Crossing the Alps

Ötzi Trek: Hiking in the (k)oldest footsteps

The monument to Ötzi at 3210 meters in the midst of an enormous mountain and rocky landscape.

(Bild: Dario Frasson)

In six adventurous and scenic stages, the Ötzi Trek leads right through the heart of the Alps - on the paths of the Iceman to his final resting place in Bolzano in South Tyrol. Ötzi's story didn't just get under Brad Pitt's skin. After my first three-thousander, the personal encounter with the mummy is quite moving.

It was a priceless find for science: almost exactly 33 years ago to the day, on September 19, 1991, hikers found one of the oldest and best-preserved mummies in the world in a gully on the Tisenjoch at an altitude of 3210 meters. Everyone knows him: the Iceman, also known as Ötzi.

"Cold case" Ötzi
But the place where he was found is also a crime scene. Because it turned out that the man from Similaun died at the hands of a murderer - more than 5300 years ago. Ötzi was not the only prehistoric mountaineer to use the paths in the Alps - nor was he the first, as finds prove.

Tour on Ötzi's trail
On an Alpine crossing from Landeck in Tyrol to Bolzano in South Tyrol, hikers pass historical sites from the time of the iceman in six daily stages. The route of the Ötzi Trek and the arc of suspense are particularly well done by the organizer ASI-Reisen (Alpinschule Innsbruck). While you approach the mummy in person step by step, your luggage is transported comfortably from accommodation to accommodation (except in the Similaunhütte).

You hike individually with the help of a printed tour book and an app. After a comfortable journey by train, the first stage starts in Landeck and follows the old trade routes of the Celts, Rhaetians and Romans up to the burnt offering site at the Piller Sattel (1559 meters). The walk through the Piller Moor to the Kaunergrat Nature Park House rounds off the experience.
1st day tour: approx. 14 kilometers; ascent: 950 m; descent: 180 m 

On lonely paths from Pitztal to Ötztal
The second day starts at a lofty 2395 meters above sea level on the Sechszeiger. The panoramic tour is challenging and leads across lush green grassy mountains and stony scree fields in the high mountains. You hike for hours on lonely paths downhill and at times steeply uphill to the pass crossing into the Tumpental valley at 2660 meters above sea level. Only the bells of grazing animals and the babbling of mountain streams interrupt the silence. After a good seven hours you reach the Vordere Tumpenalm and from there you are taken by cab to Umhausen in Ötztal.
2nd day tour: about 13 kilometers; ascent: 680 HM; descent: 1200 HM

From the highest waterfall in Tyrol through the "magic forest"
In the Ötzi village, an open-air Neolithic park in Umhausen, you can see faithful replicas of the late Neolithic graves and huts. From there, the route leads to Tyrol's highest waterfall - the Stuibenfall. The Horlachbach stream plunges an impressive 160 meters from Niederthai over a rocky edge into the depths of the valley. 700 steps lead along the waterfall almost vertically up the rocky slope. You can also experience the enormous natural power of the water up close on a via ferrata (difficulty C).

The Stuiben Falls and the Niederthai high plateau were created almost 10,000 years ago by the Köfler landslide. The elemental force was equivalent to an earthquake measuring 7.5 on the Richter scale. The masses of debris thundered down into the valley, spread over an area of around twelve square kilometers and formed a forest ridge on the opposite side, the Tauferberg.

As you hike through it, it looks like an enchanted place of holes in the ground, grottos and granite boulders as high as houses - enchanted, mysterious. The trees, which stand so close together that they form a green canopy of leaves and needles, provide protection in both sun and rain. With every step you take, you inhale the scent of moss and mildew, resin and wood, leaves, mushrooms and berries.
3rd day tour: approx. 13 kilometers; ascent: 980 m; descent: 850 m

The highest and most beautiful high alpine hiking trail 
The Venter Panoramaweg is often referred to as such. However, the journey to the starting point is somewhat strange. A bus drives from Sölden up to 2830 meters to the Rettenbach and Tiefenbach glaciers (Ferner = glacier in Tyrolean). It passes through the highest road tunnel in Europe, the Rosi-Mittermaier-Tunnel, and drops passengers off at the fully sealed Tiefenbachbahn parking lot.

The trail zigzags down into the Seiterkar. Continue over boulders, stone steps and laid slabs across the Mutböden and at an almost constant altitude into the wide Weißkar. This idyllic spot with a small lake is a worthwhile resting place below the impressive Weißer Kogel and its hanging glaciers. The small village of Vent soon appears in the distance. The panoramic trail continues to meander along the slopes, most of which are covered in flowers.

What a contrast! Just a few kilometers behind the highly touristy Sölden, you find yourself in a quiet valley and the small village of Vent, inhabited by 150 people. A classic alpine mountaineering village with a long alpine history and a connection to the Alpine Club.
4th day tour: about 12 kilometers; ascent: 270 HM; descent: 720 HM

Tisenjoch crime scene - stone pyramid at 3210 meters above sea level
On the fifth day, mountain hiking guide Josef Essl and I will climb around 1480 meters in altitude from Vent to the famous Ötzi discovery site - and climb my first three-thousand-metre peak in the process.

Early in the morning, we head into the valley on a gravel road towards the Martin-Busch-Hütte. The path into the Niedertal valley leads past the Hohle Stein, a four-metre-high, overhanging boulder that is said to have offered protection to shepherds and hunters between the eighth and fourth millennia BC. So Ötzi was by no means the first to choose the path through this valley.

