ESSENTIAL INFORMATION

The Stubai High-Level Route (Stubaital Höhenweg)

Distance: 85km/53 miles Ascent: 6500m/21,325ft Duration: 9-10 days

Terrain: Waymarked footpaths, which can be steep and rocky, with sections assisted by fixed chains equivalent to Grade 1 scrambling

Map: Kompass 83 Stubai Alps (1:50,000), also available on Outdooractive app Pro subscription (1-month free trial available)

Guidebook: Trekking in the Stubai Alps (Allan Hartley), Cicerone Press; search tyrol.com for ‘Stubai High Trail’

Accommodation: Austrian Alpine Club for hut bookings and discounts, plus insurance (AAC (UK), aacuk.org.uk). Huts should be pre-booked, by email or website.

Stopover: Innsbruck’s a mini-Vienna. The cafés, cathedral and churches (Dom zu St Jakob and Hofkirche), and folk museum (Tiroler Volkskunstmuseum) are well worth a look around.

Suggested start and end days: The official first and last days are less interesting hut trudges from or to the valley. You can improve on these using cable cars and a high-level walk:

Day 1: From Neustift, Elferbahn cable car and paths over or bypassing Elferspitze for same total ascent as the standard valley to hut

Final day: from Starkenburger Hut to Hoher Burgstall summit then choice of panorama path or via ferrata to Kreuzjoch cable car and Fulpmes

Getting there: Eurostar and main railways, London to Innsbruck, 13hrs, bahn.de. Flights to Innsbruck, or to Munich and 3hr rail link, then 30min bus from Innsbruck into Stubai Valley.

Costs: Allow €50/day for dormitory accommodation and food

Gear: Day pack plus minimal change of clothes and sheet sleeping bag. Ask your valley accommodation to hold your travel clothes for you. Via ferrata gear not required on this route.

THE TWO STUBAITAL HIGH-LEVEL ROUTES

The original Stubai High-Level Route (Stubaital Höhenweg in German) was a 7-day trek around the head of the valley, taking in a couple of 3000m peaks and crossing 11 glaciers. In my granny’s day, when you came to the glacier you roped up and walked across it. If you fell in a crevasse, you’d be preserved in frozen form to be delivered to your great-grandchildren when you eventually emerged from the toe of the glacier. Glacier travel today is safer, but also much more technical; most hikers are put off by the specialist training as well as the extra gear to carry. (The Tour of Monte Rosa, which includes a short glacier crossing, is much less popular than the busy Tour around Mont Blanc.)

A lower but slightly longer route was devised without any glaciers. This was the Stubai Rucksack Route, whilst the original Höhenweg became the Stubai Glacier Tour. However, the more popular Rucksack Route has now taken over the Höhenweg title and is promoted as such by the tourist board and on websites.

It is this route that’s being described here.

The Cicerone guide Trekking in the Stubai Alps by Allan Hartley covers both routes.