Franz-Josefs-Höhe - Fuscherkarkopf

Access to starting point:
From the Karawanks Tunnel, we follow the highway towards Salzburg to a highway junction where we turn left towards Spittal. From Spittal we drive towards Lienz. A little after the highway ends, at the settlement Möllbrücke, we turn right towards the settlement Mallnitz and then we follow the signs for an alpine road Großglockner. When we drive into a mountain village Heiligenblut 1336m high we have only 17 km of road Grossglockner Hochalpenstrasse, the most known Alpine Panorama road. The toll for this road is 35.50 euros per car (August 2017). At the roundabout at an altitude of approximately 1900m we turn left towards Kaiser-Franz-Josefs-Höhe and glacier Pasterze. We follow this road to the end and then we park in a garage.

Path description:
From a large panoramic platform by the garage, we go in the tunnel where signs for path Gamsgrubenweg point us to. The path then leads us through a relatively wide tunnel, which is illuminated so that we don't need a lamp. Tunnel is made of six parts, and in it, there are presented different things, which are related to the nearby surroundings. When we come out of the tunnels, we still continue on the wide and quite gentle path towards the northwest. From the path, we have here all the time a very nice view towards Grossglockner (Veliki Klek) and glacier Pasterze, which is the largest and longest glacier in the Eastern Alps. Left downwards then soon the path branches off towards the mentioned glacier. Near the crossing for many years stood also the mountain hut Hofmannshütte. It was built in the year 1869, and in the year 2016 they demolished it.
We still continue on the panoramic path by which there is situated quite a few benches and information boards. The path then soon brings us to a marked crossing. At the crossing, we leave a wide path which leads towards the glacier Wasserfallwinkel and mountain hut Oberwalderhütte and we go right upwards towards the summit Fuscherkarkopf.
From the crossing, the path starts ascending steeper and it soon brings us to a rocky slope, which is secured with a steel cable. We few times ascend in zig-zags by the steel cable on a smooth rocky slope, which otherwise isn't too steep and snowless doesn't cause bigger problems. The slope then becomes slightly less steep and further we then walk by a wide south ridge towards the north. A little higher, the ridge becomes narrower and the ascent becomes a little more demanding. First, with the help of some fixed safety gear we cross quite steep slopes and then follows also steep but well-secured descent into a smaller notch.
To the mentioned notch it is possible to get to also on easy pathless terrain, but for protecting the nature, walking on pathless terrain isn't desirable which is also pointed out by a sign by the path. From the notch follows a shorter ascent by the steel cable and then the path for some time leads by the left side of the ridge. Here we are ascending on a quite steep slope, which isn't secured so some caution is needed. Later, the path turns again right on the ridge and the slope becomes a little less steep. Further, we are ascending on a relatively undemanding and wide south ridge. Such a path runs all the way to the main ridge where we reach the western peak Fuscherkarkopf.
From the western peak, we continue right on the ridge. The ascent here becomes again slightly more demanding and all the time runs on the ridge. On some spots, we can avoid the ridge also on the right side, but this isn't urgently needed since there isn't much difference in difficulty. In parts slightly exposed ridge we then follow all the way to the panoramic summit.
We descend on the ascent route.