Last Thursday September 10th at 9:01 AM, Grzegorz Korsak—who traveled all the way from Scotland for this attempt—and I set off from Krimml to tackle the iconic Hohe Tauern Panorama Trail. We have been preparing the FKT attempt months before over the telephone. Our goal was to push the limits on this beautiful, renowned Austrian line and set a premiere benchmark time as a duo (male overall category).
The conditions tested us from the start, kicking off in heavy rain, dense fog, and poor visibility across the high sections before eventually clearing into brilliant sunshine for the final stretch. We moved with heavy 40-liter packs, operating mostly self-sufficiently by buying food along the way and sleeping roughly two hours each night, primarily taking quick bivies outdoors alongside a brief one-hour rest in a mountain hut. Although we carried our own gear for the entire majority of the route, we are officially logging this as a Supported effort, as our dear friend Yasmine Wiersema met us around Zell am See to capture photos and give us a massive mental boost. It was much appreciated!
For navigation, I had been in contact with Gerald Gruber (fastest selfsupported time on the trail) prior to the attempt. He kindly shared full details of the route, and we followed his line strictly, including the Embach bypass. Whenever small discrepancies popped up between the official GPX, Gerald’s track, and the ground, we stuck to the official green Hohe Tauern Panorama Trail markers to ensure we covered the exact intended path.
We were moving efficiently, both running the entire stretch together, holding a pace well ahead of every existing record on the trail across all supported and unsupported categories. We reached the start of Stage 17—the final stage—with over 10 hours left on our target clock. Given that Stage 17 takes only about 6 hours at a standard hiking pace according to the trail brochure, we were comfortably on track to seal the total overall FKT.
If someone else wants to run this beautiful and iconic trail, feel free to reach out !