Winterleiten parking - Zirbitzkogel Hütte (Seetal Alps)

Access to starting point:
A) From Gorenjska side we go over the border crossing Ljubelj to Celovec / Klagenfurt or through Karawanks tunnel to Beljak / Villach. Ahead we go on the highway in the direction of signs for Gradec / Graz. We leave the highway for approximately 2 km long tunnel in the direction of Bad St. Leonhard. Further, we drive past village St. Peter and smaller town Obdach. Through Obdach we continue driving to Judenburg. All the time we follow the signs for Judenburg until we get to the center of Judenburg. In a roundabout, where in the middle there is a gas station we turn left direction Seetaler Alps. We follow the road 17 km and signs for Winterleiten Hütte and we park on a large parking lot before the road closure.
B) From Koroška we at first drive to Dravograd and further into Austria. We follow the road ahead towards St. Paul, St. Andrä and Wolfsberg. In Wolfsberg we go towards Bad St. Leonhard and forward towards St. Peter. Further, we follow description from Gorenjska.
C) From Štajerska side we drive to Maribor and further over the border crossing Šentilj into Austria. We follow the highway in the direction of Celovec / Klagenfurt. We leave the highway in the direction of exit Bad St. Leonhard. Further, we follow description from Gorenjska.
D) Access from Austria: First, we drive to Judenburg, which is situated by the river Mur in Austria. Further, we drive to south part of the town, where we notice a hospital. Near the hospital mountain road branches off towards Seetaler Alps. The road is marked with signs "Seetaler strasse". Nice and at first an asphalt road we follow towards signs Winterleiten Hütte. We park on a large parking lot before the road closure.

Path description:
From the parking lot, we continue on the road which is closed with the gate. After a short ascent on the road we come out of the forest, where in front of us we notice a lake and right from there a cottage.
Ahead we continue on the left side of the lake past the chapel in the direction of "Lukas Max - steig". The path which is ascending only gently we follow ahead on a slightly vegetated slope. The path then for a short time moderately ascends and it brings us to the upper Winterleiten lake.
Next follows crossing of a wide stream and then the path turns left by the lake. This part of the path is quite swampy, therefore we have to be careful, that we don't get wet.
The path ahead again starts slightly ascending and it brings us to a crossing, where we again continue in the direction of "Lukas Max - steig". Next follows crossing of few smaller streams on quite muddy footpath. The path ahead is slowly turning towards the left and ahead runs on nice high mountain terrain full of streams. After that, the path slowly passes on more rocky terrain, where we leave nice valley and wells. The path ahead ascends steeper on rocky terrain and after 20 minutes of ascent brings us on a small panoramic saddle.
We continue right on the ridge upwards. The path on a little steeper ridge lasts only few minutes, and then it turns left and in a gentle ascent crosses slopes of Scharfes Eck. At the end of the traversing path brings us to a crossing, where we continue straight (slightly left) in the direction of Zirbitzkogel (right Scharfes Eck). Next follows few minutes of walking on flat wide ridge. The path ahead passes on the upper slopes of Zirbitzkogel and starts moderately ascending. After a short ascent, we get to the mountain hut, which is situated only few meters below the summit.

On the way: Winterleiten Hutte (Seetaler Alps) (1782m), Gr. Winterleiten See (Seetaler Alps) (1840m)

Trip can be extended to: Scharfes Eck (Seetal Alps) , Zirbitzkogel (Seetal Alps) ( 2 min)