The Strahlkogel, at , is the highest peak in the Larstiger Mountains (''Larstiger Berge''), a subgroup of the

Stubai Alps The Stubai Alps (, ) is a mountain range in the Central Eastern Alps of Europe. It derives its name from the Stubaital valley to its east and is located southwest of Innsbruck, Austria. Several peaks form the border between Austria and Italy. The ...

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 Strahlkogel is also the highest mountain in the municipality of

Umhausen Umhausen is a municipality in the Imst district of state of Tyrol in western Austria. It and is located 17 km southeast of Imst at the Ötztaler Ache in the Ötztal. It has 3078 inhabitants. Geography The municipality consists of six vil ...

. Its name comes from its great, white, light-reflecting,

quartz Quartz is a hard, crystalline mineral composed of silica (silicon dioxide). The Atom, atoms are linked in a continuous framework of SiO4 silicon–oxygen Tetrahedral molecular geometry, tetrahedra, with each oxygen being shared between two tet ...

layers, which allegedly cause the mountain to "radiate" (''strahlen''). It has the shape of a well-proportioned, steep and pointed pyramid. Ascending the Strahlkogel is difficult and it is thus only rarely visited, unlike the neighbouring 3,287-metre-high Breiter Grieskogel. The first ascent of the mountain was in 1833 by Peter Carl Thurwieser, but his route and the precise circumstances of the climb have not been passed on. On 28 August 1887

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 ...

and Fritz Drasch from Salzburg climbed the mountain. Their route led along the west

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 ...

. Today, this is the

normal route A normal route or normal way (; ) is the most frequently used climbing route for ascending and descending a given mountain peak; it is usually the easiest and often the most straightforward route. Other generic names include the ''Tourism, tourist ...

and easiest way to reach the summit.

Area

The Strahlkogel lies a good five kilometres

as the crow flies The expression ''as the crow flies'' is an idiom for the most direct path between two points. Etymology The meaning of the expression is attested from the early 19th century, and appeared in the Charles Dickens novel ''Oliver Twist'' (1838): ...

northeast of

Längenfeld Längenfeld is a municipality and a village in the Imst District, Tyrol, Austria. It is located 25 km southeast of Imst in the Ötztal valley, 14 km north of Sölden Sölden () is a municipality in the Ötztal valley of Tyrol, Aust ...

in the

Ötztal The Ötztal () is an alpine valley located in Tyrol, Austria. The Ötztaler Ache river flows through the valley in a northern direction. The Ötztal separates the Stubai Alps in the east from the Ötztal Alps in the west. The valley is long. The ...

valley and 7 km west-southwest of ''Lüsens'' in the ''Lisenstal'' valley. It is surrounded by

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 to the east and west. The steep and heavily

crevasse A crevasse is a deep crack that forms in a glacier or ice sheet. Crevasses form as a result of the movement and resulting stress associated with the shear stress generated when two semi-rigid pieces above a plastic substrate have different rate ...

d ''Larstigferner'' to the east reaches a height of up to 3,200 metres, and in the south lies the flatter, but wider ''Grasstallferner'', that reaches a height of 3,100 metres. Its neighbouring peaks are the 3,287-metre-high Breiter Grießkogel on the

ice divide An ice divide is the boundary on an ice sheet, ice cap or glacier separating opposite flow directions of ice, analogous to a water divide. Ice divides are important for geochronological investigations that use ice cores, since such coring is typic ...

between the ''Grasstallferner'' and ''Grießferner'' glaciers, the ''Grasstaller Grießkogel'' (3,160 m) on the prominent ''Strahlkogel West Arete'', and the ''Larstigspitze'' (3,173 m) to the east, separated by the ''Larstigscharte'' notch (3,032 m).

Start points and paths

The present normal route to the Strahlkogel runs along the West Arete. The start point for an ascent is the village of ''Niederthai'' in the Ötztal valley at a height of 1,538 metres above sea level. From there the route runs southwards to the lake of ''Grasstallsee'', then east on the Grasstallferner glacier as a

mountain tour 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 ...

(only to be attempted with the right equipment and experience) and along the west arete requiring climbing of UIAA

grade Grade most commonly refers to: * Grading in education, a measurement of a student's performance by educational assessment (e.g. A, pass, etc.) * A designation for students, classes and curricula indicating the number of the year a student has reach ...

II - III sections to the summit. According to the literature the ascent takes about five hours. The Strahlkogel may, however, also be ascended via very difficult climbing routes up the south flank and along the southeast arete. The start point for this approach is the Winnebachsee Hut (2,362 m) above Gries im Sulztal.

Literature and maps

*Walter Klier: '' Alpine Club Guide Stubaier Alpen'', Munich, 2006, *Eduard Richter: ''Die Erschließung der Ostalpen, II. Band'', Berlin, Verlag des Deutschen und Oesterreichischen Alpenvereins, 1894 *

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, Sheet 31/2 ''Stubaier Alpen, Sellrain''

External links

*{{Commonscat-inline Alpine three-thousanders Mountains of the Alps Mountains of Tyrol (federal state) Stubai Alps