Grünberg

The Grünberg rises 984 metres above the Traunsee in Upper Austria’s foothills, a broad shoulder of Flysch rock south-east of Gmunden. It commands a view across Gmunden’s red-roofed houses to the steep face of the Traunstein three kilometres away. The mountain’s slopes once carried a ski lift, now replaced by a summer toboggan run that twists down the old piste.

The mountain is best known for its 2014 cable-car, a modern pendulum lift with large cabins that replaced the earlier Wallmannsberger system after a 2004 accident. Between the valley station and the first pylon travellers look straight at Gmunden’s waterfront. On top stands a 39-metre observation tower opened in 2018, soon joined by a 75-metre tunnel slide that plunges through the forest canopy.

From the upper station a network of paths leads east to the Laudachsee and onward to the Traunstein. In winter the mountain remains a quiet goal for ski tourers who can descend all the way to Gmunden when snow permits. Beside the Grünbergalm inn a bronze donkey remembers Karl Danner’s animal Agi, which in the 1950s regularly carried supplies up the mountain without a guide.