02 Central Alpine Trail West, E06: Duisburger Hut - Zittelhaus

Beforehand: be sure to consult an up-to-date map, the route has changed in several places in recent years.

From the Duisburger Hut you unfortunately have to descend quite a bit to the Hochwurtenspeicher (WARNING - different from the route on alpenvereinaktiv.com - better not to cut through the very stepped and rocky terrain!). After reaching a forest road, we head north on it to the end of the lake, in the middle of the Mölltal glacier ski area, which has left deep scars in the surrounding landscape. Numerous blasts, excavations, and lift installations make it look more like a huge open-pit mining area than the vicinity of a high alpine national park. Added to that the slowly dying Wurtenkees, which still hosts a few skiers even in July, all in all an unpleasant sight.

Over now steeper terrain, a narrow path leads up to the Fraganter Scharte (2,754 m), from where you can also descend into the Hüttwinkltal to the Naturfreundehaus Neubau and to Kolm-Saigurn. Now initially continuing southwest under the Goldbergtauernkopf (2,776 m) and down to the Niedere Scharte (2,696 m), then over a ridge across firn, scree, and boulder terrain into the valley end of the Hüttwinkltal, the so-called "glacier gate" (outflow of the Goldberg glacier). WARNING: the route on alpenvereinaktiv.com over the remnants of the Goldberg glacier NO LONGER corresponds to the actual route in nature - here the descent is over the northwest-exposed ridge to the glacier gate (see GPS track)!

When water levels are high (after rain) the crossing of the glacier creek may be problematic (about 500 m downstream there is a bridge). Then uphill again over a moraine to the Rojacher Hut (2,718 m, simply managed from late June to late September, emergency shelter open).

The path continues blocked over a partially exposed and secured southeast ridge (grade I difficulty) up to below the summit structure of the Sonnblick, where we cross the upper part of a rock ridge to the Zittelhaus (summer managed from late June to late September, winter room key at the weather station) (no more glacier contact necessary!) on the summit of Hoher Sonnblick (3,106 m).