Trip Re****t - Grosses Wiesbachhorn, Austria - July 19-20, 2008
Trip with Judit Berta
The Großes Wiesbachhorn at 3654 m in Hohe Tauern National Park of
Austria is shown as one of the top 10 highest mountains of the country
at http://www.geonames.org/AT/highest-mountains-in-austria.html
(Note
that this list is not quite correct, omitting the Hintere Schwarze and
the Schlafkogel) It's about 1500m elevation gain to the top, of which
the bottom half is a trail to the Heinrich Schwaiger Haus (elev 2802),
followed by a few hundred meters of scrambling, then a few hundred
more of a snow ridge walk, then a mostly lateral traverse, and a final
few hundred meter summit pyramid. In the otherwise good, mid July
conditions, the summit pyramid was very ugly mixed snow and rock,
making it more hazardous than the Grossglockner. Not a mountain for
beginners. Though the peak can be reasonably attained in one day,
logistics will probably make this an overnighter since getting back to
the car the same day is problematic.
We had intended to go south to Marmalade to do a high peak (above 3000
meters) as a first mountain climb of the season. I wanted an easy
glacier walk so that Judit could gain some practice with the ice axe.
However, this is the 2nd weekend in a row where the weather forecast
has been unfavorable with rain predicted everywhere on Sunday, and
even Saturday being questionable, between fronts coming from the west.
On Friday I called the Schwaiger Haus and asked about the forecast -
yup, excellent weather he says, for Saturday, not good on Sunday, so I
made a reservation for Saturday night, and told Judit it's a go.
We figured to leave at 5pm, but it wound up as 7pm, which was OK other
than it cutting into our sleep time, since the gating factor is the
first bus that one must catch from the parking lot the next morning,
which leaves at 8:35am. The brochure I have and following website say
daily from 8:10. Judit said the local signs say 8:35, and that
seemed correct based on our actual experience, despite the hours shown
at http://www.tauerntouristik.at/de/kaprun/index.php
We took Interstate A1 from Vienna past Salzburg (a quick exit at
Salzburg Mitte (exit 292) to the south side of I-A1 to fill up at the
JET for 1.319 euros / liter (10 cents less per liter than the
expressway), and shortly afterwards turned south onto Interstate A10
to the Bischofshofen exit #46. From here we followed rt 311 about 50
km till Bruck, then Zell am See, then turning onto rt 168 for a few km
till Kaprun. Note: There are 2 ways to get to Kaprun from rt 311 -
check google maps http://maps.google.com/?ll=47.288,12.793&z=14&t=h
carefully if you intend to take the shortcut (press the chevron
(double 'less than' symbol) at the top left of the map to get the
full view). In particular, the final road that continues on to the
Kesselfall Alpenhaus (elev 1068 m) is Umfahrungstrasse in Kaprun
becoming Kesselfallstrasse leaving town, which road continues for
about 7 more km up the valley past Kaprun. You know you are there
when you see parking signs all over the place. The top one is for
busses (and from which the madatory onward bus leaves the next
morning). The next lower one is a huge multistoried parking building
for day use, and the one below was for us. We double checked that
the first onward bus leaves at 8:35am, then parked, and prepared to
sleep. It had been raining, so sleeping outside wasn't a good option.
We got up around 7am, and I spent most of the time readjusting my
crampons. I decided not to take my plastic climbing boots as they
would take up so much room in the pack till we got up to the snow - I
certainly didn't want to walk in them up a perfectly good trail. So
I figured that I'd try out my brand new Brooks Ranger Low Overboots
made by Outdoor Research - these are not the high ones, these only go
up about twice as high as my ankle. They're like oversized, bulky,
insulated galoshes. I have a size medium, and since they're supposed
to go over boots, I was real worried when they first came, but they
fit perfectly over my US size 9.5 running shoes (they are advertised
for US size 6-9). Actually, I am using a Raichle G3 High XCR Goretex
shoe with Vibram sole, very similar in look to my Nike Airs, but they
have some light, neoprene-like mesh at the top, and so at first
glance people think they are significantly more substantial than my
Nikes, and the bottoms are a bit stiffer. At 30 euros last summer,
they were a steal, and I've gone up Ortler and the Grossglockner with
them.
