Pitze

Middle reaches of the Pitze

The Pitze (also Pitzbach ) is a right tributary of the Inn. It flows through the Pitztal in Tyrol and has a length of about 40 km.

Its catchment area is about 309 km ².

The origin is located on the Northern Slope of the Alps on Mittelbergferner in the municipality of St. Leonhard im Pitztal. The wild peak with 3768 m height is considered the highest elevation in the catchment area. The confluence with the Inn is located on 705 m between Arzl and Karres.

46 glaciers with an area of ​​35 km ², covering more than ten percent of the catchment area. However, the water supply does not match the size of the area, because since 1964 it is taken on its upper reaches and passed in the Kaunertal for Gepatsch reservoir. Only at the top of the catchment area, the Pitze on a natural, characterized by highly variable runoff water flow conditions.

In the summer months, snow and glacier melt, the Pitze transformed into a roaring glacial stream, even in a low rainfall year is the water flow in the months of June, July and August the highest. In approaching autumn, the water supply is already in September sharply. The reason is the lower temperatures, the lower rainfall and the occasional drop of the snow line. The sometimes as early as November incipient low temperatures there is a freezing of the water courses and continuing low temperatures for Grundeisbildung that can cause a dangerous rise in the water level. Your minimum is reached, the water supply of the Pitze in the months of February or March.

Since the construction of the water intake at 1800 m altitude the Pitze there disappears into a tunnel, only a few days there on the mount point above water. The transfer tunnel also takes water from Taschachbach, the largest tributaries of the Pitze, with the Gepatschspeicher. In Ifs it is taken a second time and returned to the TIWAG power station Imst, making the rest of the catchment area is 30.5 km ².

The settlements in the area of the inner and middle Pitztal are always affected by significant flood events, while the underflow is hardly prone to flooding because the Pitze here flows in a gorge-like channel and the settlements are created on higher terraces.

View of the interior Pitztal valley

Upper reaches of the Pitze