• Smartphone (with charger)
• Headphones (Ideally in-ear headphones)
• Hiking boots for mountains
• Hiking sticks (necessary for those with little practice)
• Short sleeved t-shirt
• Long sleeved shirt (wool or synthetic fiber)
• Sweater or cardigan (wool or synthetic fiber)
• Rain jacket
• Rain pants
• Light trousers
• 2 pairs of hiking socks (preferably wool)
• Wooly hat
• Gloves
• Underwear
• Vessel for 2 l drinks
• Thin summer sleeping bag or lodge sleeping bag
• Small wash gear and mini towel
• Headlamp with extra batteries
• Clasps/ribbons for your smartphone
• Powerbank
• Small medical kit and emergency bivouac sack
• Clothes in plastic bags or Drypacks
• Backpack with chest strap and belly strap, 30–40 l volume (Weight of backpack 10% of your weight or 8 kg max)
• GPS navigation app with hiking map and route (e.g. Alpenvereinaktiv) / paper map and compass
Optional:
• light sit pad
• Ohropax
Winter/Autumn
• Warm clothes, depending on the weather report
• If you own them: gaiters

The Great Space Walk is an audio artwork, a journey through fourteen listening and experience spaces by Christoph Viscorsum in collaboration with Andreas Hagelüken: from your bathroom to the parish church of Bad Ischl, across high summer pastures into the stone desert of the Totes Gebirge and back again into your everyday life. Audio tracks on your smartphone serve as milestones, which you will listen to through your headphones at clearly marked locations along the way. The voices in your ear belong to church visitors, alpine farmers, scientists and experts from various fields, among others to bio-engineers, alpine mountaineers, dancers, philosophers, social psychologists and people with spiritual experience.

The Great Space Walk is not a story that you just listen to, not a podcast and not an audio guide. There are no chronologically listed facts and no lecturing from talking heads. Listening to the precisely composed voices, perceiving the space as you walk through it and the act of walking are condensed to a physical, mental and spiritual experience of yourself and the world. This should be, according to Christoph Viscorsum, essential for the necessary re-definition of our relationship to humans, nature and cosmos.

The Great Space Walk is a work of audio art which was developed in an intensive long production process that stretched over several years. The interviewees shaped their thoughts in the course of days, mostly on location at the listening spaces, where the hikers will now be able to listen to them. The composition of the voices took place in a mobile studio, which was set up in the church, on the high summer pastures or in the mountains.

The Great Space Walk is a contribution from the parish Bad Ischl to the European Capital of Culture program for Bad Ischl Salzkammergut 2024. It will definitely be accessible until the end of 2035. Cooperation partners are the Tourist Board Bad Ischl and the Austrain Alpine Club (Österreichische Alpenverein / Section Salzkammergut).

The Tourismusverband Bad Ischl, at the Trinkhalle, rents out or sells headphones, available at cost price.

Rettenbachalm listening rooms and can be experienced barrier-free all year round. The Rettenbachalm can be reached on foot (approx. 1 hour walk), by cab shuttle or by car (15 min.) from Bad Ischl.

The other parts of the Great Space Walk lead from mountain hut to mountain hut across the Totes Gebirge mountains in several daily stages. This section of the trail is only accessible on foot. It requires a good physical condition and alpine equipment. This section of the trail will open on July 7, 2024 and will be accessible during the mountain and hiking season, as long as the mountain huts are open.

From Rettenbachalm, the trail leads through alpine terrain. There are therefore the corresponding risks and dangers. It is the responsibility of each person taking the route to check whether they have the necessary skills and knowledge to deal with the resulting dangers. Everyone is responsible for obtaining the necessary professional advice. Nature conservation regulations must be complied with.
An unaccompanied, unguided ascent is from the Ischlerhütte on is only recommended for experienced mountaineers. At three points (tracks 8, 9, 12), the Great Space Walk detours into pathless terrain, leaving the marked trails. Track 8 leads into the immediate vicinity of an unsecured doline, a sinkhole. There is the particular danger of falling into it. Here, too, you walk at your own risk. It is not recommended to hike the trails in snowy conditions and in off-season when the cabins are closed. In the Totes Gebirge, there is no telephone network available over long distances and emergency calls cannot be made. Make sure to take sufficient drinking water with you on the tour!

The Great Space Walk can be hiked alone, in groups or as a tour led by professional mountain and hiking guides.

All-round carefree packages including hut bookings, guide, etc. are offered by Salzkammergut Touristik.

You can book an overnight stay in a lodge directly with the lodge (see service) or via the online platform www.alpsonline.org. For bookings in Ischl or other communities along the way it is best to contact the local tourist board, e.g. in Bad Ischl, Grünau im Almtal or Hinterstoder.

Walking the trail is free. You will have to calculate the costs for the transportation to get there, catering, overnights at the beginning and at the end of the tour as well as the nights in the lodge, and the costs for the guides.

We recommend a minimum age of 12 years to follow the audio tracks.

Wir empfehlen die App Alpenvereinaktiv. Den Großen Welt-Raum-Weg findest du hier.
Berg- und Wetterinfos auch unter www.bergfex.at.

Basically, you need six days to complete the entire Great Space Walk. The walking times per day vary between two and eight hours. Particularly experienced and fit mountain hikers can complete stages two and three in one day and can walk directly from the Ischlerhütte to the Wildenseehütte or Appelhaus.
(only with the key provided by Sektion Auseerland)

There are connecting routes into the valley from every hut along the Great Space Walk: from the Ischlerhütte back to Bad Ischl, from the Hochkogelhaus to Ebensee, from the Appelhaus and Wildenseehütte to Grundlsee or Altaussee, from the Pühringerhütte to Gössl or into the Almtal, from the Prielschutzhaus to Hinterstoder. The Great Space Walk can therefore be divided into several sections and does not have to be walked in one piece. However, the planned sequence of stages should be followed so that the dramaturgical structure of the audio artwork remains comprehensible.

No. All in all, there are fourteen listening spaces that are clearly marked and easy to find with the instructions. Only at those places, you will be listening to the tracks.

Yes, you may. We’d appreciate it if you help us to make the Great Space Walk known. Please tag us and link to our social media channels when you post.

Dogs are not allowed in the church. Please contact the lodge to find out their current regulations. Please observe the lead and muzzle regulations.