Quiet ridge tour to the highest mountain east of the Mur

From the platform in Spital am Semmering, we follow the hiking trail to the rectory in an eastward direction; anyone missing the markings on the lanterns keeps always towards the church tower. At the rectory, you will find the Frauenbrunn spring (drinking water) and already signage to Stuhleck. We follow this for a while over flat asphalt roads but soon turn left at a junction onto the larch forest path instead of continuing along Kaltenbachstrasse. The signage for the diverging Trail 5 over the Hocheck is not clear here; in the middle of the fork, there are only signs pointing right towards the Kaltenbach valley. Fifty meters later, we keep right and then at the next possible point (marked) turn left onto a cart track leading to a meadow edge and thus to the start of the path. Depending on the season, the path through the meadow is less trodden, but you can see markings on nearby trees and always keep to the ridge uphill.

The path soon enters the forest and is easy to follow as a clearly visible hiking trail, often as a hollow way. Forest roads are crossed repeatedly. At just under 1,200 meters in altitude, path 5 joins trail 4 from Steinhaus. One hundred meters later, you reach a forest road which we follow for a bend to the left before the hiking trail branches off left again (at this point, due to missing signage on the forest road, one might intuitively follow right and lose altitude again!). The hiking trail continues ascending through younger and denser forest until just shy of the modest summit of Hocheck (1,488m), then reaches a forest road with gentle ups and downs. The also rewarding direct path to the summit continues straight on, but we follow the gently descending forest road for nearly five hundred meters to the Karl-Lechner-Haus.

Above the shaded mountain club hut, which invites you to stop or stayed overnight, the trail initially climbs steeply the last 300 meters in elevation up to the Stuhleck. Here the path leads out of the closed forest at about 1,600m into blueberry and heathland and passes between wind-tilted trees. It becomes gentler and leads below the flat summit westward to the ruins of the Nansen hut, reportedly the oldest ski hut in the Alps. Here the trail sharply turns south and soon reaches the summit cross of Stuhleck (1,782m) and the adjacent Alois-Günther-Haus, which invites to stop or stay overnight.

The descent path begins heading west along the ridge towards the wind turbines. In fog, be careful to stay left of the lift station and not to follow the hiking trail down the ski slope. Through open landscape, the path proceeds slowly down to Schwarzriegel and once more slightly ascending to Schwarzriegelmoos, a protected raised bog. A short detour along the boardwalks into the bog is worthwhile here, with many information boards about flora and fauna. Then it continues northwest; at a forest road junction, we keep to the steepest path down into the valley, leading to the small Schwarzriegelalm, which invites for a break. Our path leads close past two impressive wind turbines of the Pretul wind park.

From the alpine pasture, we can follow the hiking trail directly in a north-northwest direction across the alpine meadow and do not have to stay on the forest road. At the first crossed forest road, we have to briefly look for the trailhead until it continues clearly as a hollow way. At a beautiful old farmhouse with a barn and fruit trees, we first come out of the forest again, cross a pasture, and follow from here trail 743. At Bettlbauer, we reach a forest road again and follow its bend west; then Mürzzuschlag comes into view, and the path continues on a meadow path again. Alternating on field paths and footpaths, it descends along the ridge until the hiking trail joins an asphalt road.

Now follows a short walk downhill along the little-trafficked road. After passing under the Semmering expressway, we keep left and behind a small hill reach the outskirts of Mürzzuschlag. Always heading northwest, we reach the Fröschnitzbach below the main road. We cross it via the next bridge and reach the train station 200 meters later. If interested, the nearby Southern railway museum can be visited; otherwise, hourly trains depart here towards Vienna or Graz.