The thing is, I didn't want to be putting on my aluminum Kahtoola
crampons, because Ortler and the Grossglockner were enough to convince
me that those things to not belong on anything icy. However, the
overboots added enough bulk around my shoe, that my regular crampons
were happy enough to go on. In fact, my Stubai crampons were too
small for the overboot fitted shoes, but fortunately, my ancient
crampons from my earliest climbing days were good to go, but I had to
unscrew and adjust them, so that took up the time.
The rest of the packing was straightforward. Wind gear was essential,
along with shades. Normally 2 liters of water is plenty for me, but
I'd take 2.5 liters next time. I took 30 meters of light 8.5mm rope
and we took harnesses, but in the end we didn't use them. Of course,
I begrudge every ounce and cubic cm that they took up, but I don't
feel bad about lugging them up, because under different cir***stances,
they could be useful.
Judit had dealt with her crampons the previous evening in the car ride
over, so she was packed up at least 10 minutes before I was. We hiked
up to the top lot, where there were already a few people waiting to
get tickets for the trans****t for the next vertical 1000m. It's 17
euros round trip or 10 euros one way. There's a 1.50 euro discount
for AlpeinVerein members (Mountaineer's organization), and some kind
of discount if you have an Austrian Rail Pass. No matter how you
slice it, this price is outrageously expensive. The reason why I
think it's outrageous is that even though this part of the trip is
just before the entrance to the National Park, I think it's a travesty
that Austria would price out its younger generation from enjoying and
appreciating a truly remarkable national resource of such beauty (I
say Austria because the access mechanism would seem to be done in
conjunction with the state given that it appears to be run in some
capacity by Austrian Hydro Power). As it was, the majority of the
people going up were of the hardy, but barely ambulatory geriatric
age, who would enjoy a nice walk on the upper double dams.
The bus was driven by a friendly and fetching woman wearing white
shorts and black heels. She was kind enough to get me a schedule for
the bus on the other side of the valley in case we were able to make
it all the way over the range that day. The bus spends most of its
time in a tunnel in going to 1209 meters from 1068 m. This is the
embarkation point for the Schrägaufzug (funicular), a flat, open
air platform that gets pulled up to 1640 m by cable. That probably
sounds ho hum, but this one is evidently Europe's largest, and I'm
sorry to say that that fact doesn't make it any less ho hum for me.
However, what removed the ho humness of it all and put things into
perspective was seeing a photo of this thing hauling up a full sized
bus - wow. The ride is quick (about 4 minutes) and smooth with first
a German then an English announcement extolling the contraption's
virtues. The top is probably your best photo-op of the Wiessbachhorn
in light of the morning sun conditions, but we didn't have much time,
only about 2 minutes, since the next bus left right away for the final
destination, the near side of the upper double dam on Mooserboden
(lake) at 2040 m. The day was bright and clear - an excellent day to
be out - and it was surprising to us that we didn't see more climbers.
There is a large restaurant up there at the Mooserboden, with a couple
of bathrooms which were quite nice, except for their lack of soap.
They were well maintained, especially considering their age, which was
indicated to me by the fact that each urinal had an associated ashtray
at chest level. There are a few other tourist bodegas nearby where
you can buy trinkets or small pizzas or other food. There are a
sequence of colorfully painted meter high Robbie-the-robot characters
which point out some of the surrounding features and encourage you to
use the adjacent pay telescopes so you can see them better.
The Wiesbachhorn gleams in the sun, but the wall that we have to go up
to get to the Hutte is dark in the shade, since we're on the west
side. We took our sweet time getting ready, probably futzing around
for half an hour between the toilet, getting postcards, and looking at
the various informational plaques. This cost us because as a result
the entire trail up was in the sun (not even a large rock for relief)
instead of mostly in the shade. There are three signs in a row, about
5 minutes apart saying Haushoferweg / Heinrich-Schwaiger Haus (trail
718) - 2 hours. Anyways, from the first of these it took us 2 hours,
including a 15 minute break at about the halfway point. The trail is
clear, but in many sections of the lower half there was easily
avoided runoff flowing in it, possibly from the prior days' rain. The
trail initially swings way left from the supply lift that goes up to
the Hutte, then takes its time zigging back to the lift. When it's
almost at the lift again, it does a final swing to the left, and then
just past the plaque for Hedwig Maier, the Hutte suddenly hoves into
view. See http://www.summitpost.org/view_object.php?object_id=69090
It was cool and windy on the back side of the Hutte. There was one
guy there who had just finished the climbing the peak, and he said
that the conditions were good, but that the snow was soft. Maybe,
but the mildly soft snow that I often see in these mountains in the
mid and late summer has never been such a big deal. I hardly ever
sink significantly, and it's usually easy to gain traction. He did
say that the rope wouldn't be necessary - just what I needed to hear.
