Innsbruck: A Detailed Hiking Guide to Seegrube on the Nordkette

🚗 Overview The scenery is quite good, with a wide field of vision at the top, but the route has some difficulty. It is 20 km round trip from the city center, with both footpaths and bicycle paths along the way. However, the scenery is slightly monotonous after reaching the open area on the mountain, and there are many uphill climbs exceeding 45 degrees in the second half, with snowy roads at the top. This time, due to time constraints, I only went to Seegrube, which is a cable car station. The cable car can continue up to Hafelekarspitze, but I didn't continue up this section due to time constraints. The rest of the route is all thick snow. If you have time, you can try it. If you don't have time, take the cable car, or hike half the distance and take the cable car for the other half 🚡. 🚗 Hiking Details 1. Navigate directly to the foot of the mountain. The first 1 km (before the stairs) is all city roads, and there is a short climb before reaching the footpath. 2. Then, there is a short section of steps, followed by a small path, about 1 km in total. 3. At the junction of the small path and the road, you will see a sign for hiking. Here, you can go straight along the small path to Gramart, which is 6.5 km away. There is a fork in the road just after entering. Take the main road. 4. After walking about 1 km on the small road, you will reach a road intersection. The sign instructions change. You can walk along the road, or go straight here on a small path. The road is a U-shaped bend, which is closer and has great scenery! You can see the snow-capped mountains in the woods. 5. ⚠️ High energy! From 4 km onwards (roughly when you start moving forward under the cable car), all the climbs exceed 45 degrees! I saw other bloggers say that the climb was steep before, and this is indeed the case, but you can choose to take the bicycle path, which has a smaller slope. 6. Most of the later roads are bicycle S-bends, but there are also small paths that can reduce the bends, but the slope is larger. However, it feels like the time taken is about the same. 7. The last 300m is all covered with ice and snow. It is best to follow the footprints. 8. The one-way trip is 10 km, with an elevation gain of 1,300m. Because I didn't have lunch, I felt very hungry and walked very slowly. It took me 4 hours to go up from 12:30 pm. It took me less than 2 and a half hours to come down about 10 km. 🚗 Precautions 1. If you are on a road or a vehicle road, it is best to walk on the side and pay attention to off-road bicycles. 2. There are no supplies on the way up the mountain, so bring your own supplies and water. 3. Some small roads have muddy surfaces, but not many. Pay attention to safety on the ice and snow-covered roads. It is best to wear hiking shoes, but it doesn't make a big difference if you don't. 4. There is a restaurant at the top of the mountain, Restaurant Seegrube, which has a nice environment. This restaurant is next to the cable car station, so many tourists who come up by cable car take photos and check in here. However, it closes at 5 pm, and you can't order any food after 4:30 pm, only drinks. The service attitude is slightly poor, which affects the mood a bit. 5. The cable car seems to stop running at 5 pm, so pay attention to the time. Sometimes the cable car may be out of service.