''For the "Rote Flüh" feature on the North Face of the Eiger, see

Eiger The Eiger () is a mountain of the Bernese Alps, overlooking Grindelwald and Lauterbrunnen in the Bernese Oberland of Switzerland, just north of the main watershed and border with Valais. It is the easternmost peak of a ridge crest that extends a ...

. ''
The Rote Flüh is a peak in the

Tannheim Mountains The Tannheim Mountains 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 ...

. It is 2,108 metres high. The Rote Flüh is built from

Wetterstein limestone The Wetterstein Formation is a regional geologic formation of the Northern Limestone Alps and Western Carpathians extending from southern Bavaria, Germany in the west, through northern Austria to northern Hungary and western Slovakia in the east. ...

. It gets its name (which means "red rock face") from the layers of embedded particles of red limestone rock that appear reddish as the sun goes down.

Location and surrounding area

The

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 frequen ...

of Judenscharte links the Rote Flüh with the Gimpel to the north. The optically unimpressive ridge of the east arête bears its own name, the Hochwieseler, on account of the number of

climbing route A climbing route is a path by which a climber reaches the top of a mountain, rock, or ice wall. Routes can vary dramatically in difficulty and grade; once committed to that ascent, it can sometimes be difficult to stop or return. Choice of rout ...

s on its south face. Along the almost two-kilometre-long West Arête, from which the Schartschrofen rises, runs the Friedberger

Klettersteig A via ferrata (Italian language, Italian for "iron path", plural ''vie ferrate'' or in English ''via ferratas'') is a protected climbing route found in the Alps and certain other locations. The term "via ferrata" is used in most countries and ...

to the col of Füssener Jöchl which is served by a cable car. The

prominence In topography, prominence (also referred to as autonomous height, relative height, and shoulder drop in US English, and drop or relative height in British English) measures the height of a mountain or hill's summit relative to the lowest contou ...

of the Roten Flüh is at least 108 metres Its isolation is 300 metres, the Gimpel being the reference summit.

Alpinism

There are several climbing tours of the Rote Flüh ranging from

alpine Alpine may refer to any mountainous region. It may also refer to: Places Europe * Alps, a European mountain range ** Alpine states, which overlap with the European range Australia * Alpine, New South Wales, a Northern Village * Alpine National Pa ...

routes on the (short) north face to sports climbing at grade nine on the south face. The

normal route A normal route or normal way (french: voie normale; german: Normalweg) is the most frequently used route for ascending and descending a mountain peak. It is usually the simplest route. Overview In the Alps, routes are classed in the following way ...

is classed as relatively straightforward and therefore very frequently used. From the Gimpelhaus or the Tannheimer Hut the path runs through a

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

on the eastern side of the summit block, which is partially secured by cables. In good weather queues often form at this bottleneck.Dieter Seibert: Alpine Club Guide ''alpin – Allgäuer Alpen und Ammergauer Alpen''. 17th edn.,

Bergverlag Rother Bergverlag Rother is a German publisher with its headquarters in Oberhaching, Upper Bavaria. Since 1950 the company, that formerly went under the name of ''Bergverlag Rudolf Rother'', has published the Alpine Club Guides in cooperation with the Ge ...

, Munich, 2008 (pp. 240f). Due to its location in the "front row" of the Alps, the Rote Flüh has outstanding views both of the flat

Alpine Foreland The Alpine Foreland, less commonly called the Bavarian Foreland,Dickinson, Robert E (1964). ''Germany: A regional and economic geography'' (2nd ed.). London: Methuen, pp. 585-586. . Bavarian Plateau or Bavarian Alpine Foreland (german: Bayerisches ...

as well as the lake of

Haldensee Haldensee is a lake of Tyrol, 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 ...

, just under 1,000 metres below in the valley of

Tannheimer Tal The Tannheimer Tal ("Tannheim valley") is a high valley, at an elevation of about 1,100 metres, in the Tannheim Mountains, which are part of the Allgäu Alps in the Austrian state of Tyrol ( county of Reutte).It is a left sided tributary to th ...

. The east arête, a ridge called the Hochwiesler, on whose south face there are also several climbing routes. From it there is a 30-metre

abseiling Abseiling ( ; ), also known as rappelling ( ; ), is the controlled descent of a steep slope, such as a rock face, by moving down a rope. When abseiling the person descending controls their own movement down the rope, in contrast to Bela ...

point to the north and a 100-metre abseiling piste to the south, whose first half has a 45-metre free hanging drop. In sunny weather the mountain can be climbed to within about 2-3 rope lengths of the summit on the often snow-free south face. After an

anchor An anchor is a device, normally made of metal , used to secure a vessel to the bed of a body of water to prevent the craft from drifting due to wind or current. The word derives from Latin ''ancora'', which itself comes from the Greek ἄγ ...

broke causing a roped team to fall with the loss of three lives, all frequently used south face routes were equipped with climbing bolts. The easiest one is the normal south face route (IV). Two abseil pistes (100 metres) run back to the foot of the south face.

Literature

* Toni Freudig: ''Klettern auf der Tannheimer Sonnenseite''. 1999, * Achim Pasold: ''Kletterführer alpin – Allgäu incl. Tannheimer Berge''. 6th revised edition, Panico-Verlag, Köngen, 2010, * Dieter Seibert: ''Rother Wanderführer'' – ''Tannheimer Tal''. 7. Auflage 2009, Bergverlag Rother, Munich,

References and footnotes

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rote Fluh Two-thousanders of Austria Mountains of Tyrol (state) Mountains of the Alps Allgäu Alps