North ridge

Route

Images (6)

Climber's Log (1)

Comments (3)

Additions & Corrections (0)

Contribute

Geography

Parents

Routes

Page Type: Route

Location: Tirol, Austria, Europe

Lat/Lon: 47.05450°N / 11.65480°E

Route Type: Mountaineering

Season: Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter

Time Required: Less than two hours

Rock Difficulty: 5.2 (YDS)

Difficulty: PD

Grade: II

Loading...
Route Quality:
1
2
3
4
5
- 1 Votes

Page By: reinhard2

Created/Edited: Jan 8, 2008 / Jan 15, 2008

Object ID: 371481

Hits: 2202

Page Score: 90.86% - 34 Votes

Vote: Log in to vote

Table of Contents

Overview

Olperer has a very nice and symmetric east face, framed by the south and north ridges:

The north ridge (right) rising from Wildlahnerscharte

Both are of about equal difficulty and can be used to traverse the summit.
The north ridge rises a bit more than 200m from Wildlahnerscharte, and, after a few meters in snow, is purely rock climbing, partly aided by cramps.

Getting There

The access to the starting point of Wildlahnerscharte, 3250m, can be either from east via the ski resort of Hintertuxer glacier (a T-bar lift should go up there most of the year) or from Geraer hut west of Wildlahnerscharte, which means an ascent of about 900m partly over a glacier - this is obviously the true alpinistic way.

Route Description

Shortly before reaching Wildlahnerscharte from Geraer hut one passes a distinctive hanging glacier:

The last steps from Geraer hut to Wildlahnerscharte

First the snow flank (about 40�, 60m) between the ridge and the hanging glacier is used for the ascent

In the snow flank above Wildlahnerscharte

Either halfway up this flank or at the end of the steep section one changes to the rocks and follows the exposed ridge line to the summit cross.
The crux, which comes about midway, is a short overhanging section which - like several other passages - is facilitated by cramps.

Ant colony climbing the ridge

Descending the ridge

See also this left image, showing the rock structure and some of the more or less endemic fauna, and this right one showing some of the cramps.

For the descent, either use the same way back or traverse Olperer using the south ridge ("Schneegupfgrat") which is a little bit easier, to reach the path from Olperer hut to Geraer hut.

Essential Gear

In summer light glacier equipment for the access to Wildlahnerscharte is indicated. In winter one can do it without by skis (as the above images show). For the climbing part also light equipment should normally be sufficient (depending on the personal abilities, of course), since the more difficult parts of the ridge are secured resp. aided by cramps.
Clothing should be selected wrt to the fact that due to the very exposed situation of Olperer weather can profoundly change very quickly (within half an hour or so).

External Links

A German route description can be found here .