The Hochplattig is a mountain, high,

Bundesamt für Eich- und Vermessungswesen The Federal Office of Metrology and Surveying of Austria (, BEV) is the body responsible for official surveying, geo-information and weights and measures (metrology) in Austria. It belongs to the ' (Federal Ministry of the Economy Location and Digi ...

Österreich:
Austrian Map online (Austrian map series 1:50,000)
''. and the highest summit in the

Mieming Chain The Mieming(er) Range, Mieminger Chain () or Mieminger Mountains (''Mieminger Gebirge''), is a mountain range of the Northern Limestone Alps in the Eastern Alps. It is located entirely in Austria within the state of Tyrol (Bundesland), Tyrol. ...

, a mountain range in the

Northern Limestone Alps The Northern Limestone Alps (), also called the Northern Calcareous Alps, are the ranges of the Eastern Alps north of the Central Eastern Alps located in Austria and the adjacent Bavarian lands of southeastern Germany. The distinction from the ...

in the state of

Tyrol Tyrol ( ; historically the Tyrole; ; ) is a historical region in the Alps of Northern Italy and western Austria. The area was historically the core of the County of Tyrol, part of the Holy Roman Empire, Austrian Empire and Austria-Hungary, f ...

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 ...

Topography

The Hochplattig lies on the main crest of the Mieming Chain, which runs from the Wannig in the west to the

Hohe Munde The Hohe Munde is a mountain at the eastern end of the Mieming Chain in the Austrian state of Tyrol. It has two peaks: the west top (2,662 m) and the east top or ''Mundekopf'' (2,592 m). Location The Hohe Munde rises north of the v ...

in the east. Its immediate neighbour to the west is the Eastern Mitterspitze (''Östliche Mitterspitze'', 2,705 m). To the east are the ''Alplscharte'' (2,317 m) and the Hochwand (2,721 m). To the south of the mountain, below its subpeaks, the ''Gacher Blick'' (1,909 m) and ''Judenköpfe'' (2,021 m), are the

Mieming Plateau The Mieming Plateau ({{langx, de, Mieminger Plateau) is a mountain terrace between 850 and 1000 metres high above the Upper Inn valley in the Austrian state of Tyrol (Bundesland), Tyrol at the southern foot of the Mieming Chain. It lies in ...

and

Inn valley The Inn (; ; ) is a river in Switzerland, Austria and Germany. The long river is a right tributary of the Danube, being the third largest tributary of the Danube by discharge. The highest point of its drainage basin is the summit of Piz Bernin ...

. To the north, the ''Ehrwalder Alm'' separates the Ehrwald Basin from the valley of Gaistal. Here, on the north

arête An arête ( ; ) is a narrow ridge of rock that 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 ...

of the Hochplattig, which separates the cirque of ''Igelskar'' to the northwest from the ''Schwarzbachkar'' cirque to the northeast, is the ''Breitenkopf'' (2,469 m). To the north the Hochplattig is characterised by steep rock faces, to the south, steep grassy mountainsides and ''

schrofen Schrofen, a German mountaineering term, is steep terrain, strewn with rocks and rock outcrops, that is laborious to cross, but whose rock ledges (''schrofen'') offer many good steps and hand holds. It is usually rocky terrain on which grass has es ...

'' terrain dominates. The highest point of the Hochplattig is its rather indistinct main summit with a height of (2,768 m), which lies about midway along the roughly 700-metre-long arête between its west top, the ''Westeck'' (2,749 m) and its east top, the ''Ostgipfel'' (2,698 m).

Ascent

Although the Hochplattig is the highest peak in the area and a good viewing mountain, it is relatively rarely climbed. There is no path along the summit ridge, just a few traces of a route at the end of the

waymark Trail blazing or way marking is the practice of marking paths in outdoor recreational areas with signs or markings that follow each other at certain, though not necessarily exactly defined, distances and mark the direction of the trail. A blaz ...

ed trail on the Gacher Blick to the south. The rest of the route has to be negotiated through trackless, broken ''

'' terrain, endangered by

rockfall A rockfall or rock-fallWhittow, John (1984). ''Dictionary of Physical Geography''. London: Penguin, 1984. . is a quantity of Rock (geology), rock that has fallen freely from a cliff face. The term is also used for collapse of rock from roof or wa ...

s, up a steep

couloir A couloir (, "passage" or "corridor") is a narrow gully with a steep gradient in a mountainous terrain.Whittow, John (1984). ''Dictionary of Physical Geography''. London: Penguin, p. 121. . Geology A couloir may be a seam, scar, or fissure, o ...

( UIAA grade I) and where it is difficult to orient oneself. The east top is the easiest to reach. It was thus climbed from an early date by local hunters. The main summit, by contrast, was first ascended on 11 August 1872 by

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 ...

, and the west top on 21 August 1883 by

Ludwig Purtscheller Ludwig Purtscheller (6 October 1849 – 3 March 1900) was an Austrian mountaineering, mountaineer and teacher. Purtscheller pioneered climbing without a mountain guide, who in the 19th century did all the route finding and lead climbing. By the ...

. Most of the other ascents, from the ''Alplscharte'' ( UIAA III), from the southwest ( UIAA II), up the north face ( UIAA II) or from the ''Alplhaus'' to the southeast ( UIAA I), are on very broken terrain and less often attempted.

Literature

* *

Alpine Club map Alpine Club maps (, often abbreviated to ''AV-Karten'' i.e. AV maps) are especially detailed maps for summer and winter mountain climbers, hikers, and ski tourers. They are predominantly published at a scale of 1:25.000, although some sheets have ...

1:25,000 series, Sheet 4/2, ''Wetterstein und Mieminger Gebirge, Mitte''

References

{{reflist Two-thousanders of Austria Mountains of the Alps Mountains of Tyrol (federal state) Mieming Range