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).
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.
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