High Adventure: Accounts and photographs of walks, climbs and overland travels around the world

Worldwide Mountaineering :: Adventure Travel :: Site Index


Austria - Rough GuideMountain Walking in Austria Walking Easy in Swiss and Austrian AlpsWalking Austria's Alps Trekking in the Stubai AlpsTrekking in the Zillertal Alps 100 Hut Walks in the Alps All 14 Eight-Thousanders: Reinhold Messner


Tyrol - the place to test yourself


With its extensive network of readily-accessible mountain huts the Austrian Tyrol is ideal for first forays into the European Alps. The multitude of 3000 metre summits provides a wealth of easy routes and good practice and experience for future assaults on the higher and more difficult routes of the 4000m peaks of the French, Italian and Swiss Alps.

Many of the so-called "huts" are in fact substantial, three-storied, stone-built buildings and, with their private rooms and extensive menus, are more akin to hotels. For most people the "Bergsteiger essen" - a kind of sausage soup - is a complete meal on its own. An abundance of chair-lifts and cable cars enable day trips above the snow-line while multi-day, high-level, hut-to-hut tours without recourse to descents to the valley floor are popular.

 Stubai Alps - traverse from Wilder Freiger

Stubai Alps

on ascent of Wilder Freiger


Locations of huts together with their approach routes are given on the local Wanderkarten as are the normal routes to summits. The maps may also specify the different symbols painted on rocks or trees to signpost routes. Professional guides are widely available for hire. Joining the British branch of the OAV ( Austrian Alpine Club ) secures reduced charges at huts and helps with obtaining the appropriate and advisable insurance cover.

From the picturesque Baroque town of Innsbruck with its mellowed, green domes and red roofs a short drive to the south-west through pleasant meadows and pine forests gains the village of Ranalt ensconced beneath the peaks and glaciers of the Stubai Alps.

Ascent to Wilder Pfaff in the Stubai Alps

Ascent to Wilder Pfaff

in the Stubai Alps


A circular tour via the Nurenberger Hut of three summits stretching along the crest of the Italian border is then feasible. Fine views of neighbouring ranges are obtained on the traverse along the broad ridge from the Wilder Freiger leading to the final rocky scramble, protected by hand-rails, to the Wilder Pfaff. A steep descent and re-ascent then achieves the large metal cross surmounting the tip of the sharply pointed cone of the dramatic Zuckerhutl - a neat vertical line divides its northern, snow-covered half from its completely snow-free, southern half. As with other summits climbers can add their names to the annual logbook kept in the compartment at the base of the cross. The valley floor is regained by a long trudge down the soft, afternoon snow of the Fernerstube Glacier to the Sulzenau Hut.

 Zuckerhuttl in the Stubai Alps

Zuckerhuttl

in the Stubai Alps


Further to the west a winding alpine road leads to the tiny hamlet of Vent at the head of the Venteral Tal. Beyond the chalets with their flower-bedecked balconies a chairlift provides mechanical uplift part of the way to the Breslauer Hut. Hence a roundabout route via the Mitterkarf Joch gains the summit of the rugged Wildspitze - the principal peak of the Otztaler Alps. It was in this region that Otzi, the more than 5,000 years old Iceman mummy, was discovered close to the border with Italy.

Approaching summit of the Wildspitze in the Otztal Alps of Austria

Approaching Summit

of Wildspitze


To the east Mayerhofen is the main valley-base for excursions into the Zillertaler Alpen with the major peak of Grosser Moseler while to the south of Kitzbuhl, a former site of the winter olympics, the Gross Venediger is a popular and easily attained objective.

 View from Gross Venediger

View from Gross Venediger 


In dim, pre-dawn light of early morning we packed our tents in the campsite in the quaintly-named Heiligenblut ( Holy Blood ) to drive up the scenic toll-road to reach the Hotel Franz Joseph Hoher with its extensive terraces affording spectacular views across the Mittel Pasterzenkees Glacier to the imposing ridges and snow-fields of the 3797 metre Gross Glockner - the highest of Austria's peaks.

Gross Glockner

Gross Glockner ( 3797m )


Dropping down onto the glacier a level walk along the icy, crevassed surface is followed by a steep but straightforward climb on the far side to gain the Erzhaus Johan hut perched on a broad col. After lunch it is then only a little distance higher before one reaches the top of the Klein Glockner where a narrow but short arete precedes a rocky scramble to the main summit for a magnificent outlook over the surrounding alpine landscape.