The guy didn't like my Raichle shoes - said the peak would be
impossible to climb in them. Didn't matter that I had overboots and
crampons, I wouldn't be able to do it, previous ascents
notwithstanding. What could I do - I thanked him for his
Bergfuhrerness, and Judit and I went to split a Knodelsuppe inside.
It was a good full ****tion for 5.30 euros. Did I say 5.30 euros?
Sorry, that's what the Hutte manager told me when I asked the price.
When it actually came time to pay it was 6.30 euros!!! What, are we
running an airline here where you say one price and charge another?
Judit later explained that there is a Hutte surcharge on things.
What I don't understand is why they should be treating the customer
like an idiot, where they are doing price shenanigans. I just want
to know how much I will have to pay for an item, and then I'll decide
whether or not to get it. The soup was good, but at almost $10 for
the bowl, this Hutte's soup is VERY expensive.
Well, we twaddled about for almost an hour before we left. I decided
to put on both my long underwear bottoms before taking off (good
decision) on the theory that if got cold or windy I didn't want to be
dealing with it then. Fortunately, this configuration doesn't
overheat me, but it does keep me warm when things cool down. I
discovered another advantage to the wool climbing pants I wear over
blue jeans - with the wool pants, I don't have to take my shoes off to
pull the pants on and off. I'm not sure why this is so good
(specifically, if the long underwear is being changed the shoes would
need to come off), but I am pleased by it nonetheless. On top I had
two long under****rts, on top of which I had a long sleeve, button
down, cotton ****rt. Note: although I could wear my wool pants
over my blue jeans, the word 'over' in the above context means 'in
comparison with'. I either use wool pants or blue jeans, but not
both.
We left at 12:50 pm to head up. The basic idea is that the ridge that
rises from the left is interrupted by a prominent 'gulley'. The end
of the next section is just left of the knob (Unterer Fochezkopf) at
the top of the ridge just left of the top of the 'gulley' (which
gulley is not the path up). Rather, the way up starts off going
diagonally left over a short spot of snow just above the trail which
led up to the hutte, then up a cleft in the cliffs about 100m from the
Hutte, and afterwards heads straight up to the Unterer Fochezkopf.
The part that needlessly worried me most (on account of Judit's left
arm being somewhat sore) was the cleft/chimney, which I had read was
secured by fixed cable. Indeed, with the cable it was easy to go up -
on a few moves in the two short (about 20m or so) cabled sections we
did make use of the cable, but it's no klettersteig situation. There
is also a bit of cable just before the ridge. It's easy to lose the
way up if you don't follow the red dots since there are many false
trails, but the way is easy in good, dry weather. It might be another
story if there was a light snow cover. This part took us about 35
minutes. From the left side of the knob, we crossed behind it to get
to the rock just before the snow ridge where we would put on the
crampons. For a route overview see
http://www.summitpost.org/view_object.php?object_id=100823
I first put on my overboots, and just as I was fini****ng putting on
the first crampon a solo climber on the way down opined, upon
questioning, that we probably didn't need the crampons. While this
was true of the Kaindlgrat (initial snow ridges), I wouldn't have
wanted to be on the final part of the summit pyramid without
them. From where we put on the crampons, the trail continues up the
ridge till the ridge turns into the summit pyramid. We had three
distinct sections of snow ridge to do, each separated by some 10s of
meters of dirt and rock. On some pictures there is no intervening
dirt/rock. The first two sections were initially flat, with a
moderately angled rise near the end. The third section only rises a
bit, but it is more knife edged instead of a wide track as with the
first two. And this third section was actually a light cover of snow
over ice, near as I could tell (ie. it's slippery underneath). The
first ridge section goes from the Unterer Fochezkopf to the Oberer
Fochezkopf with the Fochezkees (glacier) to the left. The 2nd and 3rd
sections are what the standard route, the Kaindlgrat, gets its
name from, the Kaindlkees being the glacier stemming from the flat
basin between the Wiesbachhorn and the long ridge to the south, the
Hinterer Bratschenkopf. And to the immediate left of our feet was the
start of the steep Wielingerkees. For a good Kaindlgrat shot
http://www.panoramio.com/photos/original/613339.jpg
The map indicates
that trail 718 continues across the glacier basin to reach the far end
of the Hinterer Bratschenkopf, but it was currently untracked.
