Brünstlkopf

880m elevation gain, 12.5km, 4 hours of pure walking time

Ascent:

From the parking lot we follow the forest road past the Pflegersee guesthouse, down into the Lahnenwiesgraben and briefly follow the stream uphill. After a hairpin bend and a left curve, we turn left at the signpost heading towards Brünstelkreuz. It goes through open mountain forest, over a small bridge and at the next junction right uphill, over a small stream. Soon the pull path brings us back onto a wide forest road, which we join to the left.
In the large left loop that the forest road makes, the forest briefly opens up and offers a first view of Wank, Hohen Fricken, and Garmisch with its ski jumps.
At the end of the curve, we turn right onto another pull path, which noticeably steepens through dense forest up to the saddle between Brünstelkopf and Schafkopf.
Here we keep left at the bench and climb along the ridge up to Brünstelkopf. The last few meters in height are somewhat steeper and require a certain sure-footedness.
At the summit, a cozy bench and an excellent view of the surrounding mountains await us.

Descent:

Same as ascent

Variant 1: We cross the Brünstelkreuz, keep right after the next small elevation and descend into Hasenjöchl. From here, it continues over the Roßalm-Dienst-Hütte uphill again to the saddle between Brünstelkopf and Schafkopf. From here, follow the ascent route again.

Variant 2: Here too, we cross the Brünstelkreuz and the next larger elevation (1814m) towards Vorderer Feldernkopf. Between this and the next elevation, a small, steep path branches off to the left at about 1750m leading down to the Brünstl-Dienst-Hütte. At the hut, we keep right and descend to the ViaAlpina, which we follow back to the ascent route.