The Nordkette, also variously called the North Chain, Northern Range, rarely the Inn Valley Range or Inn Valley Chain (''Inntalkette''), is a range of mountains just north of the city of
Innsbruck in
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 ...
. It is the southernmost of the four great
mountain chain
A mountain chain is a row of high mountain summits, a linear sequence of interconnected or related mountains,Whittow, John (1984). ''Dictionary of Physical Geography''. London: Penguin, p 87. . or a contiguous ridge of mountains within a larger m ...
s in the
Karwendel
The Karwendel is the largest mountain range of the Northern Limestone Alps. The major part belongs to the Austrian federal state of Tyrol, while the adjacent area in the north is part of Bavaria, Germany. Four chains stretch from west to east; i ...
. To the west it is linked by the Erl Saddle to the
Erlspitze Group, to the east via the ''Stempeljoch'' saddle () to the
Gleirsch-Halltal Range. To the south it is bounded by the
Inn valley
The Inn ( la, Aenus; rm, En) is a river in Switzerland, Austria and Germany. The river is long. It is a right tributary of the Danube and it is the third largest tributary of the Danube by discharge. The highest point of its drainage basin is ...
. Its highest summit is the
Kleiner Solstein () in the west of the range.
The Nordkette is served by the
Nordkette Cable Car
The Nordkette Cable Car (german: Nordkettenbahn) in the Austrian state of Tyrol is a gondola lift from Innsbruck to the Nordkette, the southernmost mountain chain of the Karwendel.
It runs in two sections from the Innsbruck quarter of Hunger ...
, which offers easy access to the
ski area
A ski area is the terrain and supporting infrastructure where skiing and other snow sports take place. Such sports include alpine and cross-country skiing, snow boarding, tubing, sledding, etc. Ski areas may stand alone or be part of a ski resort.
...
and the
Innsbruck Klettersteig. The latter starts in the east, near ''Hafelekar'' station () on the Nordkette Cable Car, and runs via the Seegrubenspitze, the Kemacher and the ''Langen Sattel'' to
Frau Hitt and the Frau Hitt Saddle in the west. In addition, the Goethe Way (''Goetheweg'') runs from Hafelekar Station along 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 frequ ...
eastwards to the Pfeis Hut north of the Rumer Spitze. Below the Hungerburg - Seegrube section of the Nordkette Cableway runs the ''Nordkette Singletrail'', one of the most challenging routes in Europe for
freeride mountain biker
Mountain biking is a sport of riding bicycles off-road, often over rough terrain, usually using specially designed mountain bikes. Mountain bikes share similarities with other bikes but incorporate features designed to enhance durability and pe ...
s.
The following
Alpine Club hut
Alpine club huts (german: Alpenvereinshütten) or simply club huts (''Clubhütten'') form the majority of the over 1,300 mountain huts in the Alps and are maintained by branches, or sections, of the various Alpine clubs. Although the usual English ...
s in the area of the Nordkette offer
climbers bases for multi-day tours taking in numerous summits: the
Solsteinhaus, the
Neue Magdeburger Hut, the
Pfeis Hut and the
Bettelwurf Hut (in the Gleirsch-Halltal Range).
In the southwest, there is a small massif in front of the Nordkette, the
Hechenberg, which reaches a height of at the ''Kirchbergköpfl'' and which is separated from the Nordkette to the northeast and east by the ''Kranebitter Klamm''.
Important summits
The most important summits of the Nordkette from west to east are the:
*
Großer Solstein ()
*
Kleiner Solstein ()
*
Hohe Warte ()
*
Hintere Brandjochspitze ()
*
Vordere Brandjochspitze ()
* Hippenspitze ()
* Brandjochkreuz ()
*
Frau Hitt ()
* Westliche Sattelspitze ()
*
Kemacher ()
* Kumpfkarspitze ()
* Seegrubenspitze ()
*
Hafelekarspitze
The Hafelekarspitze is a mountain in the so-called North Chain (''Nordkette'') north of Innsbruck in Austria.
Location and landscape
Below and west of the summit is the top station of ''Hafelekar'', the second section of the Nordkette Cable Car ...
()
*
Gleirschspitze ()
* Mandlspitze ()
*
Gleirschtaler Brandjoch ()
*
Rumer Spitze ()
* Thaurer Jochspitze ()
*
Pfeiser Spitze ()
* Lattenspitze ()
* Wildangerspitze ()
*
Thaurer Zunterkopf ()
*
Haller Zunterkopf ()
* Hochmahdkopf ()
External links
www.nordkette-austria.net– Website about the North Chain
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Mountain ranges of the Alps
Two-thousanders of Austria
Mountain ranges of Tyrol (state)
Karwendel
Innsbruck