For many centuries, the Hoch- and Niederjoch have been used by Schnals farmers in summer, as they have grazing rights and land in the Nieder- and Rofental valleys. Prehistoric and early history research has shown that sheep herding over the partly glaciated Jöcher has existed for at least 6000 years.

Relaxed sheep and men in blue aprons
The sheep drive in the Schnalstal Valley is an old and still living tradition. The archaic custom, also known as transhumance , is part of UNESCO's intangible cultural heritage. It is the only sheep drive in the world that crosses a glacier and a national border. Every year in early summer, shepherds move up to four thousand sheep from the Schnalstal Valley in South Tyrol over the Niederjoch and Hochjoch mountains to the summer pastures near Vent in the Ötztal Valley. In September, the grazing animals, shepherds and dogs make their way back. The successful cattle drive is celebrated in South Tyrol with a spectacular herdsmen's festival . Herdsmen traditionally wear blue aprons and carry long wooden poles. Cries such as "höörla leck leck leck" are typical of the Ötztal.

After about two hours, we hike past the Martin-Busch-Hütte and continue through a wide high valley, following the former course of a lateral moraine of the Niederjochferner, towards the Similaunhütte . "Due to global warming, glaciers are retreating dramatically. All that is left of the Niedertalferner is a small snow field below the Similaunhütte. When glaciers thaw, the landscape changes. Former glacier valleys are transformed into rocky deserts where only a few creatures feel at home," Josef explains with concern.

The Ötztal Alps are not only a fascinating mountain range, they also represent a special cultural heritage with the discovery of Ötzi and the transhumance that has existed for thousands of years.

Josef Essl, Förster, Biologe & Bergwanderführer, ASI-Guide

Bild: Josef Essl

The sun was blazing down from the blue sky on this August day (a high protection factor is particularly important, also for the calves!), while we climbed over stone, scree and snow fields to the Tisenjoch.

The highest pass of the Alpine crossing is also the border between Austria and Italy. In the early afternoon, we reached the pyramid-shaped monument at an altitude of 3210 meters. Visibility deteriorated - Italy to the south became virtually invisible. Mystical veils of mist swirled around our legs, the mountain air tingled and smelled of cold.

Ötzi's mummified body was found almost 33 years ago in a rocky hollow about 70 meters from the monument. Precise remeasurements in the border area have made him an Italian. The surroundings seem unspectacular and peaceful.
5th day tour: approx. 17 kilometers; ascent: 1480 m; descent: 480 m

Encounter with a mummy
A steep descent from the Similaun hut into the Schnalstal valley, where Ötzi is said to have come from. But why he chose this difficult route through a steep gorge remains a mystery.

Once you arrive in Vernagt, you can easily travel to Bolzano by public transport. I decided to visit the glacier mummy in the South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology as soon as I arrived. The feeling of having visited both "graves" of the man from Similaun within 24 hours closed a circle for me along the Ötzi Trek.

And then he lay before me: on the second floor, inconspicuous in a darkened corner on a silver-colored bier. After thousands of years, Ötzi has found his final resting place here. A fine layer of ice makes the brown body gleam. The peephole is roughly the size of a paving slab and was made from eight-centimetre-thick bulletproof glass. The opening allows a glimpse into the cold room where the mummy is preserved at minus six degrees Celsius and almost 100 percent relative humidity - as close as possible to the climate of a glacier.

It felt unique to be so close to the man. He was one of us. A person with emotions, sensitive to pain, anger and joy. In any case, he was a particularly good mountaineer!
Day tour: about 6 kilometers: Descent: 1300 HM

Numerous coincidences and ailments
The fact that Ötzi's body was completely preserved for thousands of years in one of the rare places in an Alpine glacier and then discovered at the exact moment when the ice released him is thanks to an incredible chain of coincidences. Starting with the date: September 19, 1991, a number palindrome that reads equally enigmatic from front to back. Since then, a host of archaeologists, doctors and criminologists have worked their way through Ötzi's research and have uncovered a number of secrets about the man from the Copper Age.

For example, that he had brown eyes, is said to have been around 160 centimetres tall, was plagued by whipworms and suffered from athlete's foot, Lyme disease, periodontitis, lactose intolerance and high cholesterol. That he ate Alpine ibex meat and grains before he died because an arrowhead penetrated deep into his left shoulder.

Travel information & booking

• Ötzi Trek with luggage transport: 8 days; 6 stages with difficulty level 4 (challenging); a total of around 62 kilometers; 9200 vertical meters
• You can find the ASI-Reisen itineraryhere
  Bookable now for 2025.
  Price in a double room from 1695 euros
• Ötzi knowledge database
• Vacations in Tyrol
  

  Ötztal tourism association: oetztal.com soelden.com
  Tirol West: tirolwest.at & tirolwest-card
  Pitztal: pitztal.com & pitztal-sommer-card

• Tyrolean long-distance and long-distance hiking trails
• Train connections to Landeck/from Bolzano

The man even got under Brad Pitt's skin
Ötzi's "immortality" still fascinates people all over the world today. Actor Brad Pitt even had the "Frozen Fritz", as the glacier man is known in America, tattooed on his forearm.

He was already frozen in the ice when the Egyptians built their pyramids and a certain Jesus of Nazareth was nailed to the cross by the Romans. Was Ötzi a hunter, warrior or traveling salesman? Did he know his murderer? Despite intensive research, the Iceman still has many secrets.