A scree field that moves. It looks like any other moraine below a saddle — but there is ice under the blocks, and the whole thing creeps down the valley like a glacier, only slower and without a photogenic blue snout. The Dösental rock glacier. You cross it on day two and probably will not notice until somebody tells you.
The crossing from Mallnitz to the Maltatal is three days and thirty-three kilometres straight through the Ankogel Group — the eastern end of the Hohe Tauern, far quieter than the ground around the Großglockner.
Day one is long but forgiving. Eleven kilometres from the village square in Mallnitz up the Dösental: mountain forest first, past the old Venetian sawmill, then above the treeline to the Dösener See. The Arthur-von-Schmid-Haus stands above it at 2,281 m. Almost 1,200 metres of ascent sounds brutal; spread over eleven kilometres it walks surprisingly well.
Day two is short — and it is the real one. Six kilometres, under four hours, and the full high alpine portion. Up to the Mallnitzer Scharte (2,672 m) through boulders and slabs, the last steep pitch below the saddle secured with cable. On the far side down across that rock glacier to the Gießener Hütte (2,215 m). Depending on the season there will be old snowfields to deal with.
Day three is one long descent. Fifteen kilometres down the Gößgraben, past the Gößkar reservoir and through the Gößfälle into the Maltatal. Over 1,500 metres down, but technically the easiest day — and a finish with three waterfalls instead of a dusty forestry road.
What stands above it all. The Hochalmspitze, 3,360 m, highest summit of the Ankogel Group. It is called the Tauernkönigin — the queen of the Tauern — and it is glaciated on all four sides. Climbing it is a different discipline: the Detmolder Grat has been a continuous via ferrata since 2013 and still involves climbing at UIAA II despite the protection. Set, crampons, ice axe and glacier experience are mandatory. None of that belongs to this crossing.
When. Roughly late June to late September, depending on hut opening and snow below the Mallnitzer Scharte.
Three days, two huts, one saddle and a glacier that looks like a pile of rocks.
Pick a start date — for every night on the route you instantly see the free beds and book directly through the official Alpenverein system.
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