The Marchspitze () is a prominent summit, made of
main dolomite
Main Dolomite (german: Hauptdolomit, hu, Fődolomit, it, Dolomia Principale) is a lithostratigraphic unit in the Alps of Europe. Formation was defined by K.W. Gümbel in 1857.
Middle to Late Triassic sedimentary record in the Alpine realm is ...
, in the
Hornbach chain of the
Allgäu Alps. It is located 1.5 kilometres east of the much better known
Großer Krottenkopf and is entirely on
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 ...
n soil.
Ascent
It is a challenging climb and therefore receives only a modest number of visitors. 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 ...
starts in the middle of the Hermannskar
cirque, where climbers leave the path linking the
Kemptner Hut and the
Hermann von Barth Hut and painstakingly and, in places, tracklessly make their way up a steep rubble slope to the Spiehlerscharte (2,395 m) notch. At the col the route switches to the north side of the mountain and approaches it up a prominent gully, through which the western
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 ...
is reached after another gully (
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 ...
II). The route continues along and below the knife-edge,
exposed
Expose, exposé, or exposed may refer to:
News sources
* Exposé (journalism), a form of investigative journalism
* '' The Exposé'', a British conspiracist website
Film and TV Film
* ''Exposé'' (film), a 1976 thriller film
* ''Exposed'' (1932 ...
in places and with several grade I climbing sections, to the summit. The route is marked occasionally with
cairns. The journey time from the Hermann von Barth Hut is three hours. A more difficult route (up to grade II) runs up the southern arête to the top. The circular route is popular; ascending up the southern arête and descending down the normal route.
Literature
*Thaddäus Steiner: ''Allgäuer Bergnamen'', Lindenberg, Kunstverlag Josef Fink, 2007,
*Dieter Seibert: ''Allgäuer Alpen Alpin'',
Alpine Club Guide
The ''Alpine Club Guides'' (german: Alpenvereinsführer, commonly shortened to ''AV Führer'' or ''AVF'') are the standard series of Alpine guides that cover all the important mountain groups in the Eastern Alps. They are produced jointly by the G ...
. Munich, Bergverlag Rudolf Rother, 2004.
*
Alpine Club map
Alpine Club maps (german: Alpenvereinskarten, often abbreviated to ''AV-Karten'' i.e. AV maps) are specially detailed maps for summer and winter mountain climbers (mountaineers, hikers and ski tourers). They are predominantly published at a scale o ...
1:25,000 series, Sheet 2/1, ''Allgäuer- Lechtaler Alpen, West''
External links
{{Commons category
Tour report
Two-thousanders of Austria
Mountains of the Alps
Mountains of Tyrol (state)
Allgäu Alps