Mt Untersberg Austria

This hike is great to do while you are visiting in Saltzburg. It is just a bus ride away to the town of St Leonard. There is a lift to take to the top where the trail begins. It is a short climb up on the Reisteg trail to get to this cross called Salzburger Hochthron
(6079 ft) . In Austria all summits are marked with a cross. 

The views already are gorgeous. You can even see planes take off at the Salzburg airport. This is where Ian takes off for the hardest hike in his life. We got a map at the top to view our choice of hikes. Ian hiked much farther. Actually we planned to go the same place until a fellow hiker looked at us like we were crazy when we told then where we were headed.

Everything was so green covered by trees and different vegetation. The trail ran along the sides of the hills.

Here is the view as we climbed down onto the Saddle between the next peak.

There was lots of loose rock and scree that was hard to maneuver around and not slip. I was glad to have my poles.

This was the second peak called Heubergkopf  ( 4947 ft)

There were lots of wooden steps here and there, even  a cable on some of the parts.  The people we met were very friendly, all locals. Parts were very steep and challenged us.

Here is a view from the second peak.

Going into the tunnel . It was nice to cool off.

The Untersberg is split up between Bavaria in Germany and Salzburg in Austria. Its rocks consist mainly of chalk and limestone with a subterranean caves carved by water into the inside of the mountain.

This part of the trail made me a bit nervous, note the cable to hold onto, Don't look down!

For 2000 years the Untersberg was a very important source of marble. The Untersberg marble being of the finest quality and beauty was in high demand. There are several quarries on the north-east side.  

Our destination was the Toni Lenz Hutte. Both Doug and Ian ran out of water since we hiked 6-7 hours. Here I got my coffee and a shady umbrella to rest awhile.  You can see other towns in the distance that the trail continues down to.

Here you can see how rocky a lot of the trail was.

I didn't have my GPS on for this hike so we don't know how far or the elevation gain. It was a great way to start our trip.

Here is a view from Ian's hike. He went to another peak.