Grossglockner
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Grossglockner | |
---|---|
Alpine mountains above 3000 m | |
Coordinates | 47°04′29.52″N 12°41′42.9″E / 47.0748667°N 12.695250°E |
Naming | |
Pronunciation | German: [ˌɡʁoːs ˈɡlɔknɐ] |
Geography | |
Location | Hohe Tauern |
Climbing | |
First ascent | 28 July 1800, by Sepp and Martin Klotz (?), Martin Reicher and two others |
Easiest route | PD, glacier 35°, UIAA II |
The Grossglockner (
The characteristic pyramid-shaped peak actually consists of two pinnacles, the Grossglockner and the Kleinglockner (3,770 m or 12,370 ft, from German: groß 'big', klein 'small'), separated by the Glocknerscharte col.
Etymology
The name Glocknerer is first documented in a 1561 map designed by the Viennese cartographer Wolfgang Lazius. The denotation Glogger is mentioned in a 1583 description of the Tyrolean Kals legal district, then referring to the whole ridge south of the Alpine main chain. In the 1760s, the Atlas Tyrolensis listed a Glockner Berg, the prefix Gross- ("great") is not mentioned before the first expedition in 1799.
According to the scholar
Geography
Location and area
The Grossglockner lies on the border between the Austrian states of
The Glockner is the highest mountain in the Alps east of the Ortler range, about 175 km (109 mi) away, and, after Mont Blanc, has the second greatest topographic isolation of all mountains in the Alps. Even its topographic prominence, at 2,424 m (7,953 ft), is the second highest after Mont Blanc in the entire Alps (see the list of Alpine peaks by prominence). That makes it one of the most independent peaks in the Alps.[4] The view from the Grossglockner summit is one of the farthest of all mountains in the Eastern Alps. It ranges out to 220 km (140 mi) or, taking account of atmospheric refraction, almost 240 km (150 mi). Its view over more than 150,000 km2 (58,000 sq mi) of the Earth's surface reaches as far as the Upper Swabian Plateau in the northwest, to Regensburg and the peaks of the Bohemian Forest in the north, to Ortler in the west, to the Padan Plain in the south, and to Triglav and the Totes Gebirge range in the east.[5][6]
Topography
The Grossglockner rock summit, due to its high Alpine, heavily glaciated appearance, is often compared to the mountains of the
The Obere Glocknerscharte between the two peaks, at 3,766 m (12,356 ft), is the highest col in Austria, from which a
A prominent ridge, the Stüdlgrat, named after the Prague Alpinist Johann Stüdl (1839–1925), runs from the Grossglockner away to the southwest. Together with its extension, the Luisengrat, it separates the West Face and the Teischnitzkees glacier at its foot from the South Face and its Ködnitzkees glacier. A couloir known as the Pillwaxrinne crosses the South Face below the Obere Glocknerscharte; most of the South Face lies east of this gully below the Kleinglockner. The east side of the Kleinglockner, the Glocknerleitl, is glaciated to just below the summit and is continued by the Kleinglocknerkees and Hofmannskees before reaching the Pasterze.
History
The history of the climbs started with French-born natural scientist Belsazar Hacquet, from 1773 professor of anatomy at the Academy of Ljubljana. He travelled the Eastern Alps from 1779 to 1781 and published an itinerary in 1783, describing the Glokner mountain and stating that it had not been climbed yet. He estimated the mountain's height with converted 3,793 m (12,444 ft) and left an engraving illustrating Grossglockner and Pasterze, the first known depiction of the mountain.
First ascent
Inspired by Hacquet's book and the
One month later the bishop's expedition started: a mountain hut (the first Salm Hut) had been built and the path in the Leitertal valley was prepared so that the bishop could use a horse to reach it. 30 people, among them Salm, Hohenwart and Wulfen, were part of the expedition. They suffered with bad weather and a first effort failed, but on 25 August 1799 Hohenwart and at least four other people, including the two "Glockners", reached—again—the Kleinglockner, where they installed one of the first summit crosses (one of the main goals of the church expedition). Hohenwart's reports did not tell clearly that they had not touched the highest point but Bishop Salm (who had reached the Adlersruhe rock at 3,454 m (11,332 ft)) was informed. Dissatisfied, he invited another, even bigger expedition the next year.
On 28 July 1800, 62 people, among them the pedagogue Franz Michael Vierthaler and the botanist David Heinrich Hoppe, started again into the Leitertal valley. Four peasants and carpenters (the "Glockners" and two others who are not known) did a track in the snow, had installed fixed ropes at some steeper sections up to the end of the Glocknerleitl, and even built a second refuge, called Hohenwarte Hut. The vanguard reached the Kleinglockner peak, however, according to the expedition records by the Dellach priest Franz Joseph Horasch (Orasch), only the four guides and Mathias Hautzendorfer, the local priest of the Rangersdorf parish, were able to cross the Obere Glocknerscharte and climb the Grossglockner summit. Hautzendorfer had to be persuaded to venture the step and administered the last rites in advance.
The two "Glockners" are usually identified as the brothers Joseph (Sepp) and Martin Klotz, however, this surname is not listed in the Heiligenblut parish register. A local peasant named Sepp Hoysen is documented as a member of the second Grossglockner expedition in 1802, and the surveyor Ulrich Schiegg mentioned one Martin Reicher as "Glockner" guide. The peasants and several other members of the expedition (among them Schiegg and his young apprentice Valentin Stanič, who climbed Mt. Watzmann for the first time some weeks later) did the ascent again the next day and finally installed the summit cross and a barometer on the Grossglockner summit.
Development
Bishop Salm undertook two more ascents in 1802 (with Hohenwart reaching the summit) and in 1806, however, he himself never climbed beyond the Adlersruhe rock. The climbing of the Grossglockner was also described by the botanist
By the mid 19th century, the developing Alpine
In 1879 Count Pallavicini dedicated a new iron summit cross on the occasion of the
A first ascent by skiing was made in 1909 and the circumnavigation of the massif soon became a popular ski mountaineering tour. The Grossglockner became Austria's highest mountain, when the South Tyrolean Ortler region had to be ceded to the Kingdom of Italy according to the 1919 Treaty of Saint-Germain, which promoted its reputation as a tourist attraction.
High Alpine Road
Also famous for its historic vehicle hill climb races.
See also
References
- ^ Alpenvereinsführer, p. 37
- ^ Tiroler Landesarchiv, ed. (1978), "Der Tiroler Grenzberg Großglockner in alten Karten und Geschichtsquellen : Zum 175-jährigen Jubiläum der Erstbesteigung des Großglockners am 28. Juli 1800", Lebendige Geschichte (in German), no. 12, p. 25
- ^ A. Tschugguel. "Das Sonderschutzgebiet "Großglockner-Pasterze"" (PDF). Österreichischer Alpenverein. Archived from the original (PDF) on 27 September 2011. Retrieved 9 March 2009.
- ^ "Core Europe Ultras - Peaks with 1500 meters of Prominence". peakbagger.com. Retrieved 15 March 2009.
- ^ Alpenvereinsführer, p. 262. Großglockner, 3798 m Archived 2021-08-30 at the Wayback Machine, accessed on 2 March 2009
- ^ Kühlken: Das Glocknerbuch, p. 53
- ^ Ballie-Grohmann, W.A. (1875). "Ascent of the Gross Glockner". Alpine Journal. Vii: 222.
External links
- Grossglockner Hochalpenstrasse
- "Grossglockner". SummitPost.org.
- Topographic maps of the Grossglockner
Computer-generated virtual panoramas