Wildspitze normal route (Austria)
- Hamish Kuperus
- Sep 28, 2023
- 4 min read
Updated: Oct 3, 2023
Wildspitze is the second highest mountain in Austria, standing at 3770m and is amazing mountain journey that can be done in 1 or 2 days, taking in stunning hiking, via ferrata (VF), glacier walk, and amazing winter scenery. This blog outlines the route and process of the route and hopefully inspire you to go and do Wildspitze.
*You can see the summit in the top right of the photo*
Approach
Approaching Wildspitze, requires you to drive to the small village Vent. Vent is near the Austrian-Italian border between Bolzano and Innsbruck, just up from the town of Soelden. Vent is a super easy drive from Innsbruck taking an hour and a half. You can get a bus from Innsbruck to Vent but this takes about 2.5hrs and requires three bus changes, so for ease driving is definitely the better option.
Once you get to Vent, if you're in a van there is a great car park where you can purchase 24-hour tickets for €5 or multi-day tickets. If you are not staying in a van Vent has plenty of hotels to stay at. If you are wanting to do some pre-exped shopping make sure this gets done in Soelden before heading up to Vent as there are no corner shops.
Route
Below is the outlined route but there are two options, either 1-day or 2-days depending on your fitness. 1-day is achievable with an early start (5am) and a constant pace all day, or you could stay at the refuge - Breslauer Hutte. If you chose to do it in 2-days you could get the chairlift almost right the way to the Hutte, but why do that? It's a stunning walk-up. Anyway lets get to it.
From the car park in Vent, walk down the road further into Vent, at the chairlift you'll see the gate and route to your right. Now follow this steep banking right the way to the first chairlift station. It is a well trodden path the whole way and you meander on the right of the chairlift. Once here there are a couple of paths up to the next chairlift station, as long as you are heading in that direction you'll be fine, just the path directly behind the first station is steeper than the gravel road track which pushes you further out to the right.
When you approach the second station you'll see it high on your right and the Hutte in front of you. You'll have done much of the steep stuff at this point, but don't stop looking at the views!
Once up at the Hutte, you'll notice the obligatory red spots and lines, you are heading for Wildspitze (obviously) heading to the rear left of the hutte. You travel into a large valley which opens up after passing a small lake and you finally see the summit, VF and the general route. You'll follow this valley, it is a fairly obvious route heading to the left-hand side of the valley into the couloir where the VF is. I'd suggest putting your crampons on just before the steep section prior to the VF, not that you necessarily need them but it can be a pain putting them on the steep section directly below the VF - especially if there are a lot of people.
Via Ferrata (VF)
The VF is very manageable with the first 6-8m being the hardest up some awkward staples. However, the VF will need crampons so you need to be comfortable in both crampons and on VF so do not underestimate it. Generally, after the first section you will cruise up it, with a few sections where you just need to be comfortable in crampons.
Glacier travel and summit
Once over the VF you are presented with a beautiful view of the glacier.
This is the point to rope up as a team, despite it not being overly crevassed, firstly why take the risk? Secondly, there are obvious crevasses along the route.
As you can see the start is pretty flat until you reach the middle of the photo/middle of the rock and edge of the glacier where it ramps up and the snow just saps the energy out of your legs.
You'll be going along here for a while, just keep plodding! When you get to the top you'll have approached the base of the summit before a scramble over rock and ice to the summit. I'd recommend de-roping here to prevent the rope from becoming snagged. Make sure you don't wander towards the edge onto to cornice unless you desperately want to do some vertical sledging that'll be your last!
Sure footedness is needed up the final ascent as you'll be very close to the edge but it is manageable with a short tricky section right at the top, stow the ice axe away and hug the rock to get around the corner. The route is very obvious.
Now you're at the summit you have two options for your descent, either back the way you come or you can carry on along the ridge and come down the crest of the valley you came up and descend to the Hutte. We retraced our steps in the end, due to the time but there are options. The descent is straight forward following your steps, but the VF can become a bottle neck, but there are plenty of passing places.
The route is a 10 - 12hr round trip from base to base if you are taking it steadily throughout, however, it is definitely possible faster if you are fit. A great start if you are wanting some epic alpine experiences.
For weather forecasts Mountain forecasts is great: click the link. You can use this forecast around the alps and see what it is expected to be at different altitudes - it's fantastic.
Gear
In terms of gear its obviously horses for courses but here is what HK Adventuring would suggest:
Climbing gear:
Non-technical ice axe
Crampons
Harness
Helmet
Crevasse rescue kit
Rope (dry-treated)
Via ferrata kit
Personal gear (usually get questions so going to give a thorough breakdown):
General walking trousers and top
Fleece
Thin synthetic jacket
Back-up thicker down jacket (I always pack for emergencies)
Waterproofs (jacket keeps the wind off even when dry)
Gaiters
Boots (B1 are fine but B2 are better)
Beanie and buff
Gloves (I used my medium thickness Rab gloves which was fine - leather palm)
Extra:
Sun cream
Sun glasses
First aid kit within the group
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