The Reither Spitze is a mountain in the
Karwendel in the Austrian
federal state of
Tyrol that, thanks to its location at the southwestern end of the
Erlspitze Group, is particularly well known for its great views of the surrounding area from its summit. Its name is derived the village of
Reith bei Seefeld, which lies at its southwestern foot.
The
Schlossbach, a tributary of the
River Inn, rises on the mountainside.
Ascent
The summit of the Reither Spitze may be reached in a 20-minute climb from the
Nördlinger Hut to the south. The Nördlinger Hut is an hour's walk from the top station of the cable car on the
Härmelekopf
The Härmelekopf is a mountain northeast of Seefeld in Tirol in the Karwendel Alps in the Austrian state of Tyrol. It is 2,224 metres high.''Seefeld Leutasch'' 1:25,000 hiking map, Wanderland-Verlag, 4th edn., 2011.
Ascent
About 400 metres from ...
; from the Härmelekopf one can also ascend the Reither Spitze directly via the Reither Joch (
sure-footedness required). An ascent from
Reith bei Seefeld or
Seefeld takes about three hours. From the
Seefelder Spitze, the Reither Spitze may be reached on an easy path (sure-footedness required) or directly along the connecting
arête, a routed graded at
UIAA level III difficulty.
File:Reither Spitze im Winter.jpg, Reither Spitze in winter
File:Reither Spitze W.JPG, The Reither Spitze from Seefeld
File:ReitherSpitzeSeekirchl01.jpg, The Härmelekopf and Reither Spitze in winter
File:Reither Spitze W (Rauthh).JPG, View from the foot of the Hohe Munde
Geology
The summit of the Reither Spitze and the arête of the Seefelder Spitze () are made of
main dolomite rock. This zone of the upper main dolomite is surrounded by a ring-shaped zone of oil-bearing and partly
fossil-bearing
Seefeld beds. As a result of fish fossils, the oil-bearing slate from this region is also called Ichthyol Slate after the
Old Greek word for fish, ''ichthys (ἰχθύς)''. These rocks were quarried in various places around the Reither Spitze for the extraction of
Ichthyol
Ammonium bituminosulfonate or ammonium bituminosulphonate (synonyms of ichthammol, CAS# brand name: Ichthyol) is a product of natural origin obtained in the first step by dry distillation of sulfur-rich oil shale (bituminous schists). By sulfon ...
. The main quarry area was at the foot of the Reither Spitze southeast of Seefeld in the area of the ''Reither Jochalm''.
[''Geologische Karte der Republik Österreich 1:50,000,'' Sheet 117 Zirl, Geologische Bundesanstalt, Vienna, 1992.]
References
External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Reither Spitze
Two-thousanders of Austria
Karwendel
Mountains of Tyrol (state)
Mountains of the Alps
Seefeld in Tirol