Koglereck - Großer Speikkogel (Koralpe)

Access to starting point:
First, we drive to Dravograd, and then we continue driving towards Austria. Further, we drive over the border crossing Vič, and we follow the main road to the beginning of the settlement Labot / Lavamünd, where signs for Graz and Ivnik / Eibiswald point us to the right on an ascending road. We then follow nicely maintained and wide Alpine road to mountain pass Koglereck (also Soboth), where we turn left towards the settlement Ettendorf. Immediately after the crossroad, we will notice on the left side a larger macadam parking lot, where we leave the car.

Path description:
From the parking lot, we continue few more meters on the road, and then signposts point us to the right into the forest. At first, we ascend on a wide path through the forest, which brings us on a smaller clearing, from where a view towards the summit Großer Speikkogel opens up. Next follows a shorter descent, which brings us to a crossroad of the mountain roads. We continue straight on a narrow road through the forest. Later we join a wider macadam road, on which we then for quite some time walk. A quite gentle road is for most of the time slightly ascending, and occasionally also slightly descends. The road then brings us out of the forest and then follows some more of walking by the mountain pasture to a marked crossing.
To the right leads the road to the hut Stiftshütte (5 min), and we continue on the road to the next crossing, which is only few ten meters ahead. At the crossing, we can continue right following the signs »Koralpe, Jauksattel« on the path which bypasses the peak Kleinalpl on the right side. The second option, which is slightly shorter is that we continue straight on the road past the gate and then past the hunting cottage Brandl. In the initial part the road will have two crossing and on both we continue right. The mountain road then turns to the left and then long time mostly in a gentle ascent crosses a slope on the west side of the peak Kleinalp towards the north. We follow the mountain road all the way to a marked crossing on the saddle Jauksattel, where joins also the path which bypasses the peak Kleinalp on the right eastern side.
At the marked crossing we continue left following the signs Koralpe (path number 650). For some time we still walk on the mountain road, and then we come again to a marked crossing. Here we leave the macadam road and go on grassy slopes following the signs Gr. Speikkogel. A grassy cart track at first leads on a slope upwards and then turns left and for a short time runs through the forest. By the path, we will notice interesting boulders, which are characteristic for this area. Cart track then crosses the fence and it brings us on an ample pastures.
Here we continue on a footpath which starts ascending steeper on a slope upwards. After that, the path crosses a mountain stream and soon after that also high voltage power line. The further path is all the time ascending on panoramic grassy slopes upwards and in doing so few times crosses a grazing fence. Later, the path turns to the left and a view opens up on radars on the top, which all the time helped us with orientation. Soon a view opens up on the western side and the path brings us to a marked crossing. We continue straight following the signs »Gr. Speikkogel 15 min« and we start ascending on a grassy slope towards the ridge on the right side of the peak. On the ridge, we continue left and only a short ascent follows to the top.

Trip can be extended to: Seespitz (Koralpe)