Karwendeltour

The Karwendel, the giant limestone range between Innsbruck and Munich, is the largest nature reserve in the whole Alpine arc: 739 square kilometres of protected peaks, wild rivers and old-growth forest, guarded since 1928. The Karwendeltour crosses it from one end to the other in four days, hut to hut, from the border town of Scharnitz to Pertisau on the shores of the Achensee.

The huts are the trail's real protagonists. The Karwendelhaus, opened in 1908 after five years of construction at 1,765 metres, was carved out of the rock with pickaxes and dynamite; its wood-panelled Stube has fed alpinists for over a century, and the summit of the Karwendel, the Birkkarspitze, rises directly behind it. The Falkenhütte (opened 1924, listed building) sits in a green meadow bowl directly beneath the Laliderer Wände, the most famous north walls of the entire limestone Alps: up to 800 metres of near-vertical rock, their shadowed feet often striped with snow that never sees the morning sun. Cattle graze the meadows below, young bulls from the Ladizalm among them, and the contrast between gentle pasture and sheer wall is what makes this stage unforgettable.

The third day crosses the Eng, the high valley with the Großer and Kleiner Ahornboden, two protected stands of centuries-old sycamate maples that rank among the most beautiful places in Tyrol. From there the trail drops through the Falzthurntal to Pertisau, with the option of climbing the Bärenkopf for the classic view over the Achensee, the largest mountain lake in the Alps, where the trail finally ends.

Practical. Four Etappen (stages) between roughly 12 and 20 kilometres with up to 1,400 metres of daily climbing; mountain terrain rather than technical, but steady legs and sure-footedness are required. The huts are German Alpine Club houses with half-board (Halbpension), dormitories and limited small rooms, open June to mid-October; reserve well ahead for July and August, when the Karwendelhaus fills with bikers and mountaineers alike. Scharnitz is on the Munich-Innsbruck railway line and Pertisau is reached by bus from Jenbach station, so the crossing works one-way without a car. Navigation is by signposts and the numbered trails; use the stage tracks in the app to confirm each junction.