Schaffberg can be seen from afar and is very easy to recognize thanks to its distinctive shape. You can walk to the top of the Schaffberg or reach it using the cog railway, which from St. Wolfgang allows the unfit to enjoy this unique summit experience in the Salzkammergut from the beginning of May.
Another option would be to take the Schaffbergbahn to the middle station. From there you have another hour or so to hike to the Schaffbergspitze.
If you want to conquer the Schaffberg on foot and enjoy the peace and quiet of the Schaffbergspitze, you should do it before the start of the cog railway season, if possible, or start walking early in the morning.
If you start the hike up the Schafberg in Winkl from the Mondseestrasse parking lot, first walk a few meters along the road to Winkl.
Once you reach the forest, you'll adjust to the nature of the whole tour right from the start: it's relatively steep uphill. First on a forest road and then on a partly stony path. Next to the Schaffbergalm (1,363 m), there are hardly any more flat places to rest. Tourism for people with a little more fitness!
The path leads all the way through the (cooling) forest, which only occasionally offers a view back to the Mondsee or the Wolfgangsee. After about an hour and a half you reach the Schaffbergalpe, from where you follow an unforested path. In the spring and autumn it can get quite chilly here due to the wind, but in the summer it gets very warm due to the lack of sun protection.
A few minutes later you reach the middle station of the cog railway at Schaffbergalm and, in the height of the season, the point where you are introduced to mass tourism. Austria relies heavily on tourism, which can make it seem more than busy in some places. And from my point of view, Schaffberg is a "very good" example of this from mid-station onwards.
The concrete steps that lead from here to the top frighten almost every hiker. However, according to the owner of the Schaffbergalm inn, they have a historical connection, which is why they have remained as they are. They were created for Emperor Franz Joseph I so that he could be carried up the mountain by chair-bearers even in his old age. At the time, there was even a profession of armchair porter in St. Wolfgang, whose job it was to enable noble and wealthy vacationers to reach the top. So when you go down the stairs and think about these historical circumstances, you see them with completely different eyes.
The path itself from the Schaffbergalpe is not necessarily interesting for hiking, especially because of the steps, but the view of the surrounding mountains and lakes - at this point especially the Wolfgangsee - is really very impressive and makes up for it all.
In total, you can see as many as 7 lakes from the top of the Schaffberg! The closest to Schaffberg and the largest of the 7 lakes are Wolfgangsee, Mondsee and Attersee. You can also see Krotensee, Fuschlsee, Irrsee (also called Zellersee) and, when the weather is clear, Traunsee and Hallstättersee!
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