Ammergauer Höhenweg

The village of the Passion Play falls away below you as the Kofel, a steep limestone cone, demands hands as well as feet on its last few metres. From the summit the path drops to the Kolbensattel, where the hut terrace and the cable car mark the half-way point of the day, and a gentler climb brings you onto the open ridge of the Pürschling. The August-Schuster-Haus appears at 1,564 m with its wide sun terrace over the Ammer valley, Ettal's monastery towers in the distance, and the first hut dinner of the trip.

The shortest day and a pure ridge walk. The Teufelstättkopf asks for a short pull up a secured step, then the crest rolls on over the Latschenkopf and the Laubeneck with the Graswang valley gleaming far below. In the afternoon the two Brunnenkopfhäuser come into view, former royal hunting houses in a hollow just below the Brunnenkopf summit; the hut keeper serves dinner while chamois graze the meadows around the buildings at dusk.

The big day, and the reason the trip carries a hard rating. From the hut the trail climbs through rock to the Klammspitze, where one short chain-secured step guards the face and the ridge narrows over the Große Klammspitz, at 1,924 m the roof of the crossing. Past the cross on the Grubenkopf the high traverse runs over the Hirschwang and the Hasentalkopf, then drops through the spray of the Kenzen waterfall to the lonely Kenzenhütte at 1,295 m, reachable by no road and all the better for it.

A quiet finale after three days of rock: the trail leaves the Kenzen valley through forest and open alp, passes the Mühlschartenkopf with views back to the whole ridge you crossed, and descends gently into the Weidach valley. Buching and Halblech spread out in the foothills, with the lakes of the Lech valley and, one valley over, the towers of Neuschwanstein. Bus RVA 73 from Halblech carries you back to Oberammergau or on to Füssen.