Muckenriegel via Weitengrund

From the Rodel parking lot, you walk on a pull path uphill into the valley towards Veitsch until it meets a forest road at a clearing, which you follow to the left while crossing a stream. At the following fork, you again keep left and now walk downstream, but gently uphill until the forest road bends to the right on a crest. The next section is almost flat or slightly downhill until you reach a fork after about 500 m, where you keep right to follow a driveway uphill towards Weitengrund. After a tight double curve, you leave this forest road to the right and initially ascend over a clearing at the forest edge and then through tall forest in the valley until you reach open terrain. You follow the elongated bowl of the Weitengrund to its upper end and go to the foot of the slope where you put on crampons.

The exit from the valley end of the Weitengrund begins with a fairly steep section where you initially keep rather left to soon return to the middle of the cirque and then climb quite straight upwards – always following the path of least resistance. After a little more than 100 vertical meters, you reach a clear notch at the top, behind which the terrain becomes flat again. At this point, you are already on the Veitsch plateau and turn right to ascend to the summit of the Hoher Muckenriegel.

For a descent through the Weitengrund, you essentially follow the ascent route.

To continue to the summit of the Hohe Veitsch, you ski down from the Hoher Muckenriegel to the upper end of the Weitengrund, then turn right to ascend across the plateau southwards and then ski down into the Rodel.

With sufficient snow cover, a ski descent directly from the summit of the Hoher Muckenriegel into the Rodel entrance is also possible.

Note:

You can also ascend the Weitengrund directly from Kompek on the road from Mürzsteg to Niederalpl. However, a possible descent through the Rodel then leads to a long return route in the valley.