| Grossglockner | |
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The Grossglockner from the south-west |
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| Elevation | 3,798 m (12,461 ft) |
| Prominence | 2,423 m (7,949 ft) ranked 2nd in the Alps |
| Listing | Country high point Ultra |
| Pronunciation | German: [ˌɡʁoːs ˈɡlɔknɐ] |
| Location | |
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Grossglockner
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| Location | Carinthia & East Tyrol, Austria |
| Range | Hohe Tauern |
| Climbing | |
| First ascent | 28 July 1800, by Sepp and Martin Klotz, Martin Reicher and two others |
| Easiest route | PD, glacier 35°, UIAA II |
The Grossglockner (German: Großglockner, Slovene: Veliki Klek) is, at 3,798 m above sea level, Austria's highest mountain and the highest mountain in the Alps east of the Brenner Pass. This makes it, after Mont Blanc, the second most prominent mountain in the Alps, when measured by relative height; see the list of Alpine peaks by prominence.
The Grossglockner lies on the border between Carinthia and the East Tyrol; it is the highest peak in the Glockner group, a group of mountains along the main ridge of the Hohe Tauern. The summit itself lies on the Glockner ridge, which branches to the south off the main ridge. The Pasterze, Austria's biggest glacier, lies at the Grossglockner's foot.
The characteristically pyramid-shaped peak actually consists of two pinnacles, the Großglockner and the Kleinglockner (3,770 m; klein means "small" in German), separated by a saddle-like formation known as the Glocknerscharte.
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The Großglockner is part of the Glockner Crest (Glocknerkamms), a ridge in the Glockner Group (Austrian Central Alps) that branches off the main chain of the Alps at the Eiskögele heading in a southeasterly direction and forming the boundary between the Austrian federal states of Tyrol (municipality of Kals am Großglockner) in the southwest and Carinthia (municipality of Heiligenblut) in the northeast. This boundary is also the watershed between the Kalser Tal and its side valleys, the Teischnitz and the Ködnitz valleys on the Tyrolean side and the Möll valley with its glacier, the Pasterze, on the Carinthian side.[1][2] In addition, the region around the mountain has formed part of the Großglockner-Pasterze Special Protection Area within the High Tauern National Park since 1986.[3]
The Glockner is the highest mountain in the Alps east of the Ortler Alps,175 km away, and, after Mont Blanc, has the second greatest topographic isolation of all mountains in the Alps. Even its topographic prominence, at 2,424 metres, is the second highest after Mont Blanc in the entire Alps. That makes it one of the most independent peaks in the Alps.[4] The view from the Großglockner is one of the farthest of all the mountains in the Eastern Alps. It ranges out to 220 kilometres or, taking account of atmospheric refraction, almost 240 kilometres. Its view over more than 150,000 square kilometres of the earth's surface reaches as far as the Schwabian-Bavarian Plain in the northwest, to Regensburg and the Bohemian Forest in the north, to the Ortler in the west, to Poebene in the south, and to Triglav and the Totes Gebirge in the east.[5][6] The most important places in the local area are Kals am Großglockner (1,324 m), about 8 kilometres southwest in the Kalser Tal valley, and Heiligenblut (1,291 m), ca. twelve kilometres southeast in the Möll valley.
The Großglockner is a pyramidal rock summit that, due to its high Alpine, heavily glaciated appearance is often compared to the mountains of the Western Alps. Together with the 3,770 m high Kleinglockner to the southeast it forms a striking double peak. There are differing views in the literature as to whether the Kleinglockner is a subpeak or independent main summit. Due to its low topographic prominence and isolation as well as its close links, its climbing history is counted as part of that of the Großglockner in historic publications; but due to its separate routes it is counted in climbing literature as an independent peak. Between the two peaks lies the Obere Glocknerscharte which, at 3,766 m, is the highest col in Austria, from which a couloir up to 55° in gradient and 600 metres high descends to the Glocknerkees glacier, called the Pallavicinirinne after the climber, Alfred von Pallavicini. The couloir runs northeast and borders on the Northeast and North Faces of the Großglockner. The latter faces are bounded by the Northwest Ridge, part of the main Glockner crest, which runs over the Grögerschneid (3,660 m) and the ridge elevations of the Glocknerhorn (3,680 m) and Teufelshorn (3,677 m) to the Untere Glocknerscharte (3,598 m), which connects to the 3,721 m high Glocknerwand. A prominent ridge, the Stüdlgrat (named after Johann Stüdl), runs from the Großglockner away to the southwest, which together with its extension, the Luisengrat, separates the West Face and the glacier at its foot, the Teischnitzkees, from the South Face and its glacier, the Ködnitzkees. A couloir known as the Pillwaxrinne crosses the South Face below the Obere Glocknerscharte; most of the South Face lies east of this gully below the Kleinglockner. The east side of the Kleinglockner, the Glocknerleitl, is glaciated to just below the summit and is continued by the Kleinglocknerkees and Hofmannskees before reaching the Pasterze.
The history of the climbs started with Belsazar Haquet, a scientific professor of Ljubljana. He travelled in the area in 1779-1781 and wrote a book in 1783 where he described the mountain and stated that it had not been climbed yet. Inspired by the book the local bishop, cardinal Franz Xaxer Salm-Reifferscheid, started efforts for an expedition and engaged two carpenters of Heiligenblut, Martin and Sepp Klotz, to do the first explorations for an ascent through the Leitertal valley, which is the side of Grossglockner with the least ice (people feared glaciers in these times). The two brothers did more than they were ordered to do - and probably reached the summit of the Kleinglockner on July 23, 1799. One month later the expedition of the cardinal started: a hut (the first Salm hut) was built and the path in the Leitertal valley was prepared so that the cardinal could use a horse to reach the hut. 30 people were part of the expedition. They suffered with bad weather. A first effort failed, but on August 25, 1799 the brothers Klotz and at least 4 other people reached - again the Kleinglockner. There they installed a cross (one of the main goals of the church expedition). The reports did not tell clearly that they had not touched the highest point but the cardinal (who had reached the Adlersruhe) was informed. He was not satisfied and invented another, even bigger expedition the next year. On July 27, 1800, 62 (!) people started again into the Leitertal valley. On July 28 the climb started. 4 carpenters (the brothers Klotz and two others who are not known) did a track in the snow and installed fixed ropes at some steeper sections up to the end of the Glocknerleitl. But only these four and P. Horasch, the local priest of the village Doellach, were able to cross the Obere Glocknerscharte and climb Grossglockner summit. The next day the carpenters and some others (among them Valentin Stanič, who climbed some weeks later Watzmann for the first time) did the climb again and installed the summit cross, now on the real summit.
The first winter ascent of the Grossglockner was made on January 2, 1875 by William Adolf Baillie Grohman, a member of the Alpine Club.
The scenic Grossglockner High Alpine Road (Großglockner-Hochalpenstraße) between Heiligenblut and Bruck was built between 1930 and 1935 according to plans of the engineer Franz Wallack and reaches a height of 2572 m (8438 ft). It is one of the main tourist attractions in Austria and has over 1.2 million visitors every year; however, it is closed in the winter.
Grossglockner has been featured in the men's Giro d'Italia two times so far. The first time was in the 17th stage of the 1971 Giro d'Italia, won by Pierfranco Vianelli.
Grossglockner was featured for a second time in 13th stage of the 2011 Giro d'Italia. It was José Rujano who arrived first, after an escape with Alberto Contador.
| Year | Stage | Name |
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| 1971 | 17 | Pierfranco Vianelli (ITA) |
| 2011 | 13 | José Rujano (VEN) |
Computer-generated virtual panoramas
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