Location: North 47.24202, East 010.79697 (GPS at the summit)
Difficulty: YDS class 2
Climbed June 6. 2017.
Information:
How to get there:
This mountain is located next to (overlooking) the town of Imst.
Imst is located about 50 kilometer (along the road) west of Innsbruck.
Take the first exit to Imst and immediately follow signs for Karrösten.
Follow this road uphill and higher up, follow (small) signs saying
Karrösten Alm. This is basically uphill, then finally a bit more left,
the paved road ends and you drive a final 400 meter to a well signed parking
area (A left turn off the road and down a small hill). This location is
N47.23157, E010.76339, elevation about 1045 meter.
Route description:
Take the broad path that heads uphill on the left side of the road that continues
uphill towards Karrösten Alm. (You may of course also walk along the road).
This path connects with the road, follow it uphill until you locate the beginning of
a parallel trail, this time on the upper (right hand) side of the road.
This trail passes a small, wooden viewing platform and eventually connects with
a forest road that climbs uphill going right. Follow this road (uphill) until it
ends. This is a fairly long way, the road makes several zig-zags and climbs to the
south side of the mountain before it ends at N47.23768, E010.77194, elevation 1590 meter.
A very clear trail continues uphill among nice pine trees. This trail crosses another
forest road, then continues uphill. It eventually leaves the pine trees behind, enters
the characteristic low pine brush area, then gains a small horizontal section of the ridge
before a short climb to a mountain hut (often closed) located at
N47.24144, E010.79103, elevation 2180 meter.
From the hut, exit left and traverse the first slope on a good trail until you reach a very
nice ramp that angles back and provides access to the upper part of the main ridge.
This section is equipped with a steel wire, however under normal conditions the
ascent is easy and perhaps best done a few meter to the right of the wire.
Exit the ramp, turn left and complete the last section to a first point with a cross.
This is, however, not the summit. The ridge continues to a second cross, this looks like the
official summit marker, but again, the highest point is located on the next hump (upward) a very
short and easy traverse from the first summit point.
Comments:
Geir Åke Dahlen and I had been climbing 5 peaks in the south of Austria during
this (long) weekend and were on our way back to Zurich to catch a plane home. We stayed
overnight in Karres (a small neighbor village to Karrösten) and got up already
at 0430 in order to climb this peak and still have no trouble with making our flight.
We left the car at the trailhead/parking at 0500 and headed uphill in misty weather.
It took us about one hour to reach the end of the road and then another hour to reach the
small mountain hut where we made a short break.
From there, what remains is a very short ascent and we were at the
highest summit at 0730. The weather changed a bit, giving us some brief moments of
sunshine. The view was pretty good, across the valley as well as down to the valley
floor. We enjoyed our nice position and stayed around until
0745, before decending in 15 minutes back down to the hut.
The rest of the descent was uneventful as we reached the car around 0940.
We continued to Zurich where I caught my flight home while Åke continued onwards
with an extra day to spare, eventually flying home from Geneva on Thursday.
