Prinz Luitpold Haus & Großer Daumen (2280m): A 2-Day Tour

Dates: June 17 and 18, 2017

Starting in Munich, we took the 7:20 am train to Oberstdorf. After grabbing some snacks at the bakery, we started the long road up to the Höfatsblick station. There is obviously the option to take the seilbahn up this section but we did not want to pay for the tickets. The road is not very exciting but it only takes about 1.5-2 hours to get to the top. 

At the crossing, we turned right and continued on a hiking trail. It didn't take long for us to find that there were fields of snow covering the trail. Unfortunately there was no way to avoid it and we carefully used our hiking poles to walk across the steeply sloped sections. 

Continuing on we stopped for lunch near Schochen (2100m) with and had breathtaking views of the valley below. More hiking brought us to the ridge between Laufbacher Eck and Rotkopf. We though we were on the final stretch but it's still another 2.5 hours to the Prinz Luitpold Haus. 

The next section is a descent into the valley. We again encountered a lot of snow here. Upon reaching the river crossing, the path ascends to the Prinz Luitpold Haus. The hut sits below the Hochvogel (2589m) and above the valley giving you awesome views from all perspectives. The hot dinner was excellent (an Vegan friendly with Linsen Curry!). 

We woke up rested and were back on the trail at 7:30 am for Day 2. The path down to Giebelhaus was very relaxed, passing cow pastures and waterfalls. Part of this section is on a paved road. At Entgeratsgurd-Alpe we turned off the road and made our way up to the Engeratsgundsee. Warning! The water is freezing, I couldn't feel my feet after swimming. 

The next section took us up to Großer Daumen. There were some sections of exposure and scrambling to get to the peak. We had beautiful weather and the 360 views were the icing on the cake. 

After the peak, we hiked down to the Höfatsblick station and decided to take the seilbahn back to Oberstdorf. It was a bit overpriced at 22 Euros but we didn't want to kill our knees on the steep road. 

Awesome hike!