Over the east ridge to the Kleiner Hochkasten (2,352 m), Totes Gebirge

The entire route is unmarked.

At the Bärenalm parking lot, you cross a bridge over the still young Steyr here and head back towards Dietlgut along the forest road until the first left turn. There, pass a barrier and follow the forest road uphill through a total of three hairpin bends; after the third hairpin, where a new track branches off to the right, continue on the main path to the next distinct left bend: here a narrow path branches off almost invisibly to the right (uphill) that must be found (stone cairns have repeatedly been removed in the past). Follow this path until it turns right into the forest shortly afterwards and gets lost in a (partly artificially created) clearing. On the opposite side of this clearing, look for a high seat and the old hunting trail with a clear stone setting that runs slanting upwards to the right behind it. Once this trail is found, the further ascent to the hunting hut cannot be missed.

Just behind the hunting hut, go uphill again (not following the path trace to the right) until you rediscover the faint trail winding upwards in hairpin bends in the open forest. At the upper end of the mountain forest, keeping slightly left, a clear opening marks the further ascent through the dwarf pines, which is partly very steep uphill here. At an altitude of almost exactly 1500 meters, the path suddenly turns right over a small rocky ridge and leads down to a distinctive water chute. From there, follow well-defined path traces further to the "Eislueg," which is easy to overlook when passing by but usually reveals itself by a sudden cold draft of air from above.

The Eislueg is a small cave directly below the rock foot that holds ice all year and is under nature protection.

From the Eislueg, the route goes towards Brentnerkar (also: Prentnerkar) slightly below the steep walls in scree, where stone cairns indicate the way. Just before the cirque, a short descent in rocky terrain is absolutely necessary: if you remain above, the entrance to the cirque cannot be reached afterward.

Once you have reached Brentnerkar, ascend uphill in the cirque floor, where the trail traces soon disappear.

You now have the approach to the east ridge directly in front of you. From here on, independent route finding is necessary. A landmark is initially a striking tower in the lowest section of the east ridge, behind which an obvious saddle lies uphill that you approach from the left. There are several variants to reach this saddle through rocky terrain without major difficulties—you can also approach the ridge slightly above the saddle.

Once you have reached the actual east ridge, follow the ridge line uphill and then pass left by a scree bar until you encounter the first blocking rock wall. On a ledge, move far to the left until the way upwards is clear again, and then return almost to the ridge on the next higher ledge to the right. (A more direct variant is also possible here but probably a bit more difficult.) See the photo documentation for this!

Overcoming the next small wall upwards is one of the two technically most difficult passages of the entire route, should not be harder than grade SG II if you have found the easiest ascent.

Above this, traverse again far to the left on another ledge until simple further climbing slanting to the right upwards is possible. If you have found the right spot, the terrain becomes rapidly easier upwards, and you finally reach the east ridge again in steep hiking terrain, which you follow until the distinctive "Dachl." The "Dachl" can be easily passed on the right side, but beyond it, after going through a passage to the left side, is quite exposed and somewhat tricky—the second key section. Once you have reached the ridge again on the right at the top, the way to the summit is not far and has no further difficulties.

The descent from the summit of Kl. Hochkasten to the saddle above Brentnerkar is somewhat strenuous but technically easy. However, the entrance from this saddle into Brentnerkar itself can be very dangerous in snow conditions—and snow still often lies here even at the end of August: therefore, carrying crampons is strongly recommended!

Once you have passed the narrow pass into Brentnerkar, the further descent to the cirque floor on snow or scree poses no problems. The path along the cirque floor back to the beginning of the path to the Eislueg is, however, somewhat tedious.

From the lower end of Brentnerkar, follow the same route down as for the ascent.