The Pyramidenspitze is a mountain, 1,998 metres high, of the

Kaisergebirge The Kaiser Mountains (, meaning ''Emperor Mountains'') are a mountain range in the Northern Limestone Alps and Eastern Alps. Its main ridges – are the Zahmer Kaiser and south of it the Wilder Kaiser. The mountains are situated in the Austri ...

in the Austrian 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 ...

. The Pyramidenspitze is only the second highest summit in the Zahmer Kaiser after the largely unknown,

Vordere Kesselschneid At the Vordere Kesselschneid is the highest summit in the Zahmer Kaiser, the northern chain of the Kaiser Mountains in the Austrian state of Tyrol. Its summit is located southeast of the oft-visited Pyramidenspitze and is separated from it by ...

, but is the most well-known and most frequently climbed. To the south and west of the Pyramidenspitze is a high,

karst Karst () is a topography formed from the dissolution of soluble carbonate rocks such as limestone and Dolomite (rock), dolomite. It is characterized by features like poljes above and drainage systems with sinkholes and caves underground. Ther ...

ified plateau, covered with

mountain pine ''Pinus mugo'', known as dwarf mountain pine, mountain pine, scrub mountain pine, Swiss mountain pine, bog pine, creeping pine, or mugo pine, is a species of conifer, native to high elevation habitats from southwestern to Central Europe and So ...

, which falls steeply into the valley of the

Kaisertal The Kaisertal (formerly ''Sparchental'') is a striking mountain valley between the mountain chains of the Zahmer and Wilder Kaiser in Austria's Kaisergebirge range in the Tyrol (state), Tyrol. In the ravine (''Sparchenklamm'') on the valley flo ...

and has a long

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 ...

with several summits extending towards

Kufstein Kufstein (; ) is a town in the Austrian state of Tyrol, the administrative seat of Kufstein District. With a population of about 20,000 it is the second largest Tyrolean town after the state capital Innsbruck. The greatest landmark is Kufstein For ...

. To the north it is separated by a wind gap from the Jovenspitze. To the northwest the Pyramidenspitze drops steeply over the Eggersgrinn and to the northeast it drops down rock precipices into the Winkel

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 ...

(''Winkelkar'').

Routes

The Pyramidenspitze may be reached from the west from the Vorderkaiserfelden Hut over a long but worthwhile path that runs past the Naunspitze (1,633 m), Petersköpfl (1,745 m) and Einserkogel (1,924 m) that leads to the

summit cross A summit cross is a Christian cross on the summit of a mountain or hill that marks the top. Often there will be a summit register (''Gipfelbuch'') at the cross, either in a container or other weatherproof case. The practice originated in the Ge ...

without any real difficulties in 2.5 hours. More challenging is the northern route which departs from Durchholzen. As far as the Winkel cirque the path is problem-free, but from there on there is a '' klettersteig'' (A/B) to the summit. The walking time is three hours in total. In places there is a risk of major rockfalls on this route.

References

External links

Tours in the Zahmer Kaiser

Tour description
{{in lang, de Mountains of the Alps Mountains of Tyrol (federal state) Kaiser Mountains