Hirschwieskopf hike

The Hirschwieskopf lies directly to the south of Germany’s third highest mountiain, Watzmann, and offers a great viewpoint onto the southern wall of the Watzmann.

This was a long, full day’s hiking of 27 km and 1500 m ascent. Starting with a detour through the gorge at the bottom of the valley (Wimbachklamm), we steadily ascended to the high valley of Wimbachgries, a huge scree field. From there on it was an ever steepening climb up to the Hirschwieskopf.

On arriving at the summit, a mountain rescue helicopter was just landing. It soon became obvious that they were rescuing someone from the south face of Watzmann. Both the injured person and their companion were brought to the Hirschwieskopf before being flown to hospital, all of which played out in front of us as we ate our lunch.

We later found out that the injured person had slid on the scree and injured their leg. A stark reminder of the dangers of hillwalking and to be thankful for the preparedness and resources of mountain rescue teams.

On the way down, we stopped at the Wimbachgrieshütte for a quick refreshment before the fast, comfortable but above all long descent back to the car.

GPS Track