The Seefeld Plateau () is a montane valley and basin landscape in the North Tyrolean Limestone Alps about 500 metres above the

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 ...

in the

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 ...

n 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 plateau covers the valley basin around the villages of

Seefeld in Tirol Seefeld in Tirol is an old farming village, now a major tourist resort, in Innsbruck-Land District in the Austrian state of Tyrol (state), Tyrol with a local population of 3,312 (as of 1 January 2013). The village is located about northwest of Inn ...

and

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 ...

as well as the valley of ''Leutaschtal''.

Location

The Seefeld Plateau runs northwards from the edge of the Inn

graben In geology, a graben () is a depression (geology), depressed block of the Crust (geology), crust of a planet or moon, bordered by parallel normal faults. Etymology ''Graben'' is a loan word from German language, German, meaning 'ditch' or 't ...

at the

Zirler Berg The Zirler Berg near Zirl in the Austrian federal state of Tyrol is a mountain, high, in the Karwendel Alps, a western part of the Northern Limestone Alps. It is a southern foothill of the Reither Spitze (2,374 m) and is known mainly b ...

. It lies at a height of around in the North Tyrolean Limestone Alps between the

Wetterstein Mountains The Wetterstein mountains (), colloquially called Wetterstein, is a mountain group in the Northern Limestone Alps within the Eastern Alps, crossing the Austria–Germany border. It is a comparatively compact range located between Garmi ...

to the northwest, the Mieming Mountains to the west and 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 ...

to the east. The

Seefeld Saddle The Seefeld Saddle () is a saddle and mountain pass, , in the Northern Limestone Alps in the Austrian federal state of Tyrol. Two major transport routes run over it: the ''Seefelder Straße'' (B 177) and the Mittenwald Railway. On the Seefe ...

(), a

mountain pass A mountain pass is a navigable route through a mountain range or over a ridge. Since mountain ranges can present formidable barriers to travel, passes have played a key role in trade, war, and both Human migration, human and animal migration t ...

and

saddle A saddle is a supportive structure for a rider of an animal, fastened to an animal's back by a girth. The most common type is equestrian. However, specialized saddles have been created for oxen, camels and other animals. It is not know ...

south of Seefeld, forms a watershed, north of which the plateau drains towards the

Isar The Isar () is a river in Austria and in Bavaria, Germany. Its source is in the Karwendel mountain range of the Alps. The Isar river enters Germany near Mittenwald and flows through Krün, Wallgau, Bad Tölz, Munich, and Landshut before reaching ...

and south of which it drains into the

Inn Inns are generally establishments or buildings where travelers can seek lodging, and usually, food and drink. Inns are typically located in the country or along a highway. Before the advent of motorized transportation, they also provided accomm ...

Geology and flora

The dominant rocks of the Seefeld Plateaus are

Wetterstein limestone The Wetterstein Formation is a regional geologic formation of the Northern Limestone Alps and Western Carpathians extending from southern Bavaria, Germany in the west, through northern Austria to northern Hungary and western Slovakia in the east ...

and

main dolomite Main Dolomite (, , ) is a lithostratigraphic unit in the Alps of Europe. Formation was defined by K.W. Gümbel in 1857. Middle to Late Triassic sedimentary record in the Alpine realm is characterized by presence of various masses of dolomitic r ...

with scattered occurrences of

bituminous Bitumen ( , ) is an immensely viscous constituent of petroleum. Depending on its exact composition, it can be a sticky, black liquid or an apparently solid mass that behaves as a liquid over very large time scales. In American English, the m ...

slate Slate is a fine-grained, foliated, homogeneous, metamorphic rock derived from an original shale-type sedimentary rock composed of clay or volcanic ash through low-grade, regional metamorphism. It is the finest-grained foliated metamorphic ro ...

. A branch of the

ice age An ice age is a long period of reduction in the temperature of Earth's surface and atmosphere, resulting in the presence or expansion of continental and polar ice sheets and alpine glaciers. Earth's climate alternates between ice ages, and g ...

