The descent from the Kärlingerhaus refuge to St. Bartholomä via the Saugasse couloir is a well constructed, well signposted and popular trail. Its entire route leads through the Berchtesgaden National Park. In the winter, the Saugasse couloir cannot be used owing to high risk of avalanches. From the Kärlingerhaus refuge, take trail no. 412 to the North West. At the first fork in the road, keep to the left towards Ofenloch, whose name on the map has nothing to do with stoves: An “Ofen” is a karst hollow. A good rest can be fitted in at the waterhole of the dilapidated Oberlahner-Alm meadow. The next fork in the road opens to the left onto trail no. 421 with the difficult to climb to the Siegeretplatte plateau (you must be sure of foot and free of vertigo) and then the descent into the Wimbachtal valley. After Bartholomä, continue straight ahead further along trail no. 412 towards the Saugasse couloir. A little while later, the 36 narrow, jagged hairpin bends down the Saugasse appear. At the end stands a striking, rather crudely cut crucifix, which therefore also bears the name “Foaster Herrgott” (or “dear God!”). This is followed by a very beautiful stretch of the road through sparse, almost untouched beechwood, leading past a refuge, the Schrainbach-Holzstube, after approx. 30 minutes. In the past, a wooden cabin served as accommodation for the woodcutters. Just before completing the descent, the trail leads over the Schrainbach stream and after another sharp bend, the view opens out onto a thundering waterfall. You will finally reach the alluvial fan of St. Bartholomä, cross another distinctive talus and return to civilisation again with restaurant, marina and church. All of this lies at the foot of the impressive, almost 2,000m high Watzmann-Ostwand, the highest rock face of the Eastern Alps. It was climbed for the first time in 1881 by Johann Grill senior. The baroque church at St. Bartholomä was consecrated on 25.08.1134, thus demonstrably making it the oldest church of the inner Berchtesgadener Land district. A refuge here belonging to the German Alpine Club is reserved exclusively for those climbing the eastern face of the Watzmann, and the restaurant and fish smoking-house offer catering facilities. Then take a comfortable boat trip cross the Königssee lake and reach the municipality of Königssee.
From Königssee, you must take the boat to St. Bartholomä, from where the climb to the Kärlingerhaus refuge begins.
(Susanne Schwab, Berchtesgaden National Park Management)

Coming from the Kärlingerhaus lodge, the view on the Königssee lake remains hidden for a long time along this stretch. Only just before St. Bartholomä does it show itself, green and cool. The section of the lake from Christlieger Island at the South end, 8km long with a maximum breadth of 1.5km and a depth of 214m, belongs to the Berchtesgaden National Park. In the Ice Age, a mighty glacier of approx. 1000m hollowed out today’s Königsseetal valley in a typical U-shape. The terminal moraine of the glacier formed the mouth, and the lake was formed by the melted water from the glacier. The Obersee lake to the North-East of the Königssee lake was separated from the Königsee lake at around the end of the Ice Age by the terminal moraine of one last glacier advance. This lake is one of the cleanest in Germany, and boasts drinking water quality. In order to maintain this high quality, the effluent from Salet and St. Bartholomä is channelled into the public sewage system via a pipeline. The water may be low in nutrients, but it nevertheless provides a habitat for numerous fish species: mountain and brook charr, lake and brook trout, pike and perch can all be found here. As the Königssee lake is situated in the nursing zone of the national park, the traditional activities of navigation and fishing can still be practiced here. The Königsee motorboats for boat trips, used for the first time in 1909, sail to St. Bartholomä all year round, unless the lake is frozen over. A service runs to the stop-off point of Salet from mid-April to mid-October. The church at St. Bartholomä has existed since 1134. Its current baroque form dates back to the end of the 17th century. It is recognised as one of the famous landmarks of the Berchtesgadener Land district and the national park. The region around the Königssee lake and St. Bartholomä was for a long time a popular hunting area for the provosts and prince provosts of the Berchtesgadener Land district, and later for the Bavarian princes. The hunting “castle” (Jagdschloss) at St. Bartholomä for example bears witness to this. Alongside deer and chamois, stable stocks of which exist today, lynx, bearded vultures and bears were the main game and were completely wiped out over the course of time. As the entire area around the Königssee lake now belongs to the national park, hunting is only practiced in the nursing zone, exclusively for the purposes of regulating the animal populations. Feeding the red deer at St. Bartholomä is a compromise in the winter: the animals can no longer migrate as they did in the past to the alpine foreland (due to roads and villages) in order to look for food in areas with less snow. If they spent the winter in the woods of the higher areas, browsing animals peeling bark from trees due to food shortage would cause substantial damage. This can be avoided by feeding the animals in the winter enclosures.

(Susanne Schwab, Berchtesgaden National Park Administration)