english www.hohetauern.at www.hohetauern.at Tel.: +43 (0) 4875 5112 Kärnten, , Tirol nature Kirchplatz 2, A 9971 Matrei Nationalparkrat Hohe [email protected] www.facebook.com/hohetauern General Information General Information living Imprint Media owner, publisher and responsible for the contents: Nationalparkrat Hohe Tauern, Kärnten, Salzburg, Tirol 9971 Matrei in Osttirol, Kirchplatz 2, Telefon: 5112 (0)4875 +43 [email protected] Mail: Photos: Archive Nationalpark Hohe Tauern, Dapra, Kurzthaler, Mühlanger, Popp/ Hackner, Rieder, Zupanc. Text: Kurzthaler, Mussnig Design: www.designundkonzept.at Translation: Sprachen Service Schatz, Klagenfurt Stand: 2013 Financed through National Park funds of the Federal Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, Environmental and Water Management and the provinces of , Salzburg and Tyrol

nach Innsbruck / München nach Salzburg / München zur Tauernautobahn nach Salzburg / Villach / Wien Rettenstein Gaisstein St.Veit St.Johann NORDTIROL + 2366 + 2363 Hochkogel Schmittenhöhe im Pongau im Pongau + 2249 + 1965 Stuhlfelden ZELL am See Salzachgeier Paß Thurn Schwarzach + 2469 Stuhlfelden Piesendorf Taxenbach im Pongau NP-Besucherzentren / Verwaltung Bramberg Uttendorf Nationalpark-Gemeinden am Wildkogel Schüttdorf Lend ins Zillertal / Inntal Neukirchen MITTERSILL Bruck Nationalpark-Einrichtungen Wald Hollersbach Niedernsill Königsleiten im Pinzgau am Großvenediger Nationalparkzentrum Kaprun an der Glocknerstraße Bundesbahn im Pinzgau Mittersill PONGAU Autobahn P INZGAU Hauptverbindungsstraße Gerlos Paß Fusch Rauris Großarl Landesstraße Krimml an der Glocknerstraße Fahrweg - nicht öffentl. SALZBURG Mosermandl Draugstein Nationalparkgrenze + 2358 m + 2680 m Kitzsteinhorn Landesgrenze ZILLERTALER Staatsgrenze Larmkogel + 3203 Hoher Tenn ALPEN + 3368 + 3022 Schwarzkopf Tauernkogel G. Wiesbachhorn + 2765 Hüttschlag Weißeck + 2988 + 2711 m Tauernautobahn Reichenspitze + 3564 Zederhaus + 3303 VENEDIGER GRUPPE Felbertauernstraße Edlenkopf Murtörl Granatspitze Edelweißspitze + 2923 2260 m LUNGAU Rainbachspitze Großvenediger + 3086 + 2572 + 3129 m + 3666 GLOCKNER GRUPPE Großer Geiger Großglockner Hochalpenstraße Arlscharte Muhr Rauchkofel + 3360 2252 Weißspitze Hochtor Böckstein + 3251 Muntanitz Großglockner 2504 Hocharn Kolm Saigurn Dreiherrenspitze + 3300 + 3254 Hafner + 3499 + 3232 + 3798 Hoher Eicham GRANAT- + 3076 + 3371 SPITZ + 3106 Tauernschleuße GRUPPE Gamskarspitze + 3252 HAFNER GRUPPE Rötspitze + 3123 + 2883 ANKOGEL GRUPPE + 3495 Nationalparkhaus Heiligenblut GOLDBERGGRUPPE Matrei Prägraten Virgen Maresenspitz + 3360 Rennweg am Großvenediger Apriach Klamml Joch MATREI Kals + 2913 2298 m in Osttirol am Großglockner BIOS Nationalparkzentrum Lasörling Hornkopf GROSSKIRCHHEIM Keeseck + 3098 + 3251 Mallnitz + 3173 Tristenspitze LASÖRLING GRUPPE Gr.Zunig SCHOBER GRUPPE + 2929 + 2776 Petzeck Reißeck Hochschober + 3283 Sadnig RIESERFERNER + 3242 + 2965 Malta GRUPPE Huben + 2745 KÄRNTEN Hochgall Außerfragant + 3436 St.Veit Hopfgarten Mörtschach St.Jakob in Defereggen in Defereggen Gmünd Naturpark in Defereggen Schleinitz Polinik St.Johann + 2905 Stall + 2784 Rieserferner- Reißeck Ahrn Staller Sattel Weiße Spitze im Walde + 2962 TIROL Schlaiten Ainet Rotstein Mühldorf + 2702 Oberlienz Nußdorf- SÜDTIROL O STTIROL Debant Iselsberg- Kreuzeck + 2701 Möllbrücke Gölbner Stronach + 2943 Dölsach O B ERKÄRNTEN Innervillgraten Leisach Tristach Assling Amlach Nikolsdorf Außervillgraten Anras Lavant Lind SPITTAL Pustertal Thal Sandspitze Kleblach im Drautal an der Drau ITALIA nach Sillian / Bozen / Verona Spitzkofel nach Spittal a.d.Drau nach Villach / Klagenfurt / Graz + 2717 + 2770 Our National Park A Trip into the National Park Fascination in white With a surface area of 1,856 square A walking tour which starts in the The Rangers of the Hohe Tauern Complete silence and the spell of kilometres, the Hohe Tauern National valley an leads up into the National Park are highly experienced an undisturbed nature, only accompanied Park is by far the largest nature is equivalent to a 4,000 km journey to well trained. An extensive programme by a soft crunching noise at each step, reserve in the entire Alpine region. the Arctic. of fi eld trips offers the best walking will revive a long-forgotten awareness The National Park is home to 10,000 tours and list of destinations for anyone of life. A human being once more varieties of animals and 1,500 with an interest innatural history. encounters nature in its pristine sense varieties of plants; it accommodates The range of what’s on offer stretches and in the process fi nds an oasis of numerous glaciers, glacial streams, from half-day walking tours to tours peace in the hustle and bustle of every- high-alpine lakes and tarns and of several days in the high mountains, day life. Both the head and body can offers impressive pan- General Information with wildlife observation, identifi ying take time out. oramas. This large alpine nature www.hohetauern.com plants, meteorology, risk assessment In contrast to skiing or snowboarding, reserve is characterised by a huge guided tours and visitor centers and much more. In this way you will be snowshoe walking is easily learnt by diversity of habitats. www.nationalparkerlebnis.at able to enjoy this experience. everybody, no matter how old.

