Risserkogel Circuit

With yet another beautiful weekend I was keen to get out again and enjoy my new local hills. However this weekend was a bit different to last weekend as it felt like a totally different season due to starting in -3 degrees and there being plenty of fresh snow on the ground.

We decided to heat to the Risserkogel and do a circuit from the east rather than the usual ascent from the west. This was a really good decision as we had varied views all day, had a relatively quiet ascent in the morning and a quiet descent in the evening.

As is often the case here, it was straight up out of the car, and we were soon warm despite the cold temperatures. Thankfully we were soon above the tree line and able to enjoy the fantastic scenery around us. The highlight of the ascent has to be the

Blankenstein which initially looked impressively pointy, and then as we traversed the other side of the valley showed us it’s three faces which looked fantastic.

We enjoyed a long lunch on the summit as it was nice in the sun and the views were spectacular, however eventually we did have to go as it was just too cold to stay any longer. The views from the top were undoubtedly the best we had all day, but the rest of the walk around the ridgeline was really enjoyable.

It stayed fairly quiet until we arrived at the last peak before the Wallberg area, where the feel of the walk changed significantly as it was suddenly much busier. We continued up to the Wallberg to finish the loop before descending out of the sun and back into the cold valley we were parked in, to find a newly formed layer of frost on the car!