INTO AUSTRIA

VIA ALPINA DAY 11  – THURSDAY 2 JULY 2026
MONTE COMIZZA – FEISTRIZER ALM

DISTANCE HIKED: 27 km
ELEVATION GAIN:   1,900 m

TOTAL DISTANCE HIKED: 269.1 km
TOTAL ELEVATION GAIN: 14,170 m

Consistent rain lasted through most of the night. There was so much rain even the slugs were looking for shelter, finding a home in our shoes. Pretty ugly, so won’t share a photo of the bigest slugs I’ve ever seen resting inside my shoes.

We were camped deep in a pine forest. Soft ground and plenty of flat spots.  On a cool grey  morning,  we set off just after 6am 
It wasn’t too long into our morning before the sound of birdsong was replaced by the hum of a highway down in the valley.  Easy downhill trail, a bit overgrown in parts, on our wat to Thörl-Maglern.

Unlike the past 10 days, water appears to be plentiful with flowing streams coming down the slope.  For much of the morning followed the Italian – Austrian border marked by marble posts along the trail. The next 10  stages of the trail follow the Karnischer Hoehenweg (Trail 403) and Kaerntner Hoehenweg, Carnican Trail and Suedalpenweg 03.

Once we got off the single file slightly overgrown trail onto a dirt road   hiking was really quite delightful in the cool of the morning.  We made Thörl-Maglern and stopped at a BP service station, which was off the trail.

We spent over an hour at the service station recharging ourselves and our devices before heading out for the 6km climb back out to the mountains. The day was much cooler and with a light breeze made for really nice hiking conditions.  As we climbed out of town, the sound of chainsaws was getting  nearer.  

We soon found the source of the sound. Just above us forestry workers have closed the trail as they were removing timber from some of the slopes.   We followed a dirt road planning to bypass the works  as the road intersects the trail further up. One of the workers drove up to us and in sign language pointing at our map indicated that the trail ahead is still closed and we have to go bush whacking up through the near, vertical forest slope further along. What? I said incredilously?   “Is OK” he guaranteed us.

So off we trotted – what we found was very steep but not having much undergrowth, we made reasonable progress till we were back on trail.

We were not back on trail for long before we came across a couple huge trees fallen over the trail, blocking a large area ahead. It was another vertical climb uphill to get past them. We thought we’d keep going uphill till we encountered the trail again. This was a mistake. The grassy slope with lots of dead timber left us hanging by our fingernails at times. I tried not to panic as my childhood recurring nightmare was exactly this scenario. I don’t know if you’ve had those dreams where you are clinginging to a clump of of grass on a cliff face and the grass gives way. And always just as you start to fall, you wake up. There was no waking up from our predicament. Hammer was above me and I though if he slides we are both goners.  Inching our way we moved across the slope and eventually we made it back on trail.

We hiked a bit further along till we found a flat spot to  sit and recover our composure after that adrenaline spiked ordeal.  Two trail runners, moving like mountain goats passed us.

As we were criss crossing the Italian and Austrian border, the differences in forestry management in this location was quite stark. Clear felling large areas on the Austrian side and conservation areas on the Italian side.

We continued to climb towards the quite beautiful summit of Göriacher Alm or Peak.  Fabulous views from the top especially looking back towards the Slovenian peaks.
After a long descent from this peak we had an almost  vertical ascent towards another peak, Monte Acomizza at 1,811m. However just before reaching the summit, the trail veered off and passed just below.   We were feeling cheated.  However a little further along we were rewarded with fantastic views from Achomitzer Alm. We passed cows with bells, goats with bells and even a small pack  of horses.  At one stage the goats stared to follow us. Coming close and licking the salt off our skin.  Took a while to get them to stop following us and to go back to pasture. They looked so cute, but those horns  I didn’t want to be close. Hammer eventually succeeded in getting them to turn back.

We found a campsite near Feistrizer Alm. As the light disappeared  from the sky, we were surrounded by the sound of the sweetest birdsong  and distant tingling of cowbells. As I was finishing writing  this Hammer was already fast asleep. From what we understand, dispersed camping is tolerated in Austria as long as you ‘leave no trace’ and are not visible. It’s a shame that the cows ‘ leave no trace’.

It was a long and at times difficult day. We hope that Austrian trails gets better, as the views from the summits from  have been  spectecular.