Article Transition Gesäuse

We went to Gesäuse for three days. You are there from Prague in 5 hours. The character of the landscape and limestone peaks are very reminiscent of the neighboring Totes Gebirge. You have to cross the mountains in one day if you don't want to climb „hard“ and bivouac. The photo is from the first day when we went to climb the multi-lengths on Festkogel, specifically to Kleemhummel and Skiny, only to start it was 800 meters. It held up nicely on the limestone, but they didn't waste much security here.

We find it on the ridge (Kirchengrat) around half past eight in the morning. From the Forstgarten campsite, we set off a short time after six o'clock and approached the boarding car leading from the turn-off from Johnsbachstrasse. It was necessary to return for the car in the evening, or it could be postponed to the next day and only reach the camp.

Climbing between Kleiner Ödstein and Großer Ödstein. It looks a bit dramatic, but it wasn't hard at this point.

There is technically the most difficult part between Großer Ödstein and Festkogel. There are fixed ropes on the descent from Großer Ödstein, the picture is taken from them, the photo shows the ascent to the Teufelsturm.

At this moment, the most technically demanding part was behind us and a traverse to Festkogel was waiting for us. The picture shows all three peaks – Festkogel, Hochtor and Planspitze in a row.

This film captures the opposite view – from east to west, from Festkogel to Großer Ödstein, to the part of the crossing we have already completed.

Hochtor (2,369 m) is the highest crossing point, it is the highest peak of the Gesäuse. There is a normal from the valley and several climbing paths, also north of Hochtor, several lengths leading from the Haindlkarhütte hut, which we considered as a variant instead of a crossing.

There are several routes down from Hochtor, the fastest emergency option is to descend the Josefinensteig ferrata to the Hesshütte, which should not be longer than 2 hours, but you will still have a trip to the valley. The descent straight into the valley to Johnsbach is also possible, the path is a bit steeper, leads through snow fields and should be manageable in 3 hours. „The Great Gesäuse crossing“ continues along the 2+ ridge by climbing down over the top of Rosskuppe. From here you can go to the last peak of the crossing – Planspitze, or go down to the Hesshütte (easier option), or Haindlkarhütte, where we went. You will not be able to find the descent from Hochtor to the climbing ridge, unless you study carefully in advance that you have to return easily from the top. We had a gpx route, but it was just the same wandering we did.

The view from the Haindlkarhütte hut, or just above it, captures the entire ridge hike. The descent from Rosskuppe and Perternscharte is initially a twofold affair, then an endless pilgrimage of rubble, which fortunately the stream flows through, so you can drink and refresh yourself in the lower parts. However, the journey is difficult and tiring just by the late afternoon sun washing you all the time. The refreshments at the cottage were more than deserved, but not long, we needed not only to get down (or ascent through the Gsengscharte) to the road Johnsbachstrasse before dark, but we still had a five-kilometer „trip“ for the car and we hoped that the lights manage to stop something.

In conclusion, this tour, as well as all high mountain tours, is to say that it is always crucial who you go with and whether the group is not only matched in performance, but is also functional overall. In any case, it is always good to know the route and possible variants individually, in principle at a fairly perfect level, it has not yet paid off for anyone in the mountains to rely on others.