Türlwandhütte - Kleiner Koppenkarstein (via Hunerscharte)

Access to starting point:
Through the Karawanks Tunnel, we drive to Austria, and then we continue driving on Tauern highway. Further, we drive through the tunnel Katschberg and later also Tauern tunnel, and the highway towards Salzburg we follow only to exit for Radstadt, Schladming. We continue on the road to the settlement Schladming where we then continue left on an ascending road following the signs Ramsau. In the settlement Ramsau, we continue a good 2 km on the mentioned road, and then we turn right on a payable road, where signs for cable car point us to. We follow this road all the way to a large parking lot in front of the bottom station of the cable car.

Path description:
From the parking lot, we continue past the bottom cableway station following the signs Südwandhütte. The path at first leads on the right side of the cableway through a thin larch forest, later turns to the left and crosses slopes towards the west. Soon the path towards the climbing garden (Klettergarten) branches off to the right. We still cross the slopes towards the west and from the left joins the path from a lower starting point. From the crossing then follows approximately 10 minutes of walking on a scenic slope to the mountain hut Südwandhütte.
At the mountain hut, we continue right following the signs Hunerscharte and we ascend on a short grassy ridge above the mountain hut. The path then brings us on the south mostly grassy slopes below the summit Scheiblingstein. Slopes in a gentle ascent, we cross towards the east and the path brings us into a valley below the cable car. Here the path turns left and starts ascending through the valley upwards. At the ascent through the valley, we have a nice view towards the peaks Türlspitz, and soon opens up also a view towards the summit Hunerkogl on which runs a cable car. The path further runs on the right side of the valley and starts ascending a little steeper. Higher, the path turns slightly to the left and it ascends on the scree, which brings us to a more demanding part of the path.
The path is at first ascending by the steel cable, and then becomes also slightly steeper and we also get help from some iron spikes and stemples. We are still ascending by the steel cable and we soon come below the wall of Hunerkogel where extremely demanding climbing path Skywalk Klettersteig branches off to the left.
Our path here turns to the right and starts ascending steeply by the steel cable with the help of numerous iron spikes and stemples (difficulty B). After that, the path for a short time becomes slightly less steep (difficulty A/B), and then follows again the ascent through a steep groove with the help of iron spikes towards the notch Hunerscharte (B).
On the notch where a view opens up towards the north, we continue right following the signs Koppenkarstein. After a short ascent, we come quickly to the beginning of the secured path on Koppenkarstein. The path ascends on a secured ridge (difficulty to B) from which is a very nice view towards a glacier Schladminger Gletscher below us. The path on the ridge then brings us to big sign intended for air traffic, which is visible already from far. We still continue on the ridge and after a little steeper ascent (B) path brings us to hanging bridge. A little before the bridge is also a crossing, where we can also bypass the bridge on the left side. Through long hanging bridge we cross notch Austriascharte and we continue on the ridge. The path then for a short time ascends a little steeper on a narrow ridge (B/C) and follows a little less steep ascent by the steel cable on a panoramic ridge to the top of Kleiner Koppenkarstein.

On the way: Dachstein Südwand Hütte (1910m), Hunerscharte (2602m)

Trip can be extended to: Großer Koppenkarstein ( 35 min)