Allgäu Alps

The Allgäu Alps (german: Allgäuer Alpen) are a mountain range in the Northern Limestone Alps, located in Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg in Germany and Tyrol and Vorarlberg in Austria. The range lies directly east of Lake Constance.

Character

The mountain range is characterised by an unusual variety of rock formations and consequently a rich tapestry of landscapes, in particular, the steep " grass mountains" (''Grasberge'') of the Allgäu Alps with gradients of up to 70°. Its flora is amongst the most varied in the whole Alpine region and its accessibility by lifts and paths is outstanding. The mountain paths (''Höhenwege'') running from hut to hut are well known and hikers can spend seven to ten days walking in the mountains without descending to inhabited valleys. Thanks to its location on the northern edge of the Alps, the region has relatively high precipitation and is the rainiest in Germany. In winter the Allgäu Alps – at least in the higher regions – are comparatively snowy. Even a small glacier and several permanent snowfields survive.

The Allgäu Alps and the Allgäu region are not identical. The Allgäu is a landscape that, according to present-day understanding, is (almost entirely, but see Tannheimer Tal) on German soil. By contrast, the Allgäu Alps are a mountain range of the Alps whose definition falls out of the Alpine Club classification of the Eastern Alps. Parts of the Allgäu Alps, including its highest summit, lie on Austrian soil. The Allgäu region, however, extends far beyond the Allgäu Alps to the north and northwest.

Neighbouring ranges

The Allgäu Alps border on the Bregenz Forest Mountains in the west, the Lechquellen Mountains in the southwest, the Lechtal Alps in the south and southeast and the Ammergau Alps in the east. All these ranges belong, like the Allgäu Alps themselves, to the Northern Limestone Alps. In the north the Allgäu Alps give way to the Alpine Foreland.

Boundary

The boundary of the range is only unambiguously clear in the east, southeast and south.
The river Lech forms the boundary here from where it leaves the Alps and enters the Alpine Foreland near Füssen upstream to its confluence with the Krumbach near Warth (Vorarlberg). The Krumbach forms the boundary as far as the Hochtann Mountain Pass. It then continues along the Seebach and Bregenzer Ach streams to Au-Rehmen.

The border of the Allgäu Alps in the west, where it transitions to the Bregenz Forest Mountains is not orographically distinct. The Alpine Club classification of the Eastern Alps, published in 1984, draws the boundary as follows: from Au-Rehmen along the Rehmerbach upstream to the Stogger Saddle. Then it descends, following the Osterguntenbach, the ''Schönenbach'' and the Subersach to its confluence with the Bregenzer Ach and along this river to where it joins the Weißach or event to Lake Constance.

The limit of the Allgäu Alps in the north is indistinct. One more restricted variant runs from the confluence of the Weißach and Bregenzer Ach along the Weißach to Oberstaufen. It then continues along the Konstanzer Ache and the Großer Alpsee lake to Immenstadt and onwards through the villages of Rettenberg, Wertach, Nesselwang to Pfronten-Ried. Then it continues along the Vils stream to where it discharges into the Lech near the town of Vils. However, there are more mountains north of this line which, albeit not especially high - are made of the same rock as the larger mountains of the Allgäu Alps and were uplifted by the same orogenic processes. If these ridges are counted as part of the Allgäu Alps, then the northern boundary runs from Lake Constance near Lindau to Isny and northwards around the Adelegg