Trekking in Austria's Hohe Tauern - Allan Hartley

A guide to four multi-day hut-to-hut trekking routes in Austria's Hohe Tauern region. The Hohe Tauern National Park is the largest in Europe. Within Austria it embraces the provinces of Tirol, Salzburg and Karnten (Carinthia). This guidebook concentrates on three areas - the Reichen, Venediger and Gross Glockner groups.The Reichen Group Hut-to-Hut Rucksack Route will take five to six days to complete, starting from the resort town of Mayrhofen at the head of the Zillertal valley. The route described is suitable for those with good general mountain walking ability who are surefooted and vertigo free.The Vendiger Group Hut-to-Hut Rucksack Route traverses the Venediger from south to north over seven days, starting in the Virgental valley at Streden. The route requires no greater skills than those needed to wander safely over the mountain areas of Britain.
The eight day Venediger Glacier Tour is better suited to mountaineers. Participants need to have the ability to cross glaciers safely using ropes, ice axes and crampons. The eight day Glockner Group Hut-to-Hut Rucksack Route is a circular tour around Austria's highest mountain. The route was created to allow hikers to cross through the mountains without having to make difficult glacier crossings and carry ropes and mountaineering equipment.En route there is ample opportunity to climb some of the peaks and ascents and excursions are described. This book will appeal to groups of mixed ability and those looking to visit the Alps for the first time without the demands of the higher mountains of the western Alps. With lots of practical advice, including on glacier travel, and a comprehensive hut directory.

A engineer by profession, Allan Hartley has spent the majority of his working life overseas engaged on major construction projects. Throughout this time, however, he has maintained his close links with Austria, which he discovered totally by accident in the early 1970s in respite from atrocious weather conditions in the higher mountains of the western Alps.He maintains that Austria and the Dolomites of neighbouring Italy remain one of mountaineering's best-kept secrets, with their heady mix of superb scenery, good huts and first-class food, and that they are areas better suited to the average mountaineer than the higher mountains to the west.In addition to Austria, Allan has climbed extensively throughout the Alps, in east Africa, the Falkland Islands and the Greater Ranges in Nepal and Pakistan, as well as in lesser-known areas such as the Zagros mountains of Iran and, more recently, the Hajr mountains of the Arabian peninsula. Not surprisingly, Allan is a long-term member of the Austrian Alpine Club, as well of the Outdoor Writers and Photographers Guild, an Associate of the Royal Photographic Society and a holder of the International Mountain Leaders Award.When not abroad, his home is on the edge of the Yorkshire Dales.