Wheels and hills

Intersport Donnerkogel: 5 stages of an Austrian via ferrata

If someone had told me a few months ago that I would be climbing rocks, summiting European peaks on via ferratas, swinging on a pendulum hundreds of meters above the ground, hanging in a harness over an abyss at 2,000 m above sea level, or walking a 40-meter ladder that connects peaks near an Austrian glacier… I would have had my doubts. Today, though, all of that is already behind me, and words like 'glacier', 'ice axe', or 'icefall climbing' keep turning up more and more often in our conversations — and I have a feeling it may not stay at conversations.

Today I'm inviting you onto a blog post about conquering the Austrian via ferrata with the stairway to heaven (Intersport Klettersteig Donnerkogel - Himmelsleiter - C/D), which I had been dreaming about since the moment I first clipped a lanyard onto a German iron path. In this post you'll find info about the ferrata, practical tips on parking, the cable car, and tickets, plus my subjective take on climbing Intersport, which I split into 5 main stages. There's a video report too:

What is a Via Ferrata?

Via Ferrata, literally translated as "iron path", is a specific kind of climbing route that mixes mountain climbing with alpine walking. The hallmark of a via ferrata is a permanently installed steel cable that you clip into with a special harness and carabiners, which gives extra safety on the harder sections. The Via Ferrata on Donnerkogel, in Austria's Salzkammergut region, is one of the best-known routes of this kind in Europe.

Donnerkogel and the hellish stairway to heaven: "Stairway to heaven"

In the heart of the Austrian Alps, among the beautiful landscapes of the Salzburg Mountains, stands Grosser Donnerkogel — an imposing peak at 2,054 meters, in the Gosaukamm massif. The massif itself is known for its sharp, rocky summits and incredible panoramas that stretch in every direction.

One of the most popular iron paths leads to the summit of Grosser Donnerkogel: Intersport Klettersteig Donnerkogel - Himmelsleiter — graded C/D (see topo). Worth noting that the via ferrata on Donnerkogel asks for good fitness, the right gear, and some mental preparation.

This is the ferrata where, at over 2,000 m, hangs a unique challenge that has been drawing both experienced alpinists and ambitious amateurs for years. Called "Stairway to Heaven" — a 40 m ladder to the sky — it offers not only thrills and adrenaline, but also a view from a perspective you don't get every day, one that stays with you. This fascinating construction connects two rocky towers (Großer Donnerkogel and Kleiner Donnerkogel), and walking it is an experience that's hard to compare with anything else.

Crossing a ladder hung over a several-hundred-meter abyss is a real test of your fear of heights — the "don't look down" method has no place here, because you have to watch every step. For me, though, what happens AFTER the ladder is the biggest challenge. Come along for my subjective impressions and thoughts from the whole Intersport, and at the very bottom a few practical tips on parking, the cable car, tickets, and so on.

5 memorable stages of Intersport Donnerkogel

Stage 1: Kleiner Donnerkogel - the approach to the stairway to heaven

It's Thursday, 15 August, 7:45 a.m. We park the car, put on harnesses, and pour about 3 liters of water into each hydration bladder. We throw in energy gels, protein bars, and sandwiches. For a moment we hesitate about whether to take sweatshirts and jackets. The forecast says it might rain around 2 p.m. — so we Tetris the extra layers into our packs. We pay for parking and, as a five-person crew, head toward the cable car.

The walk takes us literally a few minutes. On site we get into a gondola quickly, and at the door the staff greets us with a loud "Guten Morgen". We ride up to 1,400 meters in no time. We get off, take photos, and that's how the roughly half-hour walk toward the start of the via ferrata begins.

Just before entering the via ferrata

The climb onto the via ferrata starts at B/C — so it's gentle. A bit later a traffic jam forms that eats 40 minutes of our time. After a moment we find out what caused it. After a traverse, the fun starts with a C/D-rated climb, where you can say the forearms already start working.

Before you reach the ladder you have to do a few climbs, a few descents, small ladders, and a couple of traverses. There's an alternative for anyone who doesn't fancy the ladder: you can go around it. And besides skipping the ladder, you don't lose the fun waiting in stage 3.

