Hintertux Glacier

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Coordinates: 47 ° 4 ′ 15 ″  N , 11 ° 39 ′ 50 ″  E

Hintertux Glacier (Tyrol)
Alpine skiing pictogram.svg
Hintertux Glacier
A slope on the Hintertux Glacier (Tuxerfernerhang)

Hintertux Glacier is the tourist name for the ski area on the Tuxer Ferner and the neighboring Riepenkees near Hintertux at the end of the Tuxertal , a side valley of the Zillertal in Tyrol , Austria . Both glaciers are accessible by cable cars and lifts and are used all year round as a glacier ski area. At its highest points, the ski area extends up to 3250  m in the Wildlahnerscharte on the Olperer and the saddle between the Gefrorene-Wand peaks .

Along with Zermatt, the Hintertux Glacier is the only ski area in the Alps that is open 365 days a year.

The glaciers

The Hintertux Glacier in August 2017

The Tuxer Ferner ( Ferner , from High German firn for 'glacier', also Kees ) is a mighty ice field that is located in the Tux valley head northeast below Kleinem Kaserer (Kaserer3093  m above sea level ), Großem Kaserer (Haserer3263  m ), Olperer  ( 3476  m ) and the Gefrorene-Wand -itzen ( 3288  m and 3270  m ). Because of its location, it is also commonly referred to as the Hintertux Glacier . The Gefrorene -Wand-Kees is a partial glacier on the northern flank of the northern of the two Gefrorene-Wand peaks . The glacier ends in a mighty one kilometer wide icefall today above 2,600  m . The glacier is up to 120 meters thick at its deepest point in the ice. It has a length of about 4 km, whereby this varies annually due to the movement of up to 40 meters. That's why the lifts have to be moved several times a year so that the masts are straight. In total, the glacier consists of up to 190 million cubic meters of ice (as of 2010). The glacier is the headwaters of the Great Kunerbach , a Tuxbach -Quellbach.

The Großer Riepenkees extends in the Zamser Grund southeast from the Olperer to the southern Gefrorene-Wand-Spitze (the Kleiner Riepenkees is a glacier remnant east between the two Gefrorene-Wand-Spitzen). It is related to the Tuxer Ferner on the fully glaciated Riepensattel . Due to its south-facing location, this glacier is comparatively small and around 1 km long. In the cirque below is a glacier lake, which today is the source of the Riepenbach . There is the southern end of the ski area (Schlegeis cable car, named after the Schlegeis reservoir in the Zemmgrund, the glacier appropriately as Schlegeis glacier ).

In addition to the Riepenkees, the Tuxer Ferner also changes over to the Wildlahnersattel in the Olpererferner and Wildlahnerferner in the Schmirn . The contact to the other glaciers, the Unterschrammachkees south of the Olperergipfel (Zamser Grund) as well as the Friesenbergkees east (on both sides of the Tuxbach – Zamserbach watershed) has been broken off today.

The ski area

Besides Zermatt, the Hintertux Glacier is the only ski area in the Alps that is open all year round (except in the event of force majeure, e.g. storms). Due to the altitude, there are usually good snow conditions so that almost all slopes and lifts can be used. The glacier ski area offers its own ski school for beginners and advanced skiers.

Lifts and cable cars

Bridge crevice in the natural ice palace

To carry the amount of tourists on the Hintertux glacier, three large were there cableways Built: The glaciers buses run with one gondola on two steel cables and can carry a gondola as 24 people. In 1968, the world's first chairlift with supports in the glacier ice was built in Hintertux: the Gefrorene Wand single chairlift , which extends from the Tuxer Fernerhaus ( 2600  m ) to the Felskopf ( 3050  m ). The Glacier Bus 3 is the highest cable car on 2 steel cables in the world. The glacial buses cableway installations of the type Funitel . The third large cable car was only put into operation in the 2008/2009 winter season. It is now called Gletscherbus 1 and leads from the valley station up to the Sommerbergalm . This replaced the older 4-person gondolas that had previously taken over passenger transport together with the 8-person gondola lift to the Sommerbergalm that was still in operation. In order to guarantee year-round operation, there are 2 cable cars in each section of the feeder chain from the valley station to the Frozen Wall. A total of 18 lifts are available for transport from the Hintertux valley station ( 1500  m ) to the glacier.

Other tourist offers

In addition to the winter sports possibilities, the Hintertux Glacier allows a panoramic view of the Alps from almost 3250  m , it is also popular as a pure cable car excursion destination.

The area is also suitable for mountain hiking , there are a few huts, some with year-round catering. Hillside Restaurant Spannagelhaus is the natural monument Spannagelhöhle , with over 10 km of one of the largest cave systems in the entire Central Alps .

A crevasse can be visited ("Nature Ice Palace") ; the entrance to it is located just below the mountain station of the glacier bus 3 . Visitors descend about 25 meters into the ice using ladders and stairs.

photos

Web links

Commons : Hintertux Glacier  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. Information about the ice of the glacier on hintertuxergletscher.at ( Memento from September 20, 2008 in the Internet Archive )
  2. ↑ The fascination of ice cream. (No longer available online.) In: hintertuxergletscher.at. Archived from the original on May 12, 2015 ; accessed on June 8, 2015 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.hintertuxergletscher.at
  3. Hintertux Glacier / Hintertux ski area. In: bergfex.at. Retrieved May 8, 2015 (with panorama map).
  4. Hintertux Glacier. General information on skiurlauboesterreich.org.
  5. Natur Eis Palast , prospectus (PDF, 1.1 MB; on natursport.at, accessed on January 5, 2011).