Four Hikes in Four Days

The area around Innsbruck is a hikers paradise for anyone of any age and fitness.  You can do enormous vertical if you are so inclined, hiking right from town, or cable car assisted hikes focused on alpine meadows or peak hopping.  The public transit and cable cars make access easy.  Forget the driving.  Even the buses have amazing views.  

Over the past four days I did four cable-car assisted hikes illustrating the great diversity of the region. None of these hikes were arduous or long, but they provided great views and experiences.  Below I've circled the cable cars I used to access the higher elevations.  

On day 1 I did a hike on the Nordkette immediately above Innsbruck.  I summarized this hike in the previous post (see Hike to Brandjochboden), but will add here that the Nordkette is the most accessible Alpine hiking you can do from Innsbruck.  The Nordkettenbahn consists of a funicular and two cable cars that take you from old town at 574 meters to the Nordkette ridge at 2269 meters.  There is great hiking at all elevations along this lift system, not to mention a numbef of mountiain huts along the way.  

On day 2 I took the J-bus from Innsbruck to the bottom of the Patscherkofelbahn, a gondola that runs to about 2000 meters.  From there, I did a short hike with a friend (and University of Utah graduate!) to the summit of the Patscherkofel, which offers up great views of the Inn Valley, Stubai Alps, and Tux Alps.  The photo below is toward the Stubai Alps with many 3000 meter peaks.  

There is a nice north-facing forest on the Patscherkofel, and several high-quality mountain huts.  In the past, I've hiked from summit to top.  It is also possible to do a point-to-point hike along the "Zirbenweg" trail to the Glungeter ski area, returning by the cable car and bus there.  One can do a variant on the Zirbenweg that goes to the summit of Glungezer at over 2600 meters.  

On day 3 I took the S4 regional train from Innsbruck to Seefeld.  This is a spectacular 35 minute train ride along a steep south facing aspect with drop-off views of the Inn Valley.  Once in Seefeld, it is about a kilometer or so walk to the Rosshütte bergbahn system that provides a lot of hiking options at elevations up to a bit over 2000 meters.  I did a short hike on this day to the Seefeld Spitze as I was going to be covering a lot of ground in Innsbruck that afternoon.  The photo below is of the Reither Spitze.  

And finally on day 4 I took the Stubaital (STB) light rail line to Mutters.  After a short walk I got on the Muttereralmbahn and did a great little loop hike below the north face of Saile (also known as Nockspitze), a prominent peak southwest of Innsbruck.  There are all sorts of hikes and scrambles you could do in this area, linking into the Kalkkogel Alps pictured below and possibly linking into the Axamer Lizum area where there are more cable cars and a bus return to Innsbruck (Axamer Lizum sits at the base of the Kalkkogel Alps).  

My route tagged a couple of minor summits with great views of the Inn Valley, which was a bit hazy today given the European heat wave (max temperature of 33C/91F in Innsbruck this afternoon).  

All of this is accessible with public transit right from town with no transfers.  The cable cars are optional, but appreciated as I get longer in the tooth.  Avoiding long descents is appreciated, but given the current heat, it's nice to start at around 2000 meters instead of 600.  

There a few useful apps for planning hikes in the area.  bergfex.com probably has the best maps and tons of route descriptions.  Hiking trails in the Innsbruck area (and maybe elsewhere) are rated on the Swiss Alpine Club scale (e.g., T1, T2, T3, etc...).  This is really helpful especially if you don't like exposure or scary scree crossings.  bergfex.com also has excellent maps, although subscription is helpful for detailed route finding using a phone.  https://maps.innsbruck.info/ is very useful for finding mountian huts (and always check if they are open, especially midweek).  

For transit, I use a combination of Google maps, Öbb Tickets, and IVB Tickets.  For buses and trains, Öbb Tickets will sell you anything you need and give you the QR code for validation if requested (common on trains, less so on buses or light-rail in Innsbruck but you should have it).  You can buy weekly all Tirol transit passes on it too.   

