For the first 2.5 miles on forest track, we continually climbed up...
and up...
and up...
and up!
The last half mile was on an extremely slippy clay mud path (which made me grateful we were going up as opposed to down as that would have made for an interesting slide!).
After that steep 2.5 mile climb the path levelled off just a bit and we walked the last half mile or so on to the Unternberg Alm where we stopped for coffee. Despite the low cloud of the morning there were half a dozen keen enthusiasts waiting to paraglide off the top of the peak - we later saw a couple in mid flight when we were part way through our descent.
The Alm itself was really cosy inside and I could imagine very welcoming on a cold winters day. The heavy wooden chairs had sheepskin rugs on them and there was a stove in the corner in the shape of a whisky barrel.
There is a chairlift which takes you from ground level to the top of the hill (which we would have got free with our guest extra card). I checked it out on the way back down and decided that I wouldn't be able to do it - my fear of heights is just too much!
We were surprised how little time the walk took us. We didn't follow the suggested route which would see us taking the same way back as we came (indicating a 10.6k/6.6m distance with a time of 4.5 hours) but took a route which allowed us a walk back to Ruhpolding as opposed to waiting for the bus. Walk: 8.3 miles/3.5 hours and we reckon a climb of around 2,300ft.
