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ItalianoUpdated 10.07.2023
In mid-May, the five stages of the new 86-kilometre-long Tyrolean Silver Trail will be opened. Long-distance hiking has a much longer tradition in the Karwendel Silver Region. Already centuries ago, pilgrims, miners and packers crossed the mountains and valleys.
For our ancestors, hiking over long distances was a daily necessity. Today, we have to consciously integrate regular exercise units into our "sedentary" everyday lives. Walking is one of the most natural and healthiest endurance sports. It has a positive effect on the heart, circulation, blood pressure, coronary vessels and sugar balance. And it "works" all year round, in any weather.
Those who take on a long-distance hiking trail have great things ahead of them. The new Tyrolean Silver Trail connects the picturesque villages around the old mining town of Schwaz. The five daily stages are each between 13 and 20 kilometres long and are neither stingy with charms nor with metres of altitude (3,360 hm). If you start in Jenbach in the far east, your first destinations on the tour upstream at the foot of the Karwendel are Stans, Vomp and Terfens. After switching to the other side of the Inn, the hikers are on their way at the foot and on the plateaus of the Tux Pre-Alps. They pass Weer, Kolsass, Kolsassberg, Weerberg, Pill, Schwaz, Gallzein and Buch in Tirol. You will be rewarded along the way with ever new perspectives and extraordinary nature and power spots that can only be discovered on foot. There are beautiful descents and ascents and in between there are always opportunities to experience culture and history, to refuel at rest and snack stops or to find cosy accommodation for the night.
The Jakobsweg (Way of St. James) crosses Tyrol from the gigantic Jakobskreuz in Pillersee in the east to St. Anton am Arlberg in the west. From Wörgl the long-distance trail follows the Inntal valley and from Landeck the Sanna river. This means few ascents and well-maintained and easy paths throughout. For guests in the Karwendel Silver Region, the fourth stage of the Tyrolean Way of St. James is obvious. It leads from Strass in the Zillertal to Terfens. At Rotholz the Inn is crossed and Jenbach is approached, via Tratzberg Castle the route continues at the foot of the Karwendel to Stans, past Schwaz towards Vomp and the destination Terfens. The 21 kilometres can easily be completed in 5.5 hours, if you don't take advantage of the many opportunities to pause, rest and marvel: Rottenburg Ruin, Tratzberg Castle, Maria Tax, St. Georgenberg Monastery, Fiecht Abbey and Maria Larch are passed. The subsequent six-hour fifth stage leads from Terfens to St. James' Cathedral in Innsbruck.
A difficult, six-day long-distance hike is offered further up in the Tux Pre-Alps. There, the 73-kilometre Inntaler Höhenweg runs between Innsbruck and Schwaz. The Glungezer and the Central Alpine Trail 02A are targeted via the Patscherkofel. Then continue towards Nurpensjoch, Rastkogel and over the Loassattel to the Kellerjochhütte, from where you descend to Schwaz. The tour runs at altitudes between 1,800 and 2,800 metres on a continuous, but partly steep and rough hiking trail. All efforts are rewarded by untouched mountain landscapes in the Patscherkofel-Zirmberg-Viggartal-Glungezer landscape conservation area above the Blue Lakes and beautiful views over the Inn Valley to the Nordkette in the Zillertal Alps and the Karwendel. Overnight stays on the tour with around 5,283 metres of altitude difference are in refuges, which must be reserved in good time.