The Windautal is a southern

side valley Side valleys and tributary valleys are valleys whose brooks or rivers flow into greater ones. Upstream, the valleys can be classified in an increasing order which is equivalent to the usual orographic order: the tributaries are ordered from ...

of the Tyrolean

Brixental The Brixental ("Brixen Valley") is a southeastern side valley of the Tirol (Bundesland), Tyrolean Lower Inn Valley in Austria with a length of about 30 km (18.6 mi). Near Wörgl (513 m AMSL; 318 mi) the Brixental and Inn valle ...

in the

Kitzbühel Alps The Kitzbühel Alps ( or ''Kitzbühler Alpen'') are a mountain range of the Central Eastern Alps surrounding the town of Kitzbühel in Tyrol, Austria. Geologically they are part of the western slate zone ( greywacke zone). Location Two-thirds of ...

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 ...

with a length of about 16 km. The valley is lies almost entirely within the territory of the parish of Westendorf; only its northernmost part lies in Hopfgarten. To the south the valley borders on the state of

Salzburg Salzburg is the List of cities and towns in Austria, fourth-largest city in Austria. In 2020 its population was 156,852. The city lies on the Salzach, Salzach River, near the border with Germany and at the foot of the Austrian Alps, Alps moun ...

. To the north - near Hopfgarten (623 m) - the Windautal and

valleys merge. The stream of the

Windauer Ache The Windauer Ache is a mountain stream in Tyrol, Austria, in the scenic Windautal valley in the Kitzbühel Alps. The Ache rises on the Reinkarsee at about , at the foot of the Kröndlhorn, and its middle reaches run through a roughly long gorge ...

flows through the Windau and discharges into the

Brixentaler Ache The Brixentaler Ache is a river of Tyrol, Austria, a right tributary of the Inn. It passes through the districts of Kitzbühel and Kufstein. It is one of the largest tributaries of the Inn in the Tyrolean Unterland by catchment area (), but is only ...

. In the 16th and 17th centuries,

copper Copper is a chemical element; it has symbol Cu (from Latin ) and atomic number 29. It is a soft, malleable, and ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. A freshly exposed surface of pure copper has a pinkish-orang ...

galena Galena, also called lead glance, is the natural mineral form of lead(II) sulfide (PbS). It is the most important ore of lead and an important source of silver. Galena is one of the most abundant and widely distributed sulfide minerals. It crysta ...

and

pyrites The mineral pyrite ( ), or iron pyrite, also known as fool's gold, is an iron sulfide with the chemical formula Fe S2 (iron (II) disulfide). Pyrite is the most abundant sulfide mineral. Pyrite's metallic luster and pale brass-yellow hue ...

were mined in the valley. The Windautal is a popular recreation area and a particularly good for ski tours, hiking, mountain biking and cycling. The route through the valley along the lower reaches of the Windauer Ache is part of the "

Kaiser Kaiser ( ; ) is the title historically used by German and Austrian emperors. In German, the title in principle applies to rulers anywhere in the world above the rank of king (). In English, the word ''kaiser'' is mainly applied to the emperors ...

Circuit (''Kaiser-Runde''), a long distance circular cycleway that starts and ends in

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 ...

.Kufsteinerland
''Kaiser-Runde''
/ref> The Windauer Ache is also popular with whitewater canoeists (grade WW II to WW V). The southern part of the valley is only accessible by car over a toll road (partly unmetalled) and is very sparsely settled. The

Salzburg-Tyrol Railway The Salzburg-Tyrol Railway () is a main line railway in Austria. It runs through the states of Salzburg and Tyrol (North Tyrol) from the city of Salzburg to Wörgl and belongs to the core network (''Kernnetz'') of the Austrian Federal Railways ...

runs along the slopes and through several tunnels of the lower (northern) Windautal, where, in the middle of a curve, a bridge spans the valley. On the northeastern perimeter of the valley is the halt of "Windau". This so-called ''Windauer Schleife'' ("Windau Curve"), which is used to gain height in the valley and is very scenic, is a popular photographic theme with railway photographers. The landscape of the valley is characterised by wooded mountains and numerous alpine meadows (''Almen''). Above the

tree line The tree line is the edge of a habitat at which trees are capable of growing and beyond which they are not. It is found at high elevations and high latitudes. Beyond the tree line, trees cannot tolerate the environmental conditions (usually low ...

the open slopes are used as grazing pasture for sheep, goats, cows and horses. The Windau is surrounded by a large number of peaks, most of them over 2,000 metres high. Important mountains are the

Steinbergstein The Steinbergstein is a mountain, ({{convert, 2215, m, ft, disp=output only, abbr=on) high, in the Kitzbühel Alps in Austria. Location The Steinbergstein rises between the valleys of the Windauer Ache and the ''Kelchsauer Ache''. The cirque b ...

(2,215 m), the

Kröndlhorn The Kröndlhorn is a high mountain in the Kitzbühel Alps in Austria. It is one of the highest mountains on the main crest of the Kitzbühel Alps. The state border between Tyrol and Salzburger Land runs over its summit. Location The Kröndlh ...

(2,444 m) and the

Brechhorn The Brechhorn is a high mountain in the Kitzbühel Alps in Austria. It lies between the valleys of the ''Aschauer Ache'' and the Windau.Austrian Map Series (''Österreichische Karte'') 1:50.000 (ÖK 50) - seAMAP Online Use The upper slopes of ...

(2,032 m).

References

{{Coord, 47.369267, N, 12.22143, E, type:mountain_region:AT-7, display=title, format=dms Valleys of Tyrol (federal state) Kitzbühel Alps Kitzbühel District