At the height of the Kleinglockner is the third highest mountain summit 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 ...
. However, with a
prominence of only 17 metres it is arguable whether it can be counted as an independent
mountain
A mountain is an elevated portion of the Earth's crust, generally with steep sides that show significant exposed bedrock. Although definitions vary, a mountain may differ from a plateau in having a limited summit area, and is usually higher t ...
, or just as a subpeak of the
Großglockner. It lies in the
Glockner Group of Austria's
Central Alps, the middle section of the
Hohe Tauern
The High Tauern (pl.; german: Hohe Tauern, it, Alti Tauri) are a mountain range on the main chain of the Central Eastern Alps, comprising the highest peaks east of the Brenner Pass. The crest forms the southern border of the Austrian states of S ...
. Geographically and geologically speaking, it is viewed a secondary summit of the neighbouring Großglockner, but in the literature, in view of its importance to mountaineering, it is in some cases treated as separate. Its peak forms part of the Glockner crest or ridge (''Glocknerkamm'') and lies exactly on the border between the Austrian state of
Carinthia and
Lienz District in the
East Tyrol
East Tyrol, occasionally East Tirol (german: Osttirol), is an exclave of the Austrian state of Tyrol, separated from the main North Tyrol part by the short common border of Salzburg and Italian South Tyrol (''Südtirol'', it, Alto Adige). It ...
. The Kleinglockner has the shape of a sharp edge, covered with the so-called Glockner Cornice (''Glocknerwechte'') and, depending on the conditions, can make the ascent of the mountain dangerous to almost impossible. The climbing history of the Kleinglockner is closely linked to that of the Großglockner, because the first climbers, coming from the south and east, had to cross it.
Sources
*
Willi End: ''
Alpine Club Guide Glocknergruppe''.
Bergverlag Rother, Munich 2003, {{ISBN, 3-7633-1266-8.
* Eduard Richter (Redaktion): ''Die Erschließung der Ostalpen, III. Band''. Published by the German and Austrian Alpine Club, Berlin 1894.
* Raimund von Klebelsberg: ''Geologie von Tirol''. Berlin 1935.
*
Alpenvereinskarte 1:25.000, Blatt 40, ''Glocknergruppe''.
Mountains of the Alps
Mountains of Carinthia (state)
Mountains of Tyrol (state)
Alpine three-thousanders
Glockner Group