FV Ischgl village and amenities
TR Transport
WA Walking
OW Our walks
Walk Photos
Welcome to our Ischgl page, where we give detail on the resort, transport and the walks we did on our holiday.
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OH Our holiday
FV Ischgl village and amenities TR Transport WA Walking OW Our walks |
Walk Photos |
If you have any questions or suggestions to improve information given, please contact e-mail D and J.
Ischgl was our summer holiday destination in 1990.
We stayed at the Alpenrose pension on a bed and breakfast basis, eating out at a variety of restaurants. A hotel which seemed to be very popular with other guests was the Goldener Adler (Golden Eagle). This is a comfortable hotel that does very good food, and the family that run it lead walks into the mountains. It also specialises in catering for coeliacs. We also ate out at the Cafe Salner which was very friendly, and was open late - you could have meals, snacks, cakes and drinks here.
Crystal and Inghams both feature Ischgl, as well as Galtur which is further up the valley.
The village is very pleasant with some lovely buildings. Ischgl has made its name as a skiing resort in winter, and is popular with the Germans. There is a mix of shops (some quite posh ones) and supermarkets. There is a post office, and plenty of banks for changing money. Also obligatory Konditeries where you can treat yourself to coffee and cakes.
There are two swimming pools - a very pleasantly situated open air pool, about 15 minutes walk west of the village, and a indoor pool in the Silvretta Centre in the village centre. Also in the Silvretta Centre was the Kegelbahn (Austrian skittles) and a bar. There was a large conference room where they held slide shows and Tyrolean evenings.
Ischgl is situated in the Paznauntal in the Silvretta holiday region. There is a good tourist office which ran a full programme of events.
If you wished you could reach Ischgl by flight to Innsbruck, train (about 1hr) to Landeck, and then postbus to Ischgl.
Ischgl is served by one bus route that runs along the Paznaun valley. This is the only service that you will need for walking. If you take the bus all the way to the Bielerhohe and lake, then a toll is collected on the bus during the last stage of the journey. When we went ithere were no bus passes, however a new pass has been introduced which covers the buses and the cable cars along the valley.
The Ischgl walking is very varied, however to make the best of it you will need to plan well, taking into account timing of buses and cable cars.
Kompass map 41 at scale 1:50000 "Silvretta Verwallgruppe" covers all the walks. The Kompass maps are similar to our OS maps in price, although they aren't as detailed.
Ischgl is situated in the Paznaun Valley which runs in a east - west direction. There are 4 main villages in the valley. Galtur is at the head of the valley, west of Ischgl, Kappl and See are east of Ischgl. Above Galtur the road climbs to the Bielerhohe, and to the Silvretta Stausee reservoir. Most of the walks are from the villages or the Bielerhohe.
There are three main mountain ranges surrounding this valley. To the north are the Verwall Alps separating the Paznaun from the Arlberg valley with its famous resort of St Anton. To the south are the Samnaun Alps which form the natural frontier with Switzerland. Surrounding the head of the valley are the Silvretta Alps, these contain the highest mountains in the area, including Piz Buin and Silvrettahorn.
The area is well endowed with a good selection of mountain huts, many of them featuring on the walks.
There is a local walking badge. When we were there the stamping books were available at the Tyrol State Travel Agency, rather than the tourist office. The gold badge was very hard to get - they use a points system.