35% mountain pasture The protection of the cultivated landscape is one component of Over 300 giants conservation philosophy. The mountain hay meadows and The Hohe Tauern region is mountain pastures, so rich in the roof of Austria. With the different species, are extremely country’s highest mountain - valuable, endangered throughout , which reaches the Alps and are increasingly to 3,798 m above sea level, disappearing. Not so in the Hohe more than 300 other peaks Tauern National Park! tower over 3,000 m into the sky.

Our Skyline Our Culture is a Sea of 3000 metre Peaks has been shaped through living Side by Side

The Cradle of Alpinism For the Edifi cation of the People Land Shaped by the Farmer’s Hand National Park is an eldorado of enjoy- able walks in the midst of a landscape The cradle of mountaineering is The natural wonders of the National For 5,000 years, man has been settled natural landscapes, but also cultivated for which man has always felt affection, located in the Hohe Tauern: Park especially reveal themselves permanently in the valleys of the Hohe landscapes created by farmers, lie despite the most strenuous labour, and as far back as 1761, the 3,251 m high to mountain-lovers on its hundreds of Tauern. It was the search for ores which within the protected area. which he has always needed in order to Ankogel became the fi rst glacier- kilometres of hiking trails, ranging from once led him here. In the course of survive. Mountain hay meadows in their covered Alpine peak to be climbed. contemplative valley paths to high many centuries, wide mountain pasture Not only an extraordinary variety of full fl owering glory, strong, healthy Today climbers can scale the Alpine trekking routes. The National landscapes came into being high above animal and plant species, but also domestic animals, delicious products mountainous world of rock and ice Park visitors’ programmes offer the forest line, grazed on by domestic an abundance of profane and sacred from mountain pastures, Alpine huts via innumerable routes - preferably participants a very special experience animals and painstakingly cultivated by cultural treasures of farming life are the and chapels, crystalclear air and the accompanied by a state-certifi ed of nature. Our team of specially trained the hard-working hands of farmers. result of this long-standing symbiosis complete seclusion convey an archaic mountain and skiing guide from the National Park staff is at your disposal One special feature of the Hohe Tauern between wild nature and the cultivated picture of a landscape where it is National Park region. on these programmes. National Park is that not only purely landscape. The outer zone of the certainly rewarding to linger a while. Our Rush-Hour has already lasted Millions of Years... Our Master Builders Treasures of the Ice Mountains were Fire and Ice Although the glaciers of the Alps have been retreating for decades, the Hohe Tauern region still retains impressive The Tauern Window treasures from the ice mountains today: such as the Pasterze Glacier - which, with The “Tauern Window” is a geological a length of 9 km and an area of almost sensation: the highest mountains of the 180 km2 19 km2, is the biggest single glacier in Hohe Tauern consist of rock strata which form 2 Austria. Or the Grossvenediger Mountain, the lowest geological layers in the Alps. Almost 180 km of the National which is crusted with the ice of the largest In addition, there are four massive gneiss Park - almost 10 % connected glacial area in the Eastern Alps. cores at the centre of this “geological of its area - are still window”. Moulded from liquid magma, today covered by glacial they form such famous peaks as the Gross- ice today. venediger or the Hoher Sonnblick. After fi re, A Landscape in Metamorphosis ice then became the formative force in the Where glaciers have retreated, a fast- Hohe Tauern, as during the ice ages the Alpine changing landscape comes into being: glaciers extended over a much larger area at fi rst, the landscape is still dominated than today. by the debris moraines piled up by the They ground down the once V-shaped valleys glacial ice, but soon the pioneers of the to form the wider U-shaped trough valleys plant world begin to recolonize this which predominate today. seemingly inhospitable habitat.

