The Hochwildstelle or Hohe Wildstelle is a mountain, , and the second highest peak in the

Schladming Tauern The Schladming Tauern''Outline of the geology of Austria and selected excursions'', Volumes 34-35. Geologische Bundesanstalt (Austria), 1980. pp. 62/3. . (german: Schladminger Tauern) are a subrange of the Austrian Central Alps within the Eastern ...

as well as the highest mountain entirely on Styrian territory in

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

.''The Hochwildstelle (2,747 m)''
at outdooractive.com. Retrieved 30 April 2021. Its summit is near the

tripoint A tripoint, trijunction, triple point, or tri-border area is a geographical point at which the boundaries of three countries or subnational entities meet. There are 175 international tripoints as of 2020. Nearly half are situated in rivers, l ...

of the three municipalities of Aich, Michaelerberg-Pruggern and

Schladming Schladming is a small former mining town in the northwest of the Austrian state of Styria that is now a popular tourist destination. It has become a large winter-sports resort and has held various skiing competitions, including most notably the F ...

. The step-like summit block with its mighty

rock face In geography and geology, a cliff is an area of rock which has a general angle defined by the vertical, or nearly vertical. Cliffs are formed by the processes of weathering and erosion, with the effect of gravity. Cliffs are common on coa ...

s dominates the edge of the mountain range along the Enns Valley, before the range climbs even higher still to the summit of the Hochgolling on the

main chain of the Alps The main chain of the Alps, also called the Alpine divide is the central line of mountains that forms the drainage divide of the range. Main chains of mountain ranges are traditionally designated in this way, and generally include the highest ...

. The knife-edged south

arête An arête ( ) is a narrow ridge of rock which separates two valleys. It is typically formed when two glaciers erode parallel U-shaped valleys. Arêtes can also form when two glacial cirques erode headwards towards one another, although frequ ...

drops away, immediately south of the summit cross, down to the col of ''Wildlochscharte'' (2,488 m) and then climbs again to the summit of the Himmelreich (2,500 m), before dropping into the valley and the Preintaler Hut from the peak of ''Schneiders'' (2,328 m). The ridgeline, which is relatively sharp for a

crystalline A crystal or crystalline solid is a solid material whose constituents (such as atoms, molecules, or ions) are arranged in a highly ordered microscopic structure, forming a crystal lattice that extends in all directions. In addition, macros ...

mountain range runs roughly north to south. The region is very well watered. Even in the vicinity of the very high massif there are several mountain lakes and two large

waterfall A waterfall is a point in a river or stream where water flows over a vertical drop or a series of steep drops. Waterfalls also occur where meltwater drops over the edge of a tabular iceberg or ice shelf. Waterfalls can be formed in severa ...

s. Two

waymark Trail blazing or way marking is the practice of marking paths in outdoor recreational areas with signs or markings that follow each other at certain, though not necessarily exactly defined, distances and mark the direction of the trail. A blaz ...

ed routes run up the Hochwildstelle: * From the col of ''Neualmscharte'' (2,347 m) via the Kleine Wildstelle and the northwest arête taking 1 hour,

UIAA grade In rock climbing, mountaineering, and other climbing disciplines, climbers give a grade to a climbing route or boulder problem, intended to describe concisely the difficulty and danger of climbing it. Different types of climbing (such as sport ...

I. The ''Neualmscharte'' may be reached from either the Hans Wödl Hut or the Preintaler Hut on marked footpaths in about 2 – 3 hours. * From the col of ''Wildlochscharte'' (2,488 m) via the south arête in 1 hour, UIAA grade I. The ''Wildlochscharte'' may be reached on signed paths in 2 hours from the Preintaler Hut or the Breitlahn Hut (1,100 m). The first ascent was by M. Reiter in 1801.''Hochwildstelle''
at summitpost.org. Retrieved 30 April 2021. Hochwildstelle (Hoechstein)

References

Literature

* Peter Holl: ''Alpenvereinsführer Niedere Tauern'', Bergverlag Rudolf Rother, 7th revised edition, Munich, 2005, .

External links

*{{Commons category-inline, Hochwildstelle Mountains of the Alps Two-thousanders of Austria Mountains of Styria Schladming Tauern