Classic hut-to-hut routes · Austria

Stubai Höhenweg

Eight Alpine Club huts in a horseshoe above the Stubai valley, an hour from Innsbruck, with a bed and a warm meal every single night.

Distance
~80 km
Days
7–8
Total ascent
not in our source
High point
not in our source
Season
July to mid-September

The Stubai Höhenweg is the friendliest way into Austrian hut walking: a week-long horseshoe from hut to hut around the head of the Stubai valley, every night in a staffed Alpine Club hut, every hut reachable from the last in a single day, and the valley bus at both ends.

Friendly is not the same as easy. The passes are high, a few short sections are cable-protected, and the weather at 2,500 m turns fast. But there is no glacier travel and no route-finding, and the huts book through one central system, which makes it the simplest classic on this page to actually organise.

Who it suits
Level: ExperiencedAnyone doing a first hut-to-hut week, or a family with older children who can manage six-hour days.
The nights
Alpine Club huts throughout, all bookable online; members of any Alpine Club sleep at a reduced rate.

Stage points and the shelters near them

Published path grades around the stage points run T1 to T5, from 9 of 9 stages. That describes the terrain there, not the exact line of the route. A via ferrata grade appears somewhere along it.

7 shelters within 4 km of the stage points, from the shelter table. Distances are from the stage point, not walking distances.

  1. 01Neustift im Stubaital

    No shelter in our table within 4 km of Neustift im Stubaital; this stage usually ends in a village or a private inn.

  2. 02Starkenburger Hütte

    No shelter in our table within 4 km of Starkenburger Hütte; this stage usually ends in a village or a private inn.

  3. 03Franz-Senn-Hütte

  4. 04Neue Regensburger Hütte

    No shelter in our table within 4 km of Neue Regensburger Hütte; this stage usually ends in a village or a private inn.

  5. 05Dresdner Hütte

  6. 06Sulzenauhütte

  7. 07Nürnberger Hütte

    No shelter in our table within 4 km of Nürnberger Hütte; this stage usually ends in a village or a private inn.

  8. 08Bremer Hütte

    No shelter in our table within 4 km of Bremer Hütte; this stage usually ends in a village or a private inn.

  9. 09Innsbrucker Hütte

    No shelter in our table within 4 km of Innsbrucker Hütte; this stage usually ends in a village or a private inn.

How booking works

Alpine Club huts on this route take reservations through hut-reservation.org, the shared system of the German, Austrian and Swiss clubs. We link straight to it and earn nothing from a hut booking.

Members of any Alpine Club pay a reduced rate at all club huts, whichever club they joined, and membership usually includes mountain rescue cover. On a week of hut nights it pays for itself. Join the ÖAV

Plan Stubai Höhenweg around my datesOpens the planner with this route's area and length filled in.

Common questions

Every answer below is counted from the 7 shelters our table holds along this route. Where a shelter does not state something, it is counted as not stated rather than assumed.

How long is Stubai Höhenweg, and how many days does it take?
About 80 km, usually walked in 7–8 days.
When can you walk it?
The season is July to mid-September. None of the shelters along the way publish their warden months, so plan from the route's season rather than from ours.
Where do you sleep?
In 7 shelters within 4 km of the stage points, of which 7 are run by an Alpine Club. 0 of them can be booked online through the clubs' own system; the rest take a phone call, and every number we hold is on the shelter's own page.
Do you need to book ahead?
0 of the 7 shelters state that a reservation is required and 0 that it is recommended. The other 7 do not say either way, which is not the same as saying no.
What if you arrive out of season?
None of the shelters along this route state that a winter room is left open. Out of season, treat every one of them as shut until you have spoken to somebody.
What is the highest place you sleep?
The highest shelter we hold on this route is Hildesheimer Hütte, at 2,900 m.

Other classic routes

Distance, days, ascent, high point and season are approximate and taken from Wikipedia (German), Stubaier Höhenweg. Shelters from refuges.info (©Les contributeurs de Refuges.info, CC BY-SA 2.0 FR) and OpenStreetMap (ODbL).