The Montscheinspitze

Published on 2010-10-31 by Michael Stanton

October 31, 2010.

I went for a hike near Pertisau. I wanted to hike above the Achensee, but when I saw the sun hitting the Montscheinspitze behind the Seebergspitze I decided I had to go there. Parking at the Gernalm I started up. The first 500 meters were on a road, but it was quite steep and efficient. At the pass I headed up to the Plumsjoch and admired the views.

The weather was very good locally, it was very obvious that my local area was protected by the "foehn," a band of high pressure that sometimes develops over the Northern Alps. It also brings a warm wind, which can melt snow rapidly. Clearly, a good bit of snow had melted since the weekend before.

From Plumsjoch, I descended and reclimbed to the Montscheinspitze.

Now I was also getting a view of the Achensee and the Rofan Mountains on the eastern bank.

The trail on the Montscheinspitze sometimes required me to use my hands and be very careful on slippery snow. It's telling that it took me 2 hours to the summit where signs advertised 1.5 hours! But having only been out three hours so far, from the summit I wondered what to to next. Ah, that will do! The picture below shows the Satteljoch and the Kompat from the summit. I'll wander over there and bag those summits:

This turned out to be a great idea because views of the Engtal ("narrow valley") became fantastic.

By the time I got to the top of Kompat I was pretty tired. At one point on the ridge near the Satteljoch the wind became incredibly strong. I had to walk leaning radically to the side in order to stay up. Tough Latschen bushes were being shaken like grass. But the wind wasn't very cold, thank goodness, and I was glad the ridge wasn't especially narrow! Some more folks from Munich were on top and we chatted. I got a good view of the Laliderer Walls, including the Herzogkante. The Steinfalk and associated peaks looks very adventurous.

And I got to see back to the Montscheinspitze from earlier.

And Josef and I hiked a week before on the right side of this picture:

Winter has arrived in the mountains!

Elevation gain:

1921 - 1170 = 751 from gernalm to plumsjoch

2106 - 1794 = 312 from the sattle to Montscheinspitze

1921 - 1794 = 127 from the sattle back up to Plumsjoch

1935 - 1840 = 95 from the pass up to Satteljoch

2011 - 1805 = 206 for the Kompat climb

1935 - 1805 = 130 for the climb back up to Satteljoch

=1585 m