UKC

Hi All,

I am in the middle of trying to sort out my summer holiday this year, done a bit of googling but thought I would ask the opinions of the fellow UKC'ers.

I want to go on a mountains holiday somewhere in the Alps with the Mrs, I was thinking of Austria, mainly because I've never been there before but I'm open for suggestions. I would like a destination that has good access to the following...

Easy ~3000m peaks
Chair lift to nice long walks
Easy but interesting Via Ferratas

We are both physically fit and can climb so we don't mind scrambling terrain but as our first proper trip to the Alps we would like to start off on something relatively easy.

Thanks!

In reply to BStar:

Moderators... This may want to be placed in rock destinations, sorry

In reply to BStar:

Stubai valley offers much of what you want, but I am only aware of 3 Via Ferrata routes

In reply to siisu:

http://www.stubai.at/de/sommer/klettern/klettersteige

Here is a link to Stubai klettersteiges.

We were in the Stubaital last summer. It is a great area for walking. We didn't climb so I can't give any recommendations on that.

There is a good bus service into the Stubaital (once an hour) from Innsbruck main railway station, which terminates at the lift station at the top of the valley.

In reply to BStar:

Kaisergebirge maybe?

http://www.summitpost.org/kaisergebirge/248374

In reply to Andy Manthorpe:

Andy, This brings it back. The bits around elferspitz were good, I thought the Nurnberger hutte route was brilliant.
BStar, the Elferspitz route is served by a gondola from Neusteft then a twenty mins walk. The Nurnberger Hutte is a 5 mins walk from the cable car that goes up to the glacier. All very convenient.

In reply to siisu:

I'm pretty sure that it is the Dresdener hut that is the short walk from the cable car, rather than the Nurnberger hut, which was quite a slog up from the main valley.

In reply to BStar:

I was in the Stubai valley last summer, its very well set up for the activities you want. I picked up a free via ferrata guide from the tourist info office where they also have good, regularly updated weather forecasts. I also got a good map from there which had info on huts and cable cars etc.(and much cheaper than the Alpine club maps).
The Via Ferrata guide is in German but you can mostly work it out. They range from short easily accessible ones, to full on, long serious mountain days but all seem to be well equipped and quite new.
There are also a few rock climbing areas (sport crags) shown on the map and with route info available from the nearest hut.
One point about Alpine routes to note however is that the glaciers have retreated a lot in recent years. We were using the Diadem Eastern Alps guide and found that the route descriptions were all out of date. We had to find alternative routes or take variations to get onto the routes because of retreating glaciers. It would be worth checking locally or on websites like summitpost before you head off for a route.

In reply to BStar:

There's a stack of info on via ferrata here
http://www.climbers-paradise.com/klettern/klettersteige/
It is all in German but google translate might help(?)
When you get to the route descriptions click on "topo drucken" and it brings up a printable version. Alternatively pick up the free guide from the tourist office which has the same info.

In reply to BStar:

For hiking, via ferratas, easy glaciers but "just" below 3000m and of course an incredible lot of alpine rock including easy classics. not much available on ukc to date but make sure to include some research on GE to get better ideas of the landscape on offer.

Just a few miles SW, the Hohe Tauern range offers lots of mostly easy 3000m peaks, usually with alpine club huts to support your ascents. Easy ones include großvenediger, granatspitze, rauriser sonnblick, ankogel & hochalmspitze and many more depending on your idea of solitude and comfort.

Best, th