Hochstaufen

Leave the station towards the forecourt and turn right. Bahnhofstraße leads in the direction of the town center and at a fork veers right into Wittelsbacherstraße. Follow the road for a while but finally turn right into Kurfürstenstraße. This leads past a clinic area to the bypass, which is safely crossed via an underpass. On the other side, the bridge over the Saalach is already near, leading into a park area. Beyond the bridge, keep slightly left and cross a little-used road. The footpath intuitively crosses a strip of forest and after a small bridge over a creek turns slightly left. For the first time, it now climbs up to a road. Follow this road continuing uphill and at the end of a long right curve turn left onto a signposted trail. This initially runs parallel to the road, then in wide hairpin bends up to Padinger Alm, where the driving road is reached again. After the car park, a wide forest road continues, winding up the south flank of Hochstaufen. Overall somewhat keeping right, the signage leads the ascent via the Steinerne Jäger past many junctions through the forest and eventually reaches a beginning trail after a somewhat clearer section. This leads away from the forest road to the left, thus shortening the last hairpin of the ending path. In a fairly direct route, the easy-to-walk trail now climbs the mountain briskly; the terrain becomes somewhat flatter at Buchmahd but the trail becomes somewhat more strenuous due to numerous roots, before finally the ridge line near the Steinerne Jäger is reached. Keeping left, it climbs steeply towards Hochstaufen; the trail is sometimes over roots and rocks but not always easy to walk. Soon the terrain becomes somewhat easier again and somewhat surprisingly the approximately three-meter-high ladder is reached, which is the only significant safety feature on the climb. Before ascending it, it is worthwhile to look to the left over the edge of the terrain, which after almost 1,000 meters of ascent offers the first noteworthy view over Bad Reichenhall. Afterwards, the trail reaches increasingly rocky terrain and soon deviates less along the ridge line and more into the left flank. Over sometimes exposed terrain, with light scrambling, it climbs often quite steeply until finally the Reichenhaller Haus is reached. This lies just below the summit, which is quickly reached over a trail beginning at the left side of the hut in a bow over the northern side.

The descent initially leads back to the Reichenhaller Haus. There, turn right and follow the signposted trail that follows the ridge line westward, in the direction of Zwiesel. At the notch before Hendelbergskopf, turn left as signed and follow the trail over Bartlmahd. Initially steep over gravelly passages, the trail continues westward, then abruptly turns left and enters the first forest sections. At the following junction, continue left and once more over a scree field, the trail then descends deeply into the woods and, always following the clear signage to Padinger Alm or Bad Reichenhall, heads briskly downhill. The trail finally meets the forest road known from the way up and over now familiar paths it goes past Padinger Alm back to Bad Reichenhall.