Internet and Digital Maps
There are many map resources for the trail, the valley and the area. There are excellent ones found on the websites mentioned in the last post in fact. For those trying to familiarize themselves with where the different huts are with respect to each other, the peaks, etc. there is no better map or pictorial that the Heinrich C. Breann style summer panorama of the valley featured in the last post. In fact those style of panoramas, by him or others, are done of many mountain areas in Europe and are great for first timers.
For those with a thirst for something more interactive I suggest jumping right to it and using Google Earth.The 3d views provided in Google Earth are great a they help to get a sense of the topography as you will experience it.
I found a Google Earth file for the whole trail on gps-tour.info and edited it to show the location of all the huts. You can download it here. Click on the yellow pin marks that denote the huts and it will provide basic info. You will need to install Google Earth to open the file and can get it here.
Paper Maps
As for the good ol’fashion paper maps I will always promote them. The online/digital offerings get better/more interactive every year but the I find art in the paper map . I love to spread them out on a large table, pour over the detail, study the topography and see every part of the route to scale.
The official maps of the area are published by the Austrian Alpine club and are available through their website . You can see all maps available in this area map.
I personally bought map 31/1 and got it from World Wide Maps. This is due to an odd process with the Austrian Alpine Club's store. Unfortunately they do not have an internet store capable of accepting credit cards (or at least not in Feb. of this year). They archaically ask you to send a check though the mail before they will mail the map to you. I did not want to wait that long and World Wide maps (assuming it is in stock - check first) sent it in about 2 weeks. For reference it cost 14 GBP, including shipping to Toronto.
The main map for the high trail is 31/1 (1:25,000), covering the route from just Southwest of the Innsbrucker Hutte to the Franz-Senn Hutte. For those wishing to see the remainder of the trail (the very start and end, depending on your orientation) I believe this can be had on Map 31/3 (but at the larger 1:50,000 scale). Links to the maps on both the Alpine club and World Wide maps can be found at the bottom of the post.
The detail of these maps is great and despite what I imagine are excellent markings – on a past trek in Switzerland, on a similar type of trail, I only really needed the map once since the marking we so well done – I plan to take it with me. While the map is not heavy and folds up well, it is not that durable (an average parer weight, not water proof and it susceptible to damage on the folds). Therefore I will be taking 11”x17” colour photo copies of the area I will be hiking though. I fold them in half and stick them into an 8.5”x11” sheet protector.
Guide Books
I have not read any of the guide books available but there are several choices. There are many that cover the trail as part of broader subjects like European hikes or the best of Austrian hikes. However, I prefer the level of details that comes from a publication about the specific trail.
The most detailed one (at least in English) seems to be Trekking in the Stubai Alps by British publisher Cicerone. A new version was just released in May of 2011 (the previous 2003 version was out of print and hard to find) so the info should be up to date. I am thinking I will get a copy soon.
Links
- Austrian Alpine Club Store's website: maps 31/1 and 31/3 (both in German)
- World Wide Maps: maps 31/1 and 3