Jewels of Nature Glaciers After the extensive retreat of the ice, Glaciers arise where the temperatures in approximately 150 mountain lakes came into summer are not suffi ciently high to melt the being in the corries of the Hohe Tauern; these snow which falls in winter. In this way, snow pristine waters decorate the high mountain layers accumulate year by year and, after landscape like jewels and, like the glacier 279 being changed into corn snow, solidify due snouts, feed the sources of hundreds of moun- to the increasing pressure to form ice. tain torrents. These torrents plunge down into In the National Park, 279 natural the valley with primeval force, particularly mountain torrents Thus, glacial ice is not a rigidly solid body during the time of the snow and ice melt, rush down from and fl ows into the valley as a viscous mass, forming magnifi cent waterfalls at escarpments: the high mountains following the pull of gravity. The overfl owing thus, the Krimmler Waterfalls are the highest to the valley - the of knolls in the terrain gives rise to wrenching living arteries of the in Europe, with a total fall height of 380 m! landscape. forces which tear open crevasses.

Our Brilliance comes from our Uniqueness

Our Wilderness Vital Force During the summer months, the Hohe is untamed Tauern mountain region radiates an incredible vital force: innumerable fl owering plants put out vividly coloured blossoms, enticing insects From Arctic, Tundra and Taiga to pollinate them with their strong scents. Dazzling seas of fl owers cover the mountain A wild, primeval landscape and a landscape meadows. snow grouses fl ock together cultivated by mountain farmers: these are the on their courtship grounds, marmots sun two faces of the Hohe Tauern National Park. themselves on fl at rocks, while ravens perform The nature reserve encompasses sweeping, real aerobatics. The fl ora and fauna show primeval Alpine landscapes, such as glaciers, themselves in all their magnifi cence and rock faces and turf, as well as mountain vitality. It almost seems as if nature can feel pasture landscapes which have been carefully how short the “good time” is. and painstakingly cultivated for centuries. So summer walks in the Hohe Tauern there- After the last Ice Age, about 12,000 years ago, fore offer a very special experience of nature. the Hohe Tauern was a desolate waste of rock Golden eagles, ibexes, bearded vultures, and scree. Animals and plants colonized this edelweiss, arnica, a wide variety of orchids, new habitat only very gradually - above all, primeval Swiss stone pines, gnarled larches species from the cold steppes of Central Asia, and many other species - they all fi t so from the Arctic region and the Siberian tundra. perfectly into this magnifi cent landscape.

At fi rst they lived in valley locations and An Extreme 1986 then, as the temperatures rose again, they A Hard Life Location followed the retreating glaciers up into the was the year when the programme for mountain region, where today they form One third of all plant species found in Austria Despite the harsh reintroducing the living conditions, the remarkable biological communities on the bearded vulture in and about 10,000 species of animal live in Hohe Tauern region edge of life’s very existence in the core zone the National Park the Hohe Tauern National Park. Here, eight is home to a wider of the National Park. was started. Ibexes months of the year are dominated by deep variety of biotope and brown trout winter, while spring and autumn hardly take types than can be have found their found anywhere else The forest returned to the valleys - the spruce refuge here as well. place at all. High mountain animals and plants in Austria. Some of from the Balkans, larch and stone pine from The golden eagle have to be specialists in coping with stress. these, such as the the Asian taiga. It was in this way that the stock is safeguarded Many of them have developed very special colourful mountain different vegetation layers so typical of the and is supervised by adaptations in their physical structure, hay meadows, are means of monitoring. among the richest in Alps slowly emerged. A walk from the valley physiology and behaviour. They are therefore species in the Alpine up into the mountains corresponds to a 4,000 able to survive only here. It is not possible for region. kilometre long journey into the Arctic. them to switch to other habitats.