The hardest part of the day's outing is the re-ascent of the glacier wall to re-gain the Franz Joseph Hotel - there is nothing worse than encountering a stretch of uphill on the long, downhill return from a major summit.

 Wilder Freiger Summit

Summit of Wilder Freiger

For aspirant alpinists the Austrian Tyrol offers a fine selection of 3000 metre peaks well suited for acclimatization and training prior to tackling the challenges of the 4000 metre summits of the European Alps or indeed the greater ones of the Himalaya - they were after all the home ground of Rheinhold Messner - the first to climb all 14 of the world's 8000 metre mountains.

( The Commentator, The ( Glasgow ) HERALD, Saturday 14th August 1999 )


References:-



 


Travel Services:-


 


Climbing Gear & Equipment:-


Camping & Climbing Equipment

TentsClothingSleeping Bags | Stoves | NavigationMulti-toolsRucksacs | Footware

Site IndexAlpsWorldwide MountaineeringAdventure Travel


fb icon  google+ icon Linkedin icon  twitter





 







Maps for Hiking and Climbing in Austria:-


Innsbruck & surroundings - Map Gross Venediger MapGross Glockner MapZillertal Alps Map

Zillertaler Alpen & Tuxer Alpen - Kompass Map WK 37:Zillertal Alps - Tuxer Voralpen Inneres Otztal - Gurgler Tal - Venter Tal Otztaler Alpen - Kompass Map Glocknergruppe & Hohe Tauern National Park - Kompass Map WK 39:

Otztal, Wildspitze - Map Innsbruck & Stubai Alps - MapStubaier Alpen - Kompass Map WK 83:





Travel & Guide Books - Austria:-


Top Selling Outdoor Living | Top Selling Sporting Goods

Sports & Outdoors Books | Travel Books | Camping & Hiking Books


Summit: 150 Years of the Alpine Club Meetings with Mountains - Bonington  Hohe Tauern - Venediger, Glockner

Walking in the Alps100 Hut Walks in the Alps Walks in the EngadineThrough the Italian AlpsTour of the Jungfrau Region Switzerland - Rough GuideAustria - Rough GuideSwitzerland - Lonely Planet

Lonely Planet Austria Austria - Michelin Green Guide Essential Austria Mountain Walking in Austria Walking Easy in Swiss and Austrian AlpsWalking Austria's Alps Alpine Ski Mountaineering - Western Alps Snow Shoeing in the Western Alps Trekking in the Stubai Alps

Trekking in the Zillertal Alps Klettersteig - Northern Limestone Alps 100 Hut Walks in the Alps Alpine 4000m Peaks - Classic RoutesAdventuring in the Alps Walking in the Alps Alpine / Himalayan Climbing Trekking and Climbing in the Western AlpsThe French Alps

Killing Dragons - Conquest of the AlpsWalking in the French Alps - GR5 Bernese Alps Walking Guide Walking in the Alpine Parks of France and NW Italy The Valais, Switzerland 100 Hikes in the Alps The White Spider - Heinrich HarrierWalking Easy in French and Italian AlpsWalking the High Route: Chamonix to Zermatt

Walking in Switzerland the Swiss WayThe Beckoning Silence - Joe SimpsonEiger Dreams - Jon Krakauer Climbing Free: My Life in the Vertical World Extreme Alpinism: Climbing Light, Fast & HighDougal Haston: Philosophy of RiskMountain Leadership Handbook of Climbing - Hamish MacInnesMountain Travellers Handbook

Lonely Planet France Lonely Planet Italy Lonely Planet Switzerland LP: Walking in Switzerland High Mountains of the AlpsClimbing all the 4000m AlpsMountaineering: The Freedom of the HillsAll 14 Eight-Thousanders: Reinhold Messner






Site IndexAlpsWorldwide MountaineeringAdventure Travel






Edelweiss





Edelweiss

Google Analytics







Google Analytics

extremetracking
 eXTReMe Tracker


extremetracking
Sitelock caingram.com
SiteLock
Sitelock
Sitelock caingram.info
SiteLock
Sitelock