We continued, from the top of the 3rd ridge, over dirt and rock (still
along the ridge, which was now aimed at the summit) to gain the next
mini bench, about another ridge section length away. From here the
path leaves the ridge, making a long lateral traverse to the right
(about 150 meters), going past inviting gullies, to go from the west
ridge that we'd been on, to the south ridge, where it joins the path
coming up from Schwarzenberghutte on the southeast side of the
mountain. There is a small bench near the junction, but I preferred
the final bench just past this after a small, awkward cleft that the
way goes up (awkward on account of the mixed snow and rock). From
here, there are already excellent views south onto the Bratschenkopf
(from where the Schwarzeberghutte trail comes up) and the Klockerin.
We met a party just coming down from the summit who had come up from
the Schwarzenberghutte that day. Everything had been easy for us
until this point - just a walk.
The following excellent photo, taken from the summit of the Klockerin
(3425 m) shows the summit pyramid of the Wiesbachhorn (3654 m) quite
clearly: http://www.panoramio.com/photos/original/6345137.jpg
Since
it may not be self evident, I'll explain the photo. The cross in the
foreground is on the Hinterer Bratschenkopf (3413 m). Note that there
is a significant glacier trough both before and after the
Bratschenkopf, in getting to the Wiesbachhorn. If you trace the left
ridge down from the Wiesbachhorn, you come to some cliffs (this is
above the skyline that you see in the photo). At the bottom of these
cliffs (below the skyline) is pretty much where the Kaindlgrat route
coming up from the Schwaiger Haus comes in. This route and the one
crossing the Bratschenkopf merge atop the flattish area of rocks that
are visible behind and to the right of the Bratschenkopf summit. To
say it another way, trace a horizontal line right from the top of the
aforementioned cliffs, and the bench (flat area) is just above the
rock band that you encounter. From this bench, one possible way to
the summit is to head diagonally left up to the ridge in the
foreground that comes down from the summit, and then to take this
ridge up. We didn't do this, but there appeared to be a path for it.
Instead, about half way across the rocky part that gets you to the
ridge, you can see a faint snow striation diagonally up and to the
right. We took this up, and then eventually cut back left to the
ridge, probably near the top of the next rock section. From here we
worked our way up the mixed snow/rock ridge to finally get to the all
snow section of ridge, which snow ridge was easy. Here's another pic
onto the summit pyramid from a more westerly angle, with the
Kaindlgrat coming up the left hand ridge:
http://www.summitpost.org/images/original/69369.jpg
The final summit pyramid was quite dicey. After the short snowfield,
the pitch became moderately steep, but the problem was the mixed rock,
snow, and ice. It wasn't that it was so difficult (that came on the
way back down) as it was awkward and not particularly well protected.
A mistake here could lead to getting badly banged up - and on this
section I was happy enough to have the crampons on, having grumbled at
every rock step till now. There were periods of calm interchanged
with significant wind gusts, to the extent that on a few friction
steps I waited for the wind to die before taking them. We took a bit
over half an hour to do this part, mostly because the altitude was
slowing us down. Hurrah! We made it to the top at 5:25pm.
You know what, 5:25 is late. We spent 15 minutes at the top to take a
few fotos and sign the register, before heading down. No peak
sunbathing today. It took us an hour to get down to the bench! Judit
was feeling nauseous from the altitude, but we must be very careful -
no missteps allowed on this part. It wasn't really protectable, you
simply had to be sure of yourself on each step, and to a large extent
we backed down facing the wall, especially at the rock and snow/ice
interfaces. It was similar in difficulty to the top of the upper
glacier in midsummer on the standard Grossglockner route (just before
you gain the ridge), except that the dicey part here is significantly
more prolonged. This is not for first timers - it will wig them out.
Back at the bench, Judit just wanted to keep plodding down. Given
that it was now 6:45, it was clear that we wouldn't be heading down
after the previous group to the Schwarzenberghutte (at 2267 m) . We
had two hours of light left, but that trail would be on the dark side
of the mountain, and more im****tantly, the group had told us that the
lower trail was hazardous, since it consisted of going over glacier
polished rock. This same group also told us that we were too late to
climb, suggested using the Bivouac Hutte, and they were using walking
sticks instead of ice axes, so one had to heavily filter their advice.