Inn Glacier scoured out several basins and left lakes behind such as the Wildsee, the Möserer See and the Wildmoossee as well as numerous

raised bog Raised bogs, also called ombrotrophic bogs, are acidic, wet habitats that are poor in mineral salts and are home to flora and fauna that can cope with such extreme conditions. Raised bogs, unlike fens, are exclusively fed by precipitation (ombro ...

s like the Reither Moor that were formed by the

silting up Siltation is water pollution caused by particulate terrestrial clastic material, with a particle size dominated by silt or clay. It refers both to the increased concentration of suspended sediments and to the increased accumulation (temporary or ...

of lakes. The plateau lies in the montane altitude zone. On its slopes are

fir Firs are evergreen coniferous trees belonging to the genus ''Abies'' () in the family Pinaceae. There are approximately 48–65 extant species, found on mountains throughout much of North and Central America, Eurasia, and North Africa. The genu ...

and

beech Beech (genus ''Fagus'') is a genus of deciduous trees in the family Fagaceae, native to subtropical (accessory forest element) and temperate (as dominant element of Mesophyte, mesophytic forests) Eurasia and North America. There are 14 accepted ...

mixed woods interspersed with

spruce A spruce is a tree of the genus ''Picea'' ( ), a genus of about 40 species of coniferous evergreen trees in the family Pinaceae, found in the northern temperate and boreal ecosystem, boreal (taiga) regions of the Northern hemisphere. ''Picea'' ...

. The meadows around the villages are mainly false oat-grass pastures that are used as

hay meadow Hay is grass, legumes, or other herbaceous plants that have been cut and dried to be stored for use as animal fodder, either for large grazing animals raised as livestock, such as cattle, horses, goats, and sheep, or for smaller domesticate ...

s or for

grazing In agriculture, grazing is a method of animal husbandry whereby domestic livestock are allowed outdoors to free range (roam around) and consume wild vegetations in order to feed conversion ratio, convert the otherwise indigestible (by human diges ...

Economy and transport

With around 1.74 million overnight stays per year, evenly divided between winter and summer (as at 2013), tourism is by far the most important economic factor on the Seefeld Plateau. The area has developed itself into a centre for

Nordic skiing Nordic skiing encompasses the various types of skiing in which the toe of the ski boot is fixed to the binding in a manner that allows the heel to rise off the ski, unlike alpine skiing, where the boot is attached to the ski from toe to heel. Re ...

and was the venue for Nordic competitions in the

Winter Olympics The Winter Olympic Games (), also known as the Winter Olympics, is a major international multi-sport event held once every four years for sports practiced on snow and ice. The first Winter Olympic Games, the 1924 Winter Olympics, were held i ...

1964 Events January * January 1 – The Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland is dissolved. * January 5 – In the first meeting between leaders of the Roman Catholic and Orthodox churches since the fifteenth century, Pope Paul VI and Patria ...

and

1976 Events January * January 2 – The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights enters into force. * January 5 – The Pol Pot regime proclaims a new constitution for Democratic Kampuchea. * January 18 – Full diplomatic ...

, the 1985 Nordic Ski World Championships and many other major events. In summer the

Alps are a major attraction for hikers and mountain bikers. The plateau may be reached on the ''

Seefelder Straße ''Seefelder Straße'' (B 177) is a 21.2 km long former federal road or Bundesstraße#Austria, ''Bundesstraße'' - now classified as a "priority road" or ''Straße mit Vorrang'' - in the Alps in the Austrian federal state of Tyrol (Bund ...

'' (B 177) road that runs over the

from the

as well as other state roads. The Mittenwald Railway also runs across the plateau from north to south, stopping at several stations including

, Seefeld and Reith.

References

Andrea Bucher, Wolfgang Hofbauer, Georg Gärtner
''Beitrag zur Moosflora von Seefeld und Umgebung und des Leutascher Beckens (Nordtirol)''
In: Berichte des naturwissenschaftlich-medizinischen Vereins in Innsbruck, Vol. 80 (1993), pp. 53–67 (pdf; 2.6 MB) State of Tyrol: Regional profile Seefeld Plateau – 2014 statistics
(pdf; 734 kB)

External links

{{Commons category, Seefelder Plateau, Seefeld Plateau
Planungsverband 14 – Seefelder Plateau
Land Tirol, auf tirol.gv.at
Seefelder Plateau
Tirol Atlas der Universität Innsbruck, auf tirolatlas.uibk.ac.at Regions of Tyrol (federal state) Innsbruck-Land District Karwendel Wetterstein Mieming Range