| dprapr2. 09. 2025 11:52:25 |
Wherever I looked at it from, it caught my eye. From Hochtor last year it looked like a real peak on the other side of the valley. And although it's low, even under 2000m, like our Matkova kopa, you can see far from it. And it's not easy to climb up either. A path leads to the grassy ridge Sparerriegel, sometimes more of a scramble, the last 130m presents itself as a real beauty, for which you need to master steep II grade climbing. When we sat on the top, I had a similar feeling as on Rigljica. There's a bit more scrambling there, but no big difference in difficulty and access.
We approached from Mühlbach, where there's free parking a few hundred meters from the main road. The turnoff for the parking is before Kassegg castle. Then up along the stream and forest to Otterriegel, where the path branches left to Tieflimauer and Ennstalerhütte. From there the path was practically destroyed by more than a meter-deep torrent gullies. The floods didn't spare it here. On the first ledge the view opens to the west and the path turns steeply up to the second ledge Sparerriegel, where the upper part of the mountain just enchants us. I'd just sit there and admire it.
But that's not the end of the path, it really starts behind the grassy shelf under the wall. From there red dots lead steeply up, in places along steep grade II. In between we walk on the shelf and scramble on rubble, in the second part straight up on slabs. When we reach the ridge, a steep jump awaits right under the summit. The top is on a slanted large slab. Of course there's a cross there too. Much smaller than usual on Austrian peaks. But the nearby pinnacle towards Großer Buchstein is a bit higher (about 2m), but smooth and hard to reach.
On the top we just sat and enjoyed the peace and the view. Everywhere around were familiar summits, quite a few already hiked, some eyed. Yesterday a new one, St. Gallener Spitze, which caught our eye right away.
Down we climbed the same as up. Nicely roped, as befits pensioners. The wall offers plenty of protection bolts. Even a couple of regular large ones, similar to those on hiking trails, appear on the most demanding crossings.
Definitely a peak worth visiting. Especially for off-trail connoisseurs.
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