Still, from the map, I knew that (in past years) the bottom of the
trail crossed over the snout of the Hochgruberkees so if that glacier
had presumably receded like all the others, it could make for the type
of trail these fellows were describing. Best not to take this chance
with headlamps. I didn't have any worries about making it back down
to the Schwaiger Haus since the way back down was now easy, and even
in the dark it would be OK. Still, it would have been cool to do a
circuit, and with an extra hour or so, I might have been inclined.
In any case, Judit continued down the awkward cleft while I took off
the crampons. Hurrah, hurrah, the feet are now free to fly and they
can do whatever they like on the rock parts. Of course, the overboots
had to come off, too, as they probably would be more slippery in the
snow, plus they'd get torn up on the rock sections. The only down
side was that my feet might get a bit cold on the snow, but there
wasn't so much snow to worry about. But truly, the overboots had been
awesome, and especially warm. In the Raichles my feet start to get
cold after about an hour in the snow but today I hadn't even noticed
in the overboots. Indeed, as soon as I stepped back onto the snow, I
could feel the cold of it wanting to seep through. Oh my, I could now
practically fly down the mountain with my feet unen***bered. Truly
the way down was now a joy, and for sure otherwise I would have been
grumbling at every rock patch we encountered. There was one place
that was a bit dicey - the topmost of the lower three snow sections -
the level, but sharp, ridge, which was actually a few inches of snow
covering slippery ice. The rest of the way down presented no
problems. It was warm enough that I was breaking through the snow on
the lowest section and sinking several cm. into the snow. Maybe the
plunge steps were a contributing factor.
I needed a bathroom break at the bottom of the snow sections so Judit
continued down. She made good time on this part, and was 2/3 of the
way to the Hutte on this final section before I caught up to her. We
got down to the Schwaiger Haus at about 8:53. Judith was completely
exhausted and wanted nothing more than her well earned sleep. In
about 10 minutes she was fast asleep. I stayed up for another hour
and munched on my gorp. The cost for the lager was 10 euros per
person with OAV discount. There was a slightly plump, friendly black
dog in the Hutte, that wanted to play a game. It would bring a piece
of cork, place it in an awkward position under a chair, and then wait
for you to kick it so that it could dive after it.
Slight snoring only, and the lager was not full, so we could get extra
blankets, of which I availed myself. Judit was up and in good spirits
the next morning. She ordered a hot chocolate (or the equivalent) and
got a very watery version she was not pleased with. it was completely
socked in below us, and clear above - possibly another good climbing
day, but we were going down. The dog was again looking for a playing
partner, and Judit's first action was to throw the cork. In one
motion the dog caught it in its mouth and started to choke on it. It
was a good 5 minutes before the thing came up and got deposited at
Judit's feet - no hard feelings, huh? Now that the ground rules were
established, so to speak, everyone was happy.
We headed down into the fog, but it turned out that we didn't have a
problem as far as getting wet. Visibility was low, but we made it
down dry to the dammed lake. Somehow, the dam was longer today than
yesterday, or maybe it just took longer to cross. We rested a bit on
the deck upstairs at the far end of the dam waiting for the bus to
take us down. As far as I could tell, the driver was not interested
in looking at the return part of the round trip pass, and there was
no check for it at the funicular either. In any case, it had worked
out to have purchased the round trip since we hadn't gone over to
the other side the previous evening.
Back at the base station, we decided to get a soup, and I ordered a
Leberknodel Suppe (soup with a liver matzo ball), which was such a
disaster (the microwaved knodel was partially burnt) that the waitress
took it back and brought me a Fritatten Suppe instead, just like Judit
was having (3.60 euros per soup). It still seemed like the vast
majority of people here were retirees, indicating a real pricing
problem with the trans****tation, especially considering that it was
Sunday, a weekend. I walked back to the car via the parking garage
(you have to take the ramp between the bottom and the first level,
for the rest you can use the stairs) while Judit took the road down.
