Hochgall

The Hochgall with the Barmer peak seen from Fenneregg

The Hochgall is with 3436 m the highest mountain in the Rieserfernergruppe, a group of mountains in the Hohe Tauern. Its summit is located in the Austrian-Italian border area on the South Tyrolean side.

Etymology

The name is derived from the Old High German Hochgall " galla " which on the Indo-European root " ghel (s)" based and " glossy ( yellowish, greenish, bluish), shimmering, bright " means. The name is therefore " collis coll - " nothing to do with the Romanesque, as the Italian translation ( " Coll'Alto " ) suggests, because Romanismen in the area around clean, Antholz and Defereggen unlikely to occur. The Hochgall is the " shining mountain high ", as the Wildgall the "wild shimmering mountain" is. The male used today has a female name root in the vernacular, to the dissemination of ( geschlechterverfälschenden ) maps were heard by locals only "the hoache Galle ". Bile is still a living concept and refers to the curved, bluish bare ice on roads, streams and slopes ( Eisgalle ).

Routes and ascents

The Hochgall is of no page easy to climb. Starting points for inspections are the Barmer Hütte ( 2610 m, DAV) and the Kassel Hut ( or Hochgallhütte, 2274 m). There are two normal ways, which leads one of the Hochgallhütte about the "Grey Nöckl " ( 3084 m) and the northwest (II ) to the summit, the other from the Barmer Hütte over the east and the northeast ridge (one digit, III, or II, steep ice).

The climb on the northwest glacier takes place without contact, a short descent spot on "Grey Nöckl " and the platy ridge area below the summit are mitigated with fixed ropes ( wire rope insurance).

The first ascent was made in 1854 by the Survey Lieutenant Hermann van Acken and some Defregger survey assistant on the northeast ridge. However, at that time only a rock head in the summit ridge was reached east of the summit lip, slightly below the actual summit. The highest point of the summit ridge then reached on August 3, 1868 Karl Hofmann and V. Reiner cold Dorff with their guides Georg Weis and Hansel Oberarzbacher on the western flank and the northwest. The up in the 80s of the 20th century as a popular ice tour north wall is now largely melted.