Hikes in the Ötztal

Hikes with an altitude difference of up to 800 meters are perfect for getting a taste of the world of hiking and as preparation for long and difficult mountain tours in high alpine terrain, which you will also find in the Ötztal.

Lake Piburger See, one of the warmest bathing lakes in Tyrol, is located at the entrance to the valley near Oetz. The hike to the lake is just under 500 meters in altitude and seven kilometers long, making it the ideal way to reactivate your muscles after a long break. It is also a beautiful and doable tour for children.

There are also some easy to moderately difficult hikes around Längenfeld, such as the one to the Amberger Hütte at 2,136 meters. From the end of Gries, you hike around 500 meters up to the beautifully situated hut at the foot of the Schrankogel.

Near Umhausen, we recommend a hike to the Stuiben Falls, which can be viewed up close on spectacular footbridges and bridges.

The tour to the Hochjoch hospice starts in the mountaineering village of Vent. The tour takes you through the beautiful Rofental valley, but requires a good level of fitness due to its length.

The Ötztal is known and loved above all for its spectacular high-altitude trails, which are best explored on multi-day tours from hut to hut. Once again, the choice is considerable. Depending on your time and fitness level, you can certainly put together a hike to suit you. We have the following tips for you as a good basis or, of course, as a follow-up hike:

The Ötztal Trek: The Ötztal Trek combines the most beautiful mountain paths and high-altitude trails into six epic routes with 22 daily stages. Starting from the Ötztal train station, you will cross ridges, summits and sometimes even snow and ice. Experience in the high mountains and good physical condition are therefore a prerequisite for this long-distance hiking adventure.

E5 long-distance hiking trail: Crossing the Alps on mountain trails is a dream come true for many hikers. The popular E5 from Oberstdorf to Merano runs through large parts of the Ötztal valley. If you only want to hike individual stages, we recommend stages four to six.

The element of water has been kind to Ötztal. Fed by snow and ice, wild streams, clear mountain lakes and thundering waterfalls can be found throughout the valley. A paradise for heat-stricken city dwellers and also for interested hikers, as many trails in Ötztal have chosen the element of water as their defining theme. Children in particular will have great fun on the water strider circular trails.

The circular trails take you into the Rotmoostal valley, along the Mooserstegle irrigation channel trail, up the Mutsbühel near Vent or to the spectacular suspension bridge between Brand and Burgstein.

The highest mountain in Ötztal is the Wildspitze with an altitude of 3768 m. This makes the Wildspitze the highest mountain in North Tyrol and the second highest mountain in Austria after the Grossglockner.

Climbing the Wildspitze is challenging and you need alpine experience for this tour. Fortunately, there are also numerous easy hikes from the mountaineering village of Vent in the rear Ötztal, where you can experience the full splendor of the Wildspitze. For example, the hikes to the Urkundholm or the Wilde Mannle in the area of the Breslauer Hütte. These easy mountain tours offer a fantastic panorama of the Ötztal glacier mountains and are not very long thanks to the chairlift from Vent.