Berg im Drautal - Ebenberg - Upper Pließalm - Compton Hut

SHORT ROUTE DESCRIPTION:

Train stop Berg im Drautal - village center (loop) - Tratten - Ebenberg/234 - Lower Pließalm - Pließalm/B 1 - E. T. Compton Hut

DETAILED ROUTE DESCRIPTION: 

1.  From the train stop Berg im Drautal (599 m) we take the Drautalstraße B 100 heading southeast and after crossing the bridge over Berger Bach, use an asphalt path parallel to Berger Bach towards northeast. We hike close to the stream and in the last third choose meadow paths. We ascend slightly to reach Amlacher Straße L 3 and the village center with the parish church Mariä Geburt and a grocery store.

2.  Using Amlacher Straße, we walk in an S-shape towards southwest, pass west of the adventure swimming pool, cross the B 100 and stay on L 3 about 200 m after the Drau bridge. In the district of Tratten, we go half-left towards south, pass west of the golf course, and meet L 3 again after about 700 m.

3.  Shortly before, we take a natural path towards southeast (shortcut), stay on L 3 for about 150 m and leave it – guided by route numbers 234 and B 1 – onto the asphalt road heading south. At the height of the west-side Ochsenschlucht, at a crossing we go straight ahead and after about 200 m at the end of a clearing or a fork take the 1st break, 654 m, 3.9 km.

4.  Route numbers 234 and B 1 lead us on an asphalt access road and main agricultural road (HWW) in a right curve uphill – after about 2.1 km we leave route 234 at the clearing and briefly turn north. In a left curve we pass a farm at the forest edge and slightly ascending the Ebenberger property – here we take a 2nd break, 851 m, 6.5 km at a water intake point.

ALTERNATIVE:  We follow route 234 into the Reißgraben and reach east of Pließalm and along the stream the day’s destination, the E. T. Compton Hut.

5.  We leave the hamlet southwest and after about 500 m at a crossroads go southeast. In the forest area, slightly ascending and S-shaped, we ignore a gravel road branching left after about 1.8 km. After an S-curve we take the 3rd break, 1200 m, 9.5 km, - after two increasingly steep hairpin bends we reach uphill the Lower Pließalm (4th break, 1529 m, 12 km).

6. We pass the hut to the south, after about 300 m stay on the HWW going southwest and leave the HWW by climbing a steep path to the Upper Pließalm (partly less distinct meadow path) - possibly 5th break, 1717 m, 12.9 km.

7.  South of the Pließalm hut we take an access road gently downhill and S-shaped to a crossroads, where hiking route B 1 leaves us northeast. After about 700 m we meet a crossroads – we follow the HWW straight ahead and later slightly ascending to the day’s destination, the E. T. Compton Hut (1585 m, 15.8 km). It is nestled in the "Schönboden".