We drove down, and headed back on rt 311, only with lots of time on
our hands, we decided to stop at the Liechtensteinklamm. Just at the
outskirts of St. Johann im Pongau (which is a bit before Bischofshofen
on rt 311) we took the exit, crossed over the Salzach (river), and
doubled back for the Liechtensteinklamm. It's a small road heading
south, a bit over 2 km (by Plankenau). Then there is a prominent left
turn onto the valley road going up to the klamm. We drove all the way
up, and I put on sneakers and long pants figuring the gorge to be a
bit cool, which turned out to be correct.
It's a very touristed place, and there were a large amount of Turks
there, comparatively speaking. The entry fee was a stiff 7 euros.
The gorge itself is narrow and the water has a lot of force at the
bottom. The short path (no more than half a km) is built some meters
above the klamm bottom, and the whole thing is well done. There's no
interaction with the klamm to speak of, it's a look but don't touch
kind of situation. This is somewhat understandable given the volume
of people, but it was still a bit disappointing that when we got to
the top of the built out path that we could see trail continuing
further up the bottom of the (relatively wide by this point) klamm,
but this footpath was off limits. There is a road (Alpendorf Str)
that one could choose immediately after crossing the Salzach taking
one through Alpendorf, and then about 2 km on as it finishes a left
turn seems to glance on or cross an upper branch of the klamm.
Perhaps there is a (free?) public access from here? It would be good
to hear from someone in the know. The following map should show the
left turn I'm talking about with the klamm parking lot NW of this
bend by about 400m.
http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=47.312,13.193&t=h&z=17&q=alpendorf+austria
We decided to take a different route back, from St. Johann im Pongau
to Vienna. Instead of hopping back onto the I-A10 to Salzburg after
Bischofshofen, we decided to continue laterally across Austria from
St. Johann going on rt 163 to Altenmarkt at I-A10, from which we
continued east on rt 320 past Ramsau and the Dachstein till I-A9 just
past Liezen. Judit had talked herself into getting her 1st meal at
Burger King, and I was just wa****ng my hands in the Liezen's venue's
bathroom when it went pitch black. I figured that I wasn't moving
enough for the motion sensors, but it didn't help. Fortunately, I
remembered that my hands were at the end of my arms, and also where
the sink was so I finished wa****ng my hands and dried them. As I was
fini****ng someone came in with a headlamp and I knew it wasn't just
me. Lightning had at that moment struck that part of Lienz, wiping
out all ordering capabilities of both the Burger King and McDonalds,
thwarting Judit's induction to the fast food generation. Maybe today
wouldn't have been such a good climbing day, afer all.
We continued south on I-A9 till St. Michael/Leoben, where we took the
I-S6 east. Judit wanted to bet that there is no McDonalds in Leoben,
and I told her she should not bet with an American about where to
find a McDonalds, but she insisted so I found the McDonalds. The
funny thing was, we'd eaten there last time, coming back from the
Kaiser Franz-Josef Klettersteig, only I thought we'd been in Bruck an
der Mur. Lesson learned, and sated, we finished off the drive to
I-A2, then back to Vienna, uncommonly arriving in daylight. The way
back was almost identical in length to going via Salzburg, although
longer in time. A good choice for a lazy day.
Logistical notes - There are several ways to approach this climb
besides what we did:
1) Judit went on and on about a guy that she read about on the
internet who had driven from Vienna, arrived in time to take the
first trans****t up from the Kesselfall Alpenhaus, climbed the
Grosses Wiesbachhorn and returned in time to catch the last tras****t
back to the car and then finished off the drive to Vienna that
evening. This is feasible, but only for the strongest of climbers
who waste no time. The gating factor is that the last trans****t down
is in the late afternoon (5pm) meaning a really tight schedule. A
tough day.
2) Least cost climb, up and back. Evidently, the toll station on
the Grossglockner Hochalpinstrasse is just prior to the Tauerngasthof
(about 8km after Fuschl). This is good, because trail 727 picks
up from here on the other side of the Fuscher Ache (stream). The
trail stays level for a while and then heads up almost 1000m to the
Schwarzenberghutte at 2267 meters. I'd get up (very) early the next
morning and first go up to the OGV Bivouac Hutte at 3104 m by the
Gruberscharte. The indicated way from the Schwarzenberghutte is to
continue south on trail 727 and then take trail 733 up to the Hohe
Dock at 3348 m. This means a several hundred meter elevation loss
though, through the Dochscharte (3237 m) and then across the Grosser
Baren Kees (glacier) to the Gruberscharte and Bivouac Hutte (3104 m).
