About Schleierfall
The Schleierfall Waterfall (I’ve also seen it called the Schleierwasserfall; “Veil Waterfall”) was probably the most impressive of the waterfalls in the Hintertux Resort Area.
Sitting where the Weitentalbach plunged at least 30m, it sat tucked away beneath the Weitental Valley, which was a side valley above the Tuxertal (i.e. the main valley containing the Hintertux Resort Area).
Therefore, I had to earn my visit with a bit of a strenuous uphill hike to reach it.
According to my GPS logs, I could have hiked as little as 5.2km round trip with roughly 425m of elevation gain.
However, with some bit of confusion, I wound up hiking closer to 6.4km round trip taking me around 2 hours.
So to keep things simple, I’m going to describe the hiking route that I should have taken and spare you the details of my haphazard route.
Schleierfall Trail Description – ascending to a view over the head of Tuxertal Valley
From the Hintertux Resort Area, I followed the signs and walked along a gently sloping path towards the foot of the west end of the Tuxertal Valley.
During this stretch, I noticed a little archery course that I definitely didn’t want to mistakenly go into (that’s what bogensport translated to in German).
After about 500m, the trail started to reach a part where the climb became steeper while affording me views back towards the Hintertux Resort Area.
This view also showed parts of the Hintertux Glacier as well as long cascades coming from the melting ice and down towards the head of the valley.
The continuation of those long cascades ultimately fell as the Kesselfall, Schraubenfall, and other waterfalls further upstream.
During this climb, I was mesmerized by the scenery at the head of the Tuxertal Valley.
In addition to looking towards the head of the valley, I was also able to look further down the valley in the other direction towards the town of Hintertux as it sat in a classic V-shaped valley.
Schleierfall Trail Description – continuing the direct trail to the waterfall
After getting through a little fence, the trail forked.
To the right, the trail climbed a bit more gently (albeit away from the Schleier Waterfall before coming back) as it would eventually make its way to the Bichlalm.
So the shortest route to the falls would be to keep left and continue up the narrow but steep trail.
It would eventually lead up to a sign that was somewhat misleading as it made no mention of the Schleierfall.
I actually made the mistake of giving into my doubts and turned back at this point.
However, with hindsight being 20/20, I should have continued along this narrow trail as it would go through a rope stile before entering a forested area.
The trail then continued along the forested path, which was a little rocky and steep in parts.
Eventually, the forested part would give way to expansive views once again before traversing a grassy area flanking the Weintalbach.
At nearly a kilometer from the fork with the trail to the Bichlalm, I would reach a trail junction next to a bridge over the Weintalbach.
Turning right at this junction, I would then reach the next fork in the trail shortly thereafter.
Taking this fork on the left, the path then steeply climbed an extensive grassy area alongside the Weintalbach as the trail was making its way up to the Schleierfall.
After another 700m of this climb, I would finally reach the base of the Schleierfall’s main drop.
Schleierfall Trail Description – beyond the waterfall
However, the trail continued nearly another 100m uphill before reaching a much wider (albeit rockier) trail.
This was the trail that would ultimately make it to the Tuxerjoch Haus, which was a high mountain hut.
For the purposes of experiencing the waterfall, however, it was sufficient for me to just get up to the fence and benches near the brink of the falls.
This yielded an attractive profile and top-down view towards the Schleierfall with the surrounding mountains as the backdrop.
That was my turnaround point and thus the end of the relentless 425m climb that I had made to this point.
On the return route, I had a choice of going back down the way I came (for the shortest amount of hiking) or descending the rocky route then going back to the Weintalbach before returning the way I came.
I even had another choice of continuing on an even wider trail to the Bichlalm (basically a cantina) before continuing the descent via a much longer and more roundabout path.
The shortest path was roughly 6km round trip from the Hintertux Resort Area (maybe around 5.2-5.4km from just the car park).
Meanwhile, visiting the Schleierfall via the alm would have added another 4km in one direction.
I wound up spending over 2 hours on this trail, but some of that time was wasted.
In particular, I had mistakenly turned back and took the Bichlalm Trail (when I shouldn’t have).
Then, when I realized my mistake, I took a very steep “shortcut” to cut from the lower switchback of the Bichlalm Trail to the upper switchback of the Bichlalm Trail along some former snowmobile path or something.
Authorities
The Schleierfall Waterfall resides in the Hintertux Resort in the state of Tyrol (Tirol), Austria. It may be administered by Hintertux community. For information or inquiries about the area as well as current conditions, you can try visiting their website or the Zillertaler Gletscherbahn website.
The Schleierfall or Schleierwasserfall was best accessed from the Hintertux Glacier Resort Area, which sat at the very head of the Tuxertal Valley.
Since we were based in Innsbruck when we made our visit, I’ll describe the driving directions from there.
It was also just as feasible to access Hintertux from the east along the Salzachtal before reaching Zell am Ziller, and then climbing up to the Tuxertal.
From Innsbruck, we drove east on the A12 autobahn for about 36km before taking the exit 40 (Zillertal).
Turning right and heading south towards Zillertal on the B169, we continued down this busy road for another 32km as we passed through the Zillertal Valley as well as Zell am Ziller.
We then turned right onto the road ascending towards Gstan and ultimately towards Tuxertal.
At this point, there were signs pointing the way.
Finally, we followed this road (I believe it’s also called the L6) to its end in nearly another 18km as there was a huge car park right at the Hintertux Resort Area.
Overall, this drive took us almost 90 minutes, but there was a pretty solid delay in there due to a combination of stopped traffic (stau) and road construction.
So conceivably, this drive could be a bit less than what we experienced.
For geographical context, Zell am Ziller was about 61km (under an hour drive) east of Innsbruck, 57km (about an hour drive) west of Mittersill, about 85km (over 90 minutes drive) west of Zell am See, and 120km (over 90 minutes drive) southeast from Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany.
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Brief video showing an elevated view of the Schleierfall from the upper trail
Sweep showing the surrounding scenery as well as examining the Schleierfall from its base
Checking out the waterfalls behind the Hintertux Resort area as I was higher up on the Schleierfall Trail
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