Hike to the Brandjochboden

It's a beautiful long weekend here in Innsbruck (we get Monday off too).  I took the opportunity today to hike from the top of the Seegrubenbahn cable car to small, 2000 meter plateau known as the Brandjochboden.  The route traversed below the crest of the Nordkette, the main ridge that rises above the Inn Valley near Innsbruck, offering non-stop views.  Below I've highlighted the first mile or so of the route from Seebrube, which is hidden in this photo but near the start of the arrow.

The morning began with just a bit of haze and pollution in the Inn Valley.  This is not all that unusual as it either sneaks in from Germany or Italy or is produced by the enormous amount of traffic that flows through the Inn Valley between Germany and Italy.  

Such pollution is usually most apparent when looking toward the morning sun.  This is a result of what is known as forward scattering of sunlight, perhaps a topic for a future post.  The views in other directions were stellar.  The phto below is looking toward the west southwest and includes Innsbruck, the Wipp Valley which ascdends into the Alps on the west side of the photo, ultimately leading to the Brenner Pass and Italy, and the Stubai Alps, including snow covered "Habicht", the 3277 m high mountain on the horizin near the center of the photo.  

Surprisingly few people were hiking today.  I think I saw a total of six or seven people once I left the Seebrubenbahn.  There were far more sheep including this flock.  

The Brandsjochboden is a flat, peaceful place.  I suspect in a few weeks it will be covered with the green high-Alpine carpet for which Austria is famous.  The grasses haven't awoken yet at this elevation, but the views were still fantastic.  Below are the Stubai Alps, with the Sellrain Valley entering them on the right side of the photo.  There's a lot of spectacular mountains to the north of the Sellrain Valley and some great ski touring.  

After returning to Seegrube, I took the Hafelekar cable car up to the top of the Nordkette, which provided a good perspective on the hike.  I began at Seegrube and ended at the Brandjochboden, which is roughly where the arrow is.  There is about 2000 m (7000 ft) of relief here from the Inn Valley to the top of the Brandjochspitze.  

BTW, if you are in Innsbruck and only have time for one hike, don't do the one described above.  It's fun, but no where near as great as the Goetheweg, the start of which I've identified in the photo above.  The Goetheweg begins at the top of the Hafelekar cable car and traverses along the Nordkette as it goes eastward to the Pfeissehutte mountain hut.  It's a much better trail, and spends time on both sides of the Nordkette, with some unbelievable views.  Below is a photo from our last trip here to whet your appetite.

Memorial Day Weekend Outlook

Watching from a distance, the official start of summer/Memorial Day Outlook is generally looking good for Utah.  For the most part it looks nice, with above average temperatures, although the models are hinting at a chance of some afternoon or evening showers and maybe even a scattered thunderstorm mainly over the high terrain over the weekend.  One example is below, which is the ECMWF forecast for 2100 UTC (3 PM MDT) Sunday 24 May with some showers over the Uintas, Tavaputs Plateau, and high terrain in southern Utah.  

Models vary on the where and the when and so it's just worth keeping an eye on the forecasts and the sky when recreating.  

Enjoy the long weekend.  

May Snow

 I see that a return of colder weather and mountain snow is in the forecast for northern Utah.

Downloaded from NWS Salt Lake City web site at 0840 MDT Sunday 17 May 2026

We just had a round of cold weather and snow here in Innsbruck too.  We could have used it in March, but it does create some nice scenery.

It almost looked like winter at the top of the Patscherkofel gondola today.  Pretty good coverage on the upper slopes thanks to a few inches of high-density fresh.  

Snow is confined to the upper third of the mountain, but I did see someone booting up at the top of the gondola.  I can only assume they were going to skin up the access road that goes to the top of the mountain as going down would take you to the snow line in no time. 

There are several mountain huts on the Patscherkofel.  Along with gondola access, you can opt to do anything from short to long hikes to these huts.  All ages are on the mountain for this reason.  Near the top of the gondola, the Schutzhaus is worth a stop if you've hiked up from the bottom.  

