Krippenstein and the 5fingers

The 5fingers is a set of five steel walkways that reach out over the edge of the Krippenstein plateau above Obertraun, each finished differently: one with a glass floor, one open to the drop, one with a frame at the end. Below them the ground falls away for several hundred metres and Lake Hallstatt lies in its trench, long and narrow between wooded walls. Getting there means the cable car from Obertraun in stages, then twenty minutes or so on foot across bare karst. The plateau itself justifies the walk, a grey field of fissured limestone, hollows and stunted pines with the Dachstein peaks behind it.

The landscape

• The five platforms - steel walkways cantilevered over the cliff, each built differently, including one with a glass floor.
• The view down the lake - Lake Hallstatt directly below, a narrow trench of water between steep wooded slopes.
• The karst plateau - bare fissured limestone, sinkholes and wind-bent pines on the walk out from the top station.
• The caves at the middle station - the great ice cave and mammoth cave in the mountain below, on a separate ticket and tour.

When to go

Late May to October for walking, when the cable car and the plateau paths are open. Mornings are clearest; cloud settles on the plateau through many afternoons and then there is nothing to see from the platforms. Winter turns the area over to freeriders. Check webcams before buying the multi-stage ticket.

What to expect

The three-stage cable car is expensive and the fee stands whether or not the view exists. The plateau is often in cloud when the valley is sunny. The walk from the top station crosses rough stony ground and takes longer than people expect. Queues form at each platform for photographs, and it is cold and windy up there.

Nearby

Obertraun and Lake Hallstatt are below, with Hallstatt itself on the far shore.