The Hinterautal-Vomper Chain (), also called the main chain of the Karwendel (''Karwendelhauptkette''), is the longest

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 mo ...

in the

Karwendel The Karwendel is the largest mountain range of the Northern Limestone Alps. It is located on the Austria–Germany border. The major part belongs to the Austrian federal state of Tyrol (state), Tyrol, while the adjacent area in the north is part ...

Alps in

Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...

. It has numerous peaks that reach heights of 2,500 m, including the highest summit of the Karwendel, the Birkkarspitze (), and its neighbour, the three Ödkarspitzen. While long ridges radiate south and north from the western part of the main chain, with typical Karwendel

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

s nestling between them, the eastern part of the chain has an almost 1,000 m high, solid rock face on the northern side, which is most striking at the Laliderer Wand. The main chain is divided into the Hinterautal ("Hinterau Valley") chain (''Hinterautalkette'') in the west and the Vomper Chain (''Vomperkette'') in the east and runs through the Karwendel Alps from

Scharnitz Scharnitz is a municipality in the district of Innsbruck-Land in the Austrian state of Tyrol located north of Innsbruck and from Seefeld in Tirol on the German border. It is one of the largest municipalities and has 10 parts: Au, Eisack, Gi ...

in the west to the village of Vomp in the east. North of the Hinterautal-Vomper Chain is the

Northern Karwendel Chain The Northern Karwendel Chain () is the northernmost of the four great, largely parallel mountain chains in the Karwendel in the Alps. It is made from very pure Wetterstein limestone, which has its heart in the Karwendel and runs for a total len ...

(''Nördliche Karwendelkette''), to the south follows the

Gleirsch-Halltal Chain The Gleirsch-Halltal Chain () or Gleirsch-Halltal Range is a mountain chain in the Karwendel in the Northern Limestone Alps. It follows to the south of the Hinterautal-Vomper Chain, the longest mountain chain in the Karwendel. South of the St ...

, large parts of which have steep, northern slopes, often vertical and hundreds of metres high which are typical of the four Karwendel

s. Along the western part of the Hinterautal-Vomper Chain runs a difficult, high alpine mountain path which is called the Toni Gaugg Mountain Path (''Toni-Gaugg-Höhenweg'') after the man who blazed it. This enables the Hinterautal chain to be traversed from the Pleisen Hut to the Karwendelhaus. In the Northern Limestone Alps, to which the Karwendel belongs, there are a number of small and very small

glacier A glacier (; or ) is a persistent body of dense ice, a form of rock, that is constantly moving downhill under its own weight. A glacier forms where the accumulation of snow exceeds its ablation over many years, often centuries. It acquires ...

s. In the Hinterautal-Vomper Chain is the only glacier of the Karwendel, the ''Eiskarln'', north of and below the Eiskarlspitze. Karwendelgletscher

Important summits

The mountains in the chain, listed from west to east, are as follows: * Pleisenspitze () * Larchetkarspitze () * Große Riedlkarspitze () * Breitgrieskarspitze () * Oberer Spitzhüttenkopf () * Große Seekarspitze () * Marxenkarspitze () * Western Ödkarspitze () * Middle Ödkarspitze () * Eastern Ödkarspitze () * Hochalmkreuz () * Birkkarspitze () * Kaltwasserkarspitze () * Rauhkarlspitze () * Moserkarspitze () * Northern Sonnenspitze () * Southern Sonnenspitze () * Laliderer Spitze () * Dreizinkenspitze () * Grubenkarspitze () * Rossloch crest (''Rosslochkamm'') ** Sunntigerspitze () ** Hallerangerspitze () ** Gamskarspitze () ** Brantlspitze () ** Hochkanzel () ** Rosslochspitze () * Spritzkarspitze () * Spitzkarlspitze () * Eiskarlspitze () * Hochglück () * Huderbankspitze () * Barthspitze (), named after

Hermann von Barth Hermann von Barth (5 June 1845 – 7 December 1876) was a famous German mountaineer. Life and career Hermann von Barth was born on 5 June 1845 at Eurasburg Castle. He initially studied law in Munich, where he was affiliated to the Corps Fr ...

, the "Explorer of the Karwendel" * Schafkarspitze () * Mitterkarlspitze () * Lamsenspitze () * Rotwandlspitze () * Steinkarlspitze () * Hochnissl () * Schneekopf () * Mittagspitze () * Fiechter Spitze ()

External links

{{Commons category, Hinterautal-Vomper-Kette, Hinterautal-Vomper Chain Mountain ranges of the Alps Mountain ranges of Tyrol (federal state) Karwendel