I opted for strudle and a hot tea today.  

And here's a pro tip for hiking in the Alps when you are using public transit.  Always leave a little in the tank in case you have to do more walking.  On my return bus home, an announcement was made as we got into town that they would not be able to complete the service.  Instead of getting dropped off near our flat, I got dropped off about a 25 minute walk away.  Turns out there was a parade in the old town.  

Turns out this was the 28th Alpine Region Meeting of Riflemen from Tyrol, South Tyrol, Trentino and Bavaria.  Who knew?  

These guys have all the tools to run the outlaws out of the village.  

It was a nice cultural surprise.  

RRFS to Become Operational August 31, 2026

The Rapid Refresh Forecast System (RRFS) and RRFS Ensemble Forecast System (REFS) is scheduled to become operational with the 1200 UTC run on August 31, 2026.  The RRFS ensemble has been intermittently available on weather.utah.edu now for a couple of years (yes, I know it hasn't been available in a few weeks).  It's been a long slog for the National Weather Service to get the RRFS operational, so let's hope this proves to be a productive upgrade.

The RRFS and REFS will replace the NAM, HREF, SREF, and HiresW operational modling systems, if you happen to use those.  These will all be retired on the same day the RRFS and REFS become operational, along with their derived products.  I won't be sad to see any of these go.  

As is often the case, they have made the acronyms and ensemble model configurations as complicated as possible.  The so-called deterministic RRFS will run out to 18 hours hourly and out to 84 hours for the 0000, 0600, 1200, and 1800 UTC cycles.  It will cover the North America, including Alaska, at 3 km grid spacing.  There will also be a relocatable 1.5 km fire weather run. 

The RRFS will also produce forecasts from five ensemble members out to 60 hours for the 0000, 0600, 1200, and 1800 UTC cycles.  These members will involve a mix of differing initial conditions, lateral boundary conditions, and model physics.  The REFS is based on a combination of the deterministic and five ensemble members from the most recent and prior RRFS runs.  It is thus a time-lagged ensemble.  

I'm not sure to what degree I'll use the time-lagged REFS or its products.  I may stick with the six-member "RRFS ensemble" as we have been doing just because it is easier and I lack the time and mind to deal with complex things.  

The full announcent is available at https://www.weather.gov/media/notification/pdf_2026/scn26-48_RRFS_and_REFS_Implementation.pdf, if you are interested in some of the details.  

As I mentioned, I hope this upgrade proves productive.  The RRFS development has had many problems and is greatly delayed.  My time in Austria, with access to many modeling systems and ensembles that are run at higher resolution and with more members than the RRFS and the RRFS ensemble, has shown me that the US is now well behind Europe in operational numerical weather prediction (see I Have Seen the Future).  The RRFS won't fully close the gap to where we could be, but we will all hopefuly benefit from an advance in operational modeling capabilities.  

Convective Graupel Showers

Spring and summer mountain thunderstorms can produce precipitation that sometimes includes graupel or small hail that can penetrate well below the freezing level.  

A good example happened yesterday over the Nordkette ridge just north of Innsbruck.  I had a great view of it from my office. The storm popped up around 2 PM local time.  The streaky virga in the right of the photo below srongly suggested the presence of graupel or small hail.  A bit farther to the west (left in the photo) though was less precipitation and even a bit of sun peaking through a hole in the clouds.  

After a couple of rumbles of thunder, the storm was over quickly.  Light graupel accumulations were evident where the cell was, with accumulations reaching down to about 1900 meters, whereas the high ridge farther west, which reaches over 2300 meters, was still snow free.  

A web-cam on the portion of the ridge that received precipitation showed some graupel accumulation at 1900 meters.  

Source: https://www.foto-webcam.eu/webcam/innsbruck/

It didn't take long for the graupel to melt once the storm was over, but it was good entertainment while it lasted.