Hiking Tour: “Nord-Süd-Weitwanderweg 05 Stage 8: From Gaming to Ötscher/Tormäuer and Lackenhof”

The North-South-Long-Distance trail (Nord-Süd-Weitwanderweg, also known as the “05”) starts in the north of Austria at Nebelstein and ends in the south of Austria at Eibiswald. The trail is ~500km long, ~18 000m in ascent and the same amount in descent. The trail was initiated by Carl Hermann and officially established on the 25th September 1970. The trail is separated into 3 parts: the northern part from Nebelstein to Plankenstein via the Mühl- & Waldviertel and the Wachau, the middle part from Plankenstein to Trofaiach via the Ötscher, Hochschwab and Eisenerzer Reichenstein, and the southern part from Trofaiach to Eibiswald via the Pack and Koralpe. It normally takes 3 weeks to complete the entire trail.

	Nord-Süd-Weitwanderweg 05 – Checkpoints
	Ötscherwiese: A stamp can be acquired from Gasthof Digruber (Ötscherwiese 18). Lackenhof (alternate checkpoint to Ötscherwiese): Kirchenwirt (Kirchenplatz 4).

Personal impressions:
Transportation:
I’ve planned to accomplish this stage as a single day-trip. I drove with my car and parked it at the destination in Lackenhof Weitental (at the ski lift) and then used the bus from there to the start point in Kienberg-Gaming. To have the car parked at the destination allows for breaks and enjoy the trip without needing to rush.
After parking the car in Lackenhof, I used the following means of transport ( During the week, the bus departs 5 min later from Lackenhof than on weekends. The below timings are valid for weekends):

1. Bus 653 from Lackenhof/Weitental (08:33) Grubberg Abzw. Mariazell (08:55)
2. Bus 655 from Grubberg Abzw. Mariazell (09:02) Kienberg-Gaming Nostalgiebahnhof (09:14)

The hike:
I’ve started the hike on a Saturday morning (09:15). The reason for that is that the Ötscher Tropfsteinhöhle is normally open for visits on the weekend and having the time, I planned to do a tour through the cave.
As I have left the official trail in the previous stage at Ötscher/Tormäuer, the idea was to first hike back to the point where I left the trail and then continue from there, although this means I had to do some extra kilometers. But rules are rules and since I’ve committed to "The trail can be extended to reach overnight stays or transportation but must be continued at the point where the official trail was left.", I had to go back to the point where I left the trail at the previous stage.
Hiking along the Erlauf river towards Tormäuer turned out to be a very pleasant hike. The river is beautiful and due to its temperature, hiking alongside is a pleasant experience on hot and sunny days.
The hike primarily uses a small, paved road which heads towards the Schindlhütte and further to the parking at the Tormäuer. From there, the last meters are done on a gravel road till reaching the point where I left the previous stage.
I then hiked back "officially" on the  05  trail to the Schindlhütte which was unfortunately closed.
However, the signs showed that the cave is open, so I followed the trail up to the cave. The exciting ascent is done using big artificial iron stairs combined with nice forest trails.
When I reached the cave, I was welcomed already by the tour guide. As I overtook two other hikers who were scheduled for a tour, we waited for them. Luckily they sell some refreshments, so I used the time wisely by having a cold beer while waiting . As they arrived, we finally did together the very impressive and strongly recommended tour through the cave.
After the tour, I continued following the trail up towards Schönleiten. Right after leaving the forest, the tour excites with a scenic panorama view towards the almighty Ötscher. As there were severe snow storms a few weeks ago, the summit was already covered in snow which amplified the "drama". I found a nice spot to have my self-brought lunch before I continued the tour towards Raneck.
Just before reaching the clearance and turning into the exposed but cable-protected trail of Ortleitengraben, I run over a dead deer. I ignored this warning sign and continued the tour. But at Ortleitengraben, all of the sudden the tour became super dangerous. The aforementioned snow storms had the effect of gigantic trees blocking the trail at places with severe risk to fall from heights. On top of that, there was no sign of the fact that the trail is in very unsafe and dangerous condition.
In normal circumstances, I would have turned around but my car was parked in Lackenhof, so I had to make my way through tree swamps combined with snow below these broken trees or on the trail. I managed to bypass by climbing up and down on some rocks but fun was over at that stage.
When I finally reached Raneck, the trail actually had indications of being closed due to dangerous conditions, but only from this side .
However, from now on the tour followed again first gravel and then paved roads to Ötscherwiese (Checkpoint). The next disappointment: It turned out that the Gasthof Digruber closed their restaurant service and only offers apartments. By pure luck, I was running into the owner and she was so kind to provide me with the desired stamp , otherwise I would have need to extend the tour into the center of Lackenhof, as the Ötscherschutzhaus was closed as well.
After my short break at Gasthaus Digruber, I continued the tour to Lackenhof/Weitental where I had my car parked.

Summary:
Like the previous stage, this stage is again a very nice one. It is not too long and never has steep ascents. My personal highlight was the visit of the Ötscher Tropfsteinhöhle cave, which I strongly recommend to do!
The only downside of the tour were the bad trail conditions due to a severe snowstorm a few weeks before I did the tour. That resulted in a very dangerous above the Ortleitengraben towards Raneck. While normal conditions, I think also this trail would be very exciting as the exposed parts are protected with iron cables and thus safe to go.