Sporthotel Maltatal - Großer Hafner

Access to starting point:
From highway Beljak/Villach - Salzburg we go to the exit Gmünd and we follow the road ahead towards the valley Maltatal. A well-marked road after few kilometers brings us to the settlement Malta, and only a little further also to the spot, where a road toll has to be paid. Steep and occasionally narrow road with the help of tunnels and traffic lights brings us to a large parking lot by the artificial lake (a dam at the end of the lake is 165m high). While driving we can observe numerous waterfalls, which because of a lack of the parking spaces we view only from a car.

Path description:
From the parking lot by the dam we continue on the road to the signposts at the crossroad. We go right towards the upper parking lot (direction Kattowitzer Hütte). At the upper parking lot then signposts point us to the left on a macadam road on which we are then ascending. After few turns the road ends, and we continue on a footpath which in gentle descents and ascents crosses slopes towards the southeast. On the path we cross also few streams and after approximately one hour of walking from the starting point, the path turns slightly to the left through a meadow and crosses a stream. Here the path for the first time starts ascending a little steeper and soon brings us to a crossing. We go right in the direction of Kattowitzer Hütte. Immediately after the signposts follows even a little steeper ascent and we also get help from a rope, which aren't urgently needed. The path brings us on an indistinct saddle and on the right side we will notice the peak Gamsleitenkopf (2346m) to which we have from the path only few minutes of walking. From the saddle then follows crossing in a gentle descent all the way to the mountain hut Kattowitzer Hütte.
At the mountain hut, we continue left upwards in the direction of Großer Hafner. The path which is ascending on grassy slopes and past smaller streams brings us to a crossroad with signposts. We go left in the direction of Großer Hafner. And the right path runs towards the notch Lanischscharte and ahead past lakes Lanischsee. The path from the crossroad is then becoming steeper and it brings us on the main ridge of the mountain from where a view opens up towards the north. Already after few meters of walking on the ridge we come again to the signposts. We continue straight on the ridge, left leads the path past glaciers Wastlkarkees and then towards the lake Rotgüldensee. The path then becomes a little more demanding and we also get help from a rope, which we can use for self belaying. Demanding part of the path is relatively short, the path on this part leads us on the northern slightly exposed side of the ridge over some smooth rocky plates and then the path becomes gradually less demanding and it brings us on a wide ridge. Here we will notice a specialty of this mountain, namely numerous erected rocks. Majority of the rocks on the mountain are narrow and elongated, and mountaineers who walk past put them upright. Follows only a shorter ascent on a wide ridge to the top.

On the way: Kattowitzer Hütte (2321m)