Hoher Sonnblick

What's new?

UPDATE MADE: 13/08/2005 Coordinates corrected (thanks to Mathias Zehring to report the mistake)
UPDATE MADE: 27/07/2005 Section What's New added

Overview

Author: Mathias Zehring.
The Hoher Sonnblick is one of the three main mountains of the Goldberg Group which is a part of the Hohe Tauern range between Glockner Group and Ankogel Group (the other two are Hocharn and Schareck). There are some other mountains named Sonnblick in the Tauern Range. To separate them Hoher Sonnblick is often named also as "Rauriser Sonnblick" because it is the at the end of the Rauris valley.

Other "Sonnblick" mountains of the Tauern are: "Stubacher Sonnblick" (3086 m) in Granatspitz Group and "Malteiner Sonnblick" (3030 m) in Ankogel Group.

Hoher Sonnblick is part of the main ridge of the Central Alps. The summit lies on the border of the Austrian states ("Bundeslaender") of Salzburg and Carinthia.

Ignaz Rojacher founded a meteorological station on top of the mountain in 1886 which was a pioneering act then. Since then the station is guarded and delivered important meteorological data. Being the guard there was a hard job in the winter more than 100 years ago! Next to the meteorological station the alpine hut of the Zittelhaus was built also in 1886. So this is one of the rare possibilities of the Alps to sleep in a hut on top of a 3000 m-mountain. Don't miss this opportunity if you climb Hoher Sonnblick! The summit is a great viewpoint, not only to the near Grossglockner.

Hoher Sonnblick has a steep and difficult north face. Towards the other side the rocky summit raises only shortly over the glaciers of the Kleines Fleiss-Kees (south west side, to Heiligenblut) and Vogelmaier-Ochsenkar-Kees (south east side, to Rauris). Along the east ridge a marked route leads to the summit so there you don't have to enter the glacier.

Mining

Most mountains does not have a history because no one was interested in them in ancient times. This is totally different here: The slopes of Hoher Sonnblick carry the gold mines that delivered the "Tauern Gold". It was the most important area of gold mining in the entire world - as long as South America was not discovered in the 16th century. Since then the gold mines lost importance and later went to ruine. In the 19th century one local businessman of the Rauris valley, Ignaz Rojacher, started the gold mines again but success was only a short one. Washing gold in the creeks near the mountain and visiting the ruines of the gold mines is still possible and an attraction for tourists. Now the mountain is part of the Hohe Tauern National Park, so industrial gold mining seem not likely in the nearer future.

How to get there?

The mountain can be climbed from 3 villages:
Rauris, Flattach and Heiligenblut. The last 2 belong to Carinthia, Rauris is village in Salzburg.
Flattach can be reached from Lienz (+-50km.) or from Mallnitz (+-15km). There you can take the Mölltalergletscherbahn (in Ausserfragant). The first train brings you to the gondola.
From there you can take the gondola or walk right up to the Duisburger Hütte.
From Heiligenblut you can choose:
you can take the village of Heilenblut as startingpoint (the route via Alter Pocher or you take Hochtor at the Grossglockner Hochalpenstrasse as startingpoint.
When you take the route from Rauris, the startingpoint is Naturfeundehaus Neubau or Naturfreundehaus Kolm-Saigurn.

Routes

1.Duisburger Hütte(2572m.) - Fraganter Scharte(2754m.) - Bremserhäusl (2331m.)- Naturfreundehaus Neubau (2175m.) - Rojacherhütte (2718m.) - Zittelhaus (Hoher Sonnblick) (3105m.).

• Time:


  Duisburger Hütte - Naturfreundehaus Neubau: 3 hours
  Naturfreundehaus Neubau - Rojacherhütte: 2 hours
  Rojacherhütte - Zittelhaus (H. Sonnblick): 2 hours
  Total time: 7 hours.


• Difficulty, distance, height:


  till Neubau: difficult, 6km, up: 330m., down: 730m.
  from Neubau: difficult / II-, 4km, up: 970m., down: 40m.
 total: difficult / II-, 10km, up: 1300m., down: 770m.

On this route, you can also start from Rauris (Salzburger Land).
The startpoint of the route is then normally the Naturfreunde Haus Kolm-Saigurn (1626m.). From there you walk to the Naturfreundehaus Neubau, the rest of the route is the same as the route via Duisburger Hütte.

2. Duisburgerhütte (2572m.) - Wurtenkees - Niedere Scharte (2695m.) - Rojacherhütte (2718m.) - Zittelhaus (H. Sonnblick) (3105m.)

• Time:


  Duisburger Hütte - Rojacherhütte: 3.5 hours
  Rojacherhütte - Zittelhaus: 2 hours
  Total time: 5.5 hours


• Difficulty, distance, height:


  Gletscherroute/II-, 7km, up: 990m., down: 460m.

3. Heiligenblut - Alter Pocher - Zittelhaus

• Time:


  Heiligenblut - Alter Pocher: 2.5 hours
  Alter - Pocher - 4 or 4 1/2 hours
  Total time: +-7 hours


• Difficulty, distance, height:

  Gletscherroute/Not difficult , 12km, down: 60m., up 1880m.

4. Hochtor - Hocharn - Zittelhaus

The route is mostly done as a part of the Höhenweg.
From Zittelhaus the route goes via the Hocharn (3254m.), via the Otto-Umlauft-Biwak to Hochtor and from to the Wallackhaus at the Grossglockner Hochalpenstrasse.
The route is a part of the 'Klagenfurter Jubiläumsweg'. You have to traverse 6 mountains with a height higher than 3000 meters!
You need to be in a GOOD condition if you want to make this!!!

From Zittelhaus - Hocharn - Hochtor:
  Distance: 17km
  Time: +- 11hours
  up: 1140m, down: 1940m.
=>Remember: this is from Zittelhaus to Hochtor, not from Hochtor to Zittelhaus!!!!
There is a unmanned biwak so you're able to rest/sleep there normally.

Difficulty, distance, height:

  Gletscherroute/Not difficult , 12km, down: 60m., up 1880m.

Touring

It is possible to make trips over the Sonnblick and Zittelhaus. The Tauern Höhenweg connects for example Mallnitz with Heiligenblut.
Osnabrückerhütte - Hannoverhaus - Mindenerhütte - Hagenerhütte- Duisburger Hütte - Zittelhaus - Wallackhaus - Glocknerhaus.
Mor info can be found in the book:
Tauern-Höhenweg, Von den Seckauer Tauern zum Venediger (Bergverlag Rother)

Camping

Duisburger Hütte (DAV), 2572m.
- 8 beds, 27 matresses, 14 notlager
- tel.: 00436644453353
- opened: July - end of September
- village: Flattach
- built in 1910.

Zittelhaus (OeAV), 3105m.
- 26 beds, 57 matresses, 10 notlager
- tel.: 004365446412
- opened: end of June - end of September
- village: Rauris

Rojacherhütte (OeAV), 2718m.
- 0 beds, 9 matresses, 0 notlager
- tel: 00436642741656
- opened: middle of June - end of September

Mountain Conditions

Images

View Hoher Sonnblick Image Gallery - 115 Images