Hiking Tour: “Nord-Süd-Weitwanderweg 05 Stage 21: From Salzstiegelhaus to Barbarahaus via Größenberg”

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
	Salzstiegelhaus Pack: Barbarahaus (Pack 172)

Personal impressions:
Transportation:
I’ve planned to accomplish this stage as the fifth of an 8-day multi-day trip. As I stayed the night at the Salzstiegelhaus, I was able to directly start the tour the next morning.

The hike:
This hike was part of an 8-day multi-day trip. After a fairly easy tour the day before, I got a bit bored by the fact that the official stage would be short and easy again. Thus – without originally planned – I decided during the breakfast at the Salzstiegelhaus, to detour till Größenberg. The idea came as I have planned for years to do the ski tour from Salzstiegelhaus to Ameringkogel which I tried several times but was never able to do it (beyond Speikkogel because of the lack of snow. As I failed several time to do it in winter and due to the fact that the weather was sunny and super clear, I decided for this “add-on”.
After the breakfast and getting my stamp , I started early the day (to avoid the heat) following the official trail alongside the ski slope up to the water reservoir with the windmill.
From there, the  05  trail would turn left into the Peterer Sattel around the Speikkogel. I however decided to not turn left and hike up the relatively steep trail to the summit of Speikkogel. After enjoying the amazing view, I continued following the very scenic trail westwards, first to Hofalmkogel, then to Weißenstein, then to the scenic Ameringkogel and finally to the Größenberg. Each of the summits is beautiful and offers an amazing view, whereas the Speikkogel and Ameringkogel turned out to be hotspots and thus crowded. When I arrived at Größenberg, I was alone at the summit for several minutes – a very enjoyable experience!
After enjoying the summit, I had to go back to Speikkogel. Luckily I saw a shortcut around Ameringkogel on its western side, thus saving a few meters in ascent . Once back at the Speikkogel, I decided to take the direct route down into the Peterersattel (visible from the summit) where I rejoined the official  05  trail. From there I now followed the official trail around the Petererkogel towards the Bernsteinhütte.
The trail turned out to be extremely exposed to sun – no shadow and even worse no source of water. Again, I noticed that my water resources might get low and unfortunately, again, I run out of water approx. 45 min before the Bernsteinhütte.
Anyway, very thirsty I made it to the Bernsteinhütte and was able to rehydrate having two glasses of water and two or three cold beers next to my lunch. I was also able to refill my water bottle at the hut – just in case…
The remaining tour however turned out to be an easy hike, first through the forest and then through a nice meadow to the Knödelhütte. Because this hut was overcrowded and I had anyway a nice stay at the Bernsteinhütte, I decided to continue the tour without another break – just following the easy gravel road southwards. The only annoying part were the many cars coming from the Knödelhütte raising a lot of dust when they passed by. Luckily, the tour sometimes uses shortcuts through the forest and the last meters to the Barbarahaus are anyway on a nice and small trail through the forest.
Finally, I arrived in good time at the Barbarahaus (Checkpoint). I was immediately welcomed by Baron – the black Alpaca and the hut’s pet. Baron is very curious and not at the slightest shy.
Also the tenants of the hut provided me with a very pleasant experience. Both of them were super friendly and I had a very nice chat. Although not expected (the hut does not provide kitchen service), I was also asked to have dinner together with the tenants – very tasty and a big portions.
After a nice chat, some beers, a schnaps and a nice conversation with Manfred, I finally went upstairs into the extremely nice room, having a warm shower and a great sleep afterwards.

Summary:
Doing the stage as described in the official tour book, the trail would be easy, short and without any difficulties. However, the detour via the summits of Speikkogel, Weißenstein, Ameringkogel and Größenberg makes the tour demanding but rewarding since the view from each of these summits is simply amazing.
However, obviously the detour only make sense when having great weather with a good distance view.