Stage 2: The stairway to heaven

The famous ladder is graded B. Nobody will be surprised that this is all about the exposure. Getting onto the ladder is fairly easy — there's something to grab and somewhere to put your foot.

Four people can be on the ladder at once. That's a lot, because every time one of them takes a step, it starts to sway. And when besides you there are three other people moving at their own pace, grabbing the rail in turn, leaning back to wave at a friend or twisting to pose for a photo — well, it sways a bit. I liked that. It added emotion.

If I'd had more time and been there alone, I would probably have walked the ladder back and forth. Crossing it, it's worth stopping for a moment and looking around. Because this is a rare way of seeing the world: 2,000 m of altitude, a 40 m ladder, and under your feet — a long, long nothing. And with every step on those narrow rungs you go a little higher.

Stage 3: Grosser Donnerkogel, or a new world behind the ladder

This is where we get the real exposure, climbing a C/D section. This is where focus is at full. This is where the real fun begins.

Getting off the ladder is a different story from getting on. You have to step off a relatively safe place, clip into the rock, and suddenly from grade B you have C/D. It's a new world of sensations. You can try not to look down, but the temptation to see what's behind your back wins. It's beautiful.

In a few spots I clip my rest lanyard to an anchor in the raw rock, so I can hit pause for a moment and enjoy it. After the post-ladder C/D section we have a short descent, a bit of climbing, a traverse, and a rocky ridge that at one point gets seriously narrow. No boredom here. Even though we still can't see the end, we can already feel the terrain starting to flatten out — time to unclip the lanyards.

Stage 4: The summit cross

This moment deserves to be called historic. Worn out by the climbing and the mental fight with exposure, we finally see the long-awaited cross on the horizon — a sign of victory, satisfaction, and the end of the ferrata. The last bit of the approach is already without protection, because the terrain is easy. The only difficulty now between us and the finish is fatigue.

When we finally get to touch the cross, we high-five our congratulations. We rest for a moment on the bench, wipe our wet foreheads, eat the sandwiches, and then, in a rush of energy, feast our eyes on the party of sharp mountain peaks, sign the summit book, take photos. It's a wonderful moment that makes up for the effort — we did it!

Stage 5: The brutal descent

Naive is the one who took the cross as a sign that it was over. And no amount of studying the topo, reading blog posts, or watching YouTube reports could have prepared us for the brutal, centuries-long descent.

Once we'd recovered on the summit and captured the victory moment in our cameras, it was time to go back — and it turned out to be mercilessly long. At times even tedious. It's not that it was technically complicated — it wasn't. I simply declare a time anomaly on the descent: seconds turn into minutes, minutes into hours, hours into days.

The sun didn't help. It made the last of the 3-liter water reserves in the bladders disappear, made the grimace on our faces a little harder to hide, and turned the "how much farther" questions into impatient Donkey from Shrek: "are we there yet?!".

The descent to the cable car and the cold golden prize took us about 2.5 hours. Shortly after 5 p.m. we were already on the gondola heading down, where we could look back one more time and marvel at what we had just done. That's how the Intersport adventure ends. We made it. Time then for a proper meal, which we order already down in the valley with a view of the turquoise Lake Gosausee, trading impressions and showing each other the photos we managed to take on this wild, beautiful, and challenge-packed via ferrata.

Useful information:

Parking at Intersport

Around 7:45 we managed to park practically right by the cable car — at parking lot no. 1 (see on Google Maps), which is paid (10 euros per day), and from which the walk to the cable car is literally a few minutes. Later in the day, trying to park that close already borders on a miracle and looks more like zombies circling a shopping mall.

There's a toilet at parking lot no. 1, and another one at the cable car. Worth having some coins on you, because on the first day we were there the parking machines briefly refused to cooperate when we tried to pay by card.

Cable car and access

To get to the start of the Donnerkogel via ferrata, the most convenient option is the Dachstein-West cable car, which starts from the village of Gosau. The day before we bought a ticket online (round trip 21.30 Euro/person), valid from 8:15 until the last descent at 6:00 p.m. (cable car hours vary by season).

The Gosaukammbahn runs every quarter of an hour to Zwieselalm / the Dachstein West tourist region, from where the trek up toward the via ferrata begins.

Useful links: