The Küchlspitze (also: ''Küchelspitze'') is a

three-thousander Three-thousanders are mountains with a height of between , but less than above sea level. Similar terms are commonly used for mountains of other height brackets e. g. four-thousanders or eight-thousanders. In Britain, the term refers to mount ...

() in the Verwall between the valley of Stanzer Tal and

Paznaun The Paznaun () is a valley in Tyrol, Austria, leading south-west from Pians (856 m) to the Bielerhöhe (2071 m), a mountain pass at the border of Vorarlberg and Tyrol. The Paznaun is watered by the Trisanna and surrounded by the C ...

in the western

North Tyrol North Tyrol, rarely North Tirol (), is the main part of the Austrian federal state Tyrol, located in the western part of the country. The other part of the federal state is East Tyrol, which also belongs to Austria, but doesn't share a border wi ...

Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...

Location and landscape

The mountain rises between St. Anton am Arlberg in the Stanzer valley and

Ischgl Ischgl () is a town in the Paznaun valley in the Austrian state of Tyrol. Its ski resort is connected with that of Samnaun across the border in Switzerland to form one of the largest in the Alps. Ischgl was a major hotspot in 2020 of the COVID-19 ...

in the Paznaun to the southeast. Northeast of the summit is the Darmstädter Hut.Peter Pindur, Roland Luzian, Andreas Weiskopf: 1790 ''Küchlspitze 3147 m'' in Alpine Club Guide ''Verwallgruppe'' 1988, pp. 216 ff. The Küchlspitze (which means "little Kuchenspitze") is the third highest peak in the range after the Hoher Riffler and 1 metre higher

Kuchenspitze The Kuchenspitze is a mountain, , in the Verwall between the valley of Stanzer Tal and Paznaun in the west of North Tyrol. Location and landscape The mountain rises south of St. Anton am Arlberg in the Stanzer valley. Northeast of the ...

immediately to the north. It is a striking, three-sided pyramid. On the main ridge the eastern

arête An arête ( ; ) is a narrow ridge of rock that 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 ...

descends to the Rautejöchli () and ''Rautekopf'' (), the southwestern arête to the Schönpleisjöchli () and twin peaks of the Schönpleisköpfe (northern , southern ), and the northern arête runs in an S-shape to the Kuchenspitze. The mountain is glaciated; in the north

cirque A (; from the Latin word ) is an amphitheatre-like valley formed by Glacier#Erosion, glacial erosion. Alternative names for this landform are corrie (from , meaning a pot or cauldron) and ; ). A cirque may also be a similarly shaped landform a ...

(''Nordkar'') of the Kuchenspitze lies the ''Großer Küchlferner''

glacier A glacier (; or ) is a persistent body of dense ice, a form of rock, that is constantly moving downhill under its own weight. A glacier forms where the accumulation of snow exceeds its ablation over many years, often centuries. It acquires ...

. The ''Kleine Küchlferner'' on the western flank is only a glacial remnant. The Große Küchlferner drains into the ''Kartellspeicher'' reservoir and the ''Moosbach'' into the Rosanna, the west flank, with a tarn at into the ''Fasulbach'', which empties into the upper Rosanna. The Madleinalpe to the southeast, which also has several tarns, drains via the ''Madleinbach'' into the ''Trisannna''.

Development and ascents

The

first ascent In mountaineering and climbing, a first ascent (abbreviated to FA in climbing guidebook, guide books), is the first successful documented climb to the top of a mountain or the top of a particular climbing route. Early 20th-century mountaineers a ...

s of the summit were made by survey engineers accompanied by a local

chamois The chamois (; ) (''Rupicapra rupicapra'') or Alpine chamois is a species of Caprinae, goat-antelope native to the mountains in Southern Europe, from the Pyrenees, the Alps, the Apennines, the Dinarides, the Tatra Mountains, Tatra to the Carpa ...

hunter as part of the Third

k.u.k. The phrase Imperial and Royal (, ) refers to the court/government of the Habsburgs in a broader historical perspective. Some modern authors restrict its use to the Dual Monarchy of Austria-Hungary from 1867 to 1918. During that period, it ind ...

State Survey around 1860, in the course of which the main chain of the Verwall was negotiated. The mountain is rarely visited today. It may be ascended, for example, from St. Anton from the ''Schönverwall'' near the Konstanzer Hut directly or via the ''Kuchenjöchl'' saddle, or via the Moosbach valley (Kartellspeicher), and from the south from

across the Madleinalpe, or from Mathon via the Friedrichshafner Hut. The Darmstädter Hut is usually used as the base. Ascents of the summit are then difficult at the very least (east arête UIAA grad II/SACSAC ZS-), in places challenging climbing (e.g. over the Küchlspitze and the south ridge IV+).Tour reports (chronological):

Route No.: 730 Küchlspitze -Ostgrat-
', ADI at stein-und-schnee.de, 9 September 2006;

', ADI at hikr.org, 13 July 2010.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kuchlspitze Alpine three-thousanders Verwall Alps Mountains of the Alps