Postalmklamm - Via Ferrata in mid-Austria

For those of you not familiar with the term via ferrata, let me state the definition of Wikipedia here: “Via Ferrata (Italian for "iron road". In German, Klettersteig) is a mountain route which is equipped with fixed cables, stemples, ladders, and bridges. The use of these allows otherwise isolated routes to be joined to create longer routes which are accessible to people with a wide range of climbing abilities.” This was the original intention of building these routes, but more and more via ferratas are built today just for the sake of having fun, sort of a Disney Land for outdoor fanatic people. Compared to traditional climbing it’s considered safe, if you follow the instructions carefully and wear the proper equipment there is not much of a chance that you’ll suffer any serious injury (scratches do occur often though). I’m not going to go into any more details about the genre, you can find plenty of material to read on the web. 

Postalmklamm was not my first via ferrata, I’ve climbed a few in France a few years ago, but this one was different in several ways. It’s not the easiest route you can find, but if you’re not afraid of heights, have a little better-than-average physical strengths and endurance you’ll enjoy the sequence of cable bridges and waterfalls over the route. According to the guide book completing Postalmklamm takes approximately 5 hours, it took 6 for us, but we were not in a hurry (and once lost the way, which took about 30 minutes of our time). I don’t suggest taking kids under 10 for this one, but for older children it might be a great weekend adventure!

Getting there

The closest town to Postalmklamm is a place called Strobl, which is right at the eastern peak of Wolfgangsee. Here you have to turn towards Weissenbach and take the scenic toll-road called Postalmstrasse. The first 6-8 km are free, after that you have the toll-gate where you have to pay 5 Euros per person in the car. From here the via ferrata is about 1.5 km far, so we chose to leave the car here and walk. In a sharp right turn we soon found the “Klettersteig” sign along with a map and a few instructions. Here you have to leave the main road and continue walking for another 15 minutes, where you find basically the same board as we saw earlier and a bench. This is the place to take on the equipment as it will be much more inconvenient later on.

The fun begins

If we’re done with getting dressed the first cable starts about 5 minutes from this place. I didn’t see it too difficult in the beginning, hooking the carabiners here was more like a warming up for the big game. Soon we arrived to the first (and also the longest) bridge spanning through a canyon with the river on the bottom. Passing it was the first adrenaline shock: with your eyes you have to focus constantly on your boots while walking, otherwise you’ll loose balance immediately. 

After passing the bridge we reach the entrance of the canyon in just a couple of minutes through a relatively easy part. The upcoming 1.5-2 hours are the best part of the route, a quite unique via ferrata experience (I don’t know about too many that are built in such canyons). We’re mostly stepping on solid iron pipes or U-shaped ones, there barely a few places where we have to set our feet on rock. To me it was even a little too artificial, but it was all right.

We soon arrive to another cable bridge that takes us to the other wall; it’s much shorter than the first one was, but has a completely different feeling because of the surroundings and one other small thing: you don’t have steps here, just the cable. You feel like a tightrope walker with the security of the second cable (and of course the attached carabiners). There are even a few short but thick ropes hanging from above, making it easier to climb back after a fall. 

Climbing further on the wall we arrive to the best part the whole route: we have to get back again to the other side - but this time without a bridge! We have a U-shaped iron pipe on one side and the same on the other, with about 2 meters in between. If you’re fearless and have long legs you might try to jump (that’s what I did), otherwise you have to grab the cable and climb on it which requires some muscles in your arms. Don’t forget, if you fall, nothing happens, you’re secured by your carabiners, you fall 1 meter and you can pull yourself back up again.

Anyway, there is not much left from the canyon, just another 10-15 minutes on the wall, and the last bridge which is has the same steps as the first one had. It’s short, not much of a challenge, but especially nice because of the beautiful waterfall right next to it. When we were there, the sun was directly shining on the drops making them wonderful in the air falling down below.

We climb out of the canyon, go further still attached to the cable, tackle a few more steeper walls and reach the end of the so called first part of the via ferrata. From here we need to walk in the woods on a relatively steep hiking trail for 15-20 minutes. The signals are clear, they’re painted on trees and hard to miss. Anyway, we somehow managed, so after tumbling for 10-15 minutes we realized we’re heading towards a bad direction, so we turned back and found the trail we missed. 

The “Chamois Wall”

The last and most challenging part of the Postalmklamm via ferrata is called Gamsleckenwand (meaning something like the wall of the chamois). The name was quite neat, it was a steep, typical alpine wall that is loved so much by climbers. Thank God, we had the cables. At the bottom there is the long-awaited “Klettersteigbuch”, which is like the guestbook for klettersteigers.

For people who got tired by this point there is a detour available, which is highly recommended, because tackling the Gamsleckenwand requires a more serious physical and mental effort. If you’re unsure whether to go for it or not, then don’t. Once you’re on it there is no turning back, you have to climb even some lighter overhangs in considerable heights. If you feel fresh and fit you’ll enjoy the beautiful panorama and you’ll love the feeling of being in the middle of a huge alpine wall.

The last steps

After reaching the top you can sit down for a couple of minutes on the bench provided, but don’t relax too much, it’s not over yet! There is a 30 minute walk on a rough terrain to the last challenge, the so called “jungle-bridge”, this time right over a waterfall. It’s not too long, but approaching it is not that easy. It doesn’t have any steps either, just like the second one we passed a few hours earlier. Only the two cables above each other and that’s it. And that's all we need, nothing more.

If we’re done with this one we can now say we done Postalmklamm! The only thing left is to find the way back to the car. After a 5 minute walk (still upwards) we arrive to a sign, where we need to go right. This takes us to the road Postalmstrasse, on which we can walk right back to the car in about an hour and a half (depending on where we parked). We chose another option: we hitch-hiked. It worked.

It was a great adventure, great fun, too bad we didn’t have time for another one in the region, we had to drive back to Budapest still on that night. More left for next time!