Brian had 4 days at the end of June to hike near to Innsbruck. Firstly I went to the Karwendel, a range of jaggy limestone mountains between Innsbruck and the German border to the north. They are crossed by a few hiking routes; the 6 day Karwendel Hohenweg, the longer 324km Adlerweg running east- west and the even longer 570km north- south Munich to Venice Traumpfad or Dream Way. I sampled a section of the Karwendel Hohenweg between Seefeld in the west to the Nordkettenbahnen cable car above Innsbruck.
I left my tent behind (its a Nature Park and it seems like wild camping is prohibited) and stayed in the Nordlinger Hutte the first night which was lovely, with friendly staff and great views once the cloud cleared.
This is still early season in the mountains and there were quite a few snow patches around. Since the mountains can be really steep sided, lingering hard snow can make hiking in summer gear a bit tricky- I wore running shoes but also carried microspikes and an ice axe. I only used the axe but was happy to carry the spikes as well just in case.
Overall the mountains are incredibly steep and scenic with good, well signposted trails going in all directions. There are options for scrambling or Via Ferrata and this would be a great area for longer multi-day hikes. My only caveats are that wild camping is limited so staying at huts are the main option and that I suspect these get a bit busy in the peak season of July-August so may need to be pre-booked. Overall though I had a lovely short sample of this area.
Next I went to the Stubai Alps to the south of Innsbruck and explored the start and end of the Stubai High Route. This is in the higher central alps and there is a transition from limestone in the north to the schists and granites prevalent in the main alpine ranges with more snow, glaciers and great alpine scenery.
I found the food in Austria to be excellent, the huts provide a vegetarian option for evening meals and the breads and cakes in the local bakeries and huts are superb.
We hiked part of this route in 2018 in a longer link up with the Zillertal and Otztal ranges. I would heartily recommend the Stubai High Route for a hut to hut hike that traverses amidst magnificent mountain scenery that takes about 6-8 days.
A wee walk 