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W1 Rauherkopf (2478m)
W2 Idalpe and the Flimspitze (2929m) W3 Heidelberger Hut and the Fimbertal W4 Edmund Graf Hut W5 Niederelbe Hut and the Kreuzjochspitze (2919m) |
W6 Ascher Hut
W7 Jamtal Hut and Steinmannli (2353m) W8 Neue Heilbronner and Friedrichshafner Huts W9 Saarbrucker Hut W10 Wiesbadener Hut |
| This is a small peak close to the Ischgl, with a path all the way from the village. To vary the return route take the path down to the small village of Mahon. We had an excellent Apfelstrudel in a cafe inside a gift shop. We returned to Ischgl by the valley path. If you keep to the path south of the river, you will go past the open air swimming pool. | |
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| Verwallgruppe | At the summit. |
| This is the area above Ischgl to the south. You can walk up to Idalpe (2311m), or take the Silvrettabahn cable car from the centre of Ischgl. Return can be via path 715 by the Vellilscharte. Much of this area is unattractive because of the skiing impact. The hills look like big slag heaps. We went up a peak called Flimspitze (2929m) which has a ridge leading on to it and is a good viewpoint. Because of the height it would be sensible to take the cable car if you planned to do this. At the time of our holiday the Tourist Office organised walks from Idalpe over to the village of Samnaun in Switzerland by the "Smugglers Route", and they also provided transport back to Ischgl. | |
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| Idalpe | View of Flimspitze. |
| This is a very popular hut situated in the Fimbertal. Because it is quite a way up the valley a number of "Jeep Excursions" are run from Ischgl. There is some good marmot spotting close to the Heidelberger Hut (2264m). Its probably about 8 miles from Ischgl and its the same way back as out. | |
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| View of peaks on way up. | Heidelberger hut. |
| This is a beautifully situated hut at the base of the Hoher Riffler peak. Take the bus down the valley and alight at the Dias Alpe Cable Car station, which is just before Kappl proper. Take the Diasbahn cable car to Dias Alpe (1830m) and start the walk from here, buy a return ticket as you will be coming back here. From Dias Alpe (1830m) take the path over to the hut via the Schmalzgruben pass, returning the same way. The Edmund-Graf Hut (2408m) is a lovely hut that does good food (soup with sausage and Kaiserschmerrn recommended - beware people who having finished their soup, spy your Kaiserschmerrn with their brown cow like eyes). There is a 'path' to the top of the Hoher Rifler which I believe is exposed, you would probably have to stay the night at the hut though to have enough time to do it. | |
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| A small lake on the way up. | Edmund-Graf hut. |
| This a superb walk especially if you do the peak, however it is a tough walk and will take a long time. We walked back to Ischgl and it took us 10 to 11 hours including a stop at the hut. The walk starts from the top of the Dias Alpe (1830m), there is a good path to the Niederelbe Hut (2310m) which is situated by a small lake. The path to the Kreuzjochspitze starts from the hut, it is a proper peak and well worth the effort as there are some marvellous views from the summit. On returning to the hut you can retrace back to Dias Alpe bearing in mind the time for the last cable car. An alternative is to take the path down to Ulmich in the valley and take the bus to Ischgl or walk. | |
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| Kreuzjochspitze (2919m) | Niederelbe Hut |
| Take the bus to See, since we were there a cable car has been opened which will take you close to the hut. We would recommend use the cable car as the forest track is a bit tedious. Return on the cable car, or take the path which follows the Schallerbach river back to See. | |
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| View and Ascher Hut (2256m) | |
| From Galtur take the path up the Jamtal valley to the Jamtal Hut. There is an Alm (Farmhouse) on the way that sells fresh milk. From the Jamtal Hut (2165m) you can return to Galtur, other alternatives are to walk to a small top called Steinmannli (2353m) from where there are good views of the glaciers (this is what we did) or there is a peak called the Gamshorn (2987m) which is approx 3,000ft of ascent from the hut. | |
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| View and Jamtal Hut | |
| These two huts can be done on their own as seperate there and back walks, or linked together for a full days walk starting from Galtur and finishing at Valzur, where the bus back to Ischgl can be caught. The path from Heillbronner Hut (2308m) to Friedrichshafner Hut (2138m) involves going over the Muttenjoch pass (2620m). You will need an early start if you plan to do both huts. We did this as part of a challenge walk the Silvretta-Ferwall Marsch. This is held in late August. To achieve the Gold medal you have to do a circular walk from Galtur of 42.5 km . We had to take the first bus (07:15) from Ischgl to Galtur, but the event was very well organised with food and drink stops, and local mountain guides at the top of the Muttenjoch giving help and encouragement. | |
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| Heillbronner hut | Friedrichschafer hut |
| This is a traditional mountain hut which offered us some warmth from the cold and rain outside. There is a good path which leads from the Bielerhohe to the Saarbrucker Hut (2538m), you can return via the Vermunt Stausee. There is a peak (Kleine Litzner 2781m) above the hut but we don't know if it is a walk, scramble or climb. There are cafes and huts at Bielerhohe which provide refreshments. | |
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| Approach and Saarbrucker Hut | |
| This is a large mountain hut which is used as a starting point for climbs up to Piz Buin and the surrounding peaks. It is also popular with walkers as there are good views of the mountains and the glaciers from here. Because of its popularity the Wiesbadener Hut (2443m) can be very busy at weekends, as can Bielerhohe itself. It may be possible to combine this hut with a peak called Hohes Rad (2934m) which has a path up it (we didn't do this so we don't know what the path is like). | |
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| Lake and Wiesbadener Hut | |
This page was last updated on 14th March 2009.