There may be a more direct way, basically almost due west from the
Schwarzenberghutte up just to the left of the Hochgruber Kees until
you have to cross it to reach the Gruberscharte.
It's a straight shot up the south ridge of the Klockerin (summit at
3425 m) from here, then a march across the Bratschenkopf Kees to the
Hinterer Bratschenkopf at 3413 m, and finally cross the upper Kaindl
Kees to join the way coming up from the Schwaiger Haus to climb the
Gr. Wiesbachhorn. The return would take you back to the
Bratschenkopf's ridge, but from there you could follow the trail down
directly to the Schwarzenberghutte. This SE View pic might give an
idea of the route: http://www.summitpost.org/images/original/5112.jpg
You could, of course, omit the Klockerin altogether. Or you could
do the circuit in the other direction and leave it for last. However,
(my personal) studies have shown that people (specifically: me and
people with me) are decidedly unenthusiastic about lesser peaks once
the main goal has been realized. If you want all three, do the
Klockerin first. I suspect that route finding is also easier in the
'Klockerin first' direction.
3) Least cost climb, circuit. Same start as with the previous route,
only from the Wiesbachhorn continue down by way of the Schwaiger Haus.
You can either take the trans****t down and figure out a way back to
the car (there is a bus that goes up the Grossglockner
Hochalpinstrasse) or there is a 2nd possibility: from the dam on the
Mooserboden Lake, take trail 723 northeast to the Gleiwitzer Hutte at
2174 m, but be warned that it's a ways away and you must almost ascend
again to the height of the Schwaiger Haus before descending again to
the Gleiwitzer. From here, trail 725 takes you down to the
Hochalpinstrasse (at Fuschl), and then I would elect the fastest (or
youngest, or most willing, or whatever) person to run the 8 km to
retrieve the car.
4) Finally, here's a cross country idea: First night: Schwaiger
Haus. Next day take trail 718 all the way to the Oberwaldhutte. That
means: climb the Wiesbachhorn, then the Bratschenkopf, then the
Klockerin, now descend to the Gruberscharte, then somehow (presumably
via the Keilsharte) get onto the Bockkarkees, then pass through the
Bockkarscharte, across the Wasserfallwinkel (glacier) to the
Oberwaldhutte (2963 m) at the Grosser Burgstall. See
http://www.summitpost.org/view_object.php?object_id=5083
The next day, cross the Pasterze Glacer (trail 702) to get to (trail
KGW) the Erzherzog Johann Hutte. Finally, finish off the
Grossglockner climb the next morning, and come down to a road via the
Studlhutte (trail 712). But good luck getting back to your car. By
the way, I've just found approximately this route in reverse selling
for 719 euros (which I'm guessing includes the lodging) at
http://www.druckerei-gebauer.at/mobo/Grossglockner/Grossglw.aspx
In conclusion, the Grosses Wiesbachhorn is a fairly straightforward
mountain to climb, except that the top can be dicey, and I would not
recommend it for beginners. The Schwaiger Haus does not get high
marks because of its duplicitous price quotes and weak hot chocolate
(and its food is very expensive compared to other huttes at similar
height). Time and logistics permitting, I recommend doing this as a
circuit from the east side (even though we didn't) via the
Schwarzenbergerhutte and adding in the Klockerin and Hinterer
Bratschenkopf. Note that this is a more s****ting route in that you
are starting the walking from a significantly lower elevation.
Happy climbing,
Csaba Gabor from Vienna
Copyright Csaba Gabor, 2008
May not be published or included in a
work for sale without permission
Schwaiger Haus:
http://www.alpenverein-muenchen-oberland.de/huetten__wege/bewirtschaftete_huetten/uebersicht/heinrich_schwaiger_haus
360 Panorama:
http://www.alpenvereinshuetten.de/panorama/heinrich-schwaiger-haus/
Kaindlgrat:
Hard to follow route description:
http://www.summitpost.org/mountain/rock/150852/grosses-wiesbachhorn.html
Trip re****ts:
http://www.summitpost.org/object_discussion.php?type=message_board&object_id=150852
SE Views:
Small: http://www.superstock.com/stock-photography/Wiesbachhorn
Small2: http://www.summitpost.org/view_object.php?object_id=5111
Misc:
Bratschenkopf, Klockerin:
http://www.panoramio.com/photos/original/4049690.jpg
NW Wall: http://bergsteigen.at/de/touren.aspx?ID=191
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