lizum ski area as well as Marchreisenspitze and Nockspitze. We returned to the Mutereralmbahn summit station via the ski runs. The total elevation change is around 550m (1804 feet) and about 6km.

View of mountains & valley in summer

View of Brenner Pass from Patscherkofel

Panoramaweg We returned to the Muttereralmpark with the intention of hiking up to Nockspitze, but were foiled by a large thunder storm that closed the gondola for a couple of hours. We did consider hiking up to the top station, but decided this was probably not too smart considering the weather, so instead we walked back into Mutters and joined the Panoramaweg. This is a wide, high quality trail through the forest and would be great for families or anyone wanting to hike a scenic but not too taxing trail. You can walk all the way to Grinzens and from here catch the 4162 postbus back to Innsbruck.

For more general information about walking / hiking in and around Innsbruck, including practical information on how to get there, please click here.

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