Grossglockner

The Großglockner (German: Großglockner [ˈɡroːsˌɡlɔknɐ] ^ⓘ), or just Glockner, is, at 3,798 metres above the Adriatic (12,461 ft), the highest mountain in Austria and highest mountain in the Alps east of the Brenner Pass. It is part of the larger Glockner Group of the Hohe Tauern range, situated along the main ridge of the Central Eastern Alps and the Alpine divide. The Pasterze, Austria's most extended glacier, lies on the Grossglockner's eastern slope.

The characteristic pyramid-shaped peak actually consists of two pinnacles, the Großglockner and the Kleinglockner (3,770 m or 12,370 ft, from German: groß 'big', klein 'small'), separated by the Glocknerscharte col.

The name Glocknerer is first documented in a 1561 map designed by the Viennese cartographer Wolfgang Lazius. The denotation Glogger is mentioned in a 1583 description of the Tyrolean Kals legal district, then referring to the whole ridge south of the Alpine main chain. In the 1760s, the Atlas Tyrolensis listed a Glockner Berg, the prefix Gross- ("great") is not mentioned before the first expedition in 1799.

According to the scholar Belsazar Hacquet (1735–1815), Glockner is possibly derived from German: Glocke ("bell"), referring to the mountain's characteristic shape. It may also be a Germanised version of the Alpine Slavic word Klek ("mountain"), as maintained in the Slovene name Veliki Klek.

The Grossglockner lies on the border between the Austrian states of Carinthia and Tyrol (East Tyrol). The peak is part of the Glocknerkamm ridge in the Glockner Group that branches off the main chain of the Alps at Eiskögele, heading in a southeasterly direction and forming the boundary between the East Tyrolean municipality of Kals am Großglockner, about 8 km (5.0 mi) in the southwest at 1,324 m (4,344 ft), and Carinthian Heiligenblut, about 12 km (7.5 mi) in the northeast at 1,291 m (4,236 ft). This boundary is also the watershed between the Kals Valley and its Teischnitz and Ködnitz side valleys on the Tyrolean side and the Möll Valley with the Pasterze glacier on the Carinthian side. The region around the mountain has formed part of the Grossglockner-Pasterze special protected area within the High Tauern National Park since 1986.

The Glockner is the highest mountain in the Alps east of the Ortler range, about 175 km (109 mi) away, and, after Mont Blanc, has the second greatest topographic isolation of all mountains in the Alps. Even its topographic prominence, at 2,424 m (7,953 ft), is the second highest after Mont Blanc in the entire Alps (see the list of Alpine peaks by prominence). That makes it one of the most independent peaks in the Alps. The view from the Grossglockner summit is one of the farthest of all mountains in the Eastern Alps. It ranges out to 220 km (140 mi) or, taking account of atmospheric refraction, almost 240 km (150 mi). Its view over more than 150,000 km² (58,000 sq mi) of the Earth's surface reaches as far as the Upper Swabian Plateau in the northwest, to Regensburg and the peaks of the Bohemian Forest in the north, to Ortler in the west, to the Padan Plain in the south, and to Triglav and the Totes Gebirge range in the east.

The Grossglockner rock summit, due to its high Alpine, heavily glaciated appearance, is often compared to the mountains of the Western Alps. Together with the Kleinglockner to the southeast it forms a distinctive double peak. There are differing views in the literature as to whether the Kleinglockner is a subpeak or a separate main summit. Due to its low topographic prominence and isolation as well as its close links in climbing history, it is counted as part of that of the Grossglockner in historic publications; however, in view of its separate climbing routes it is counted as an independent peak in mountaineering literature.

The Obere Glocknerscharte between the two peaks, at 3,766 m (12,356 ft), is the highest col in Austria, from which a couloir up to 55° in gradient and 600 m (2,000 ft) in altitude descends down to the Glocknerkees glacier, called Pallavicinirinne after the Austrian mountaineer Alfred von Pallavicini (1848–1886). It runs northeastwards and borders on the Northeast and North Faces of the Grossglockner. The latter faces are bounded by the Northwest Ridge, part of the main Glockner crest, which runs over the Grögerschneid, 3,660 m (12,010 ft), and the ridge elevations of Glocknerhorn, 3,680 m (12,070 ft), and Teufelshorn, 3,677 m (12,064 ft), to the Untere Glocknerscharte, 3,598 m (11,804 ft), which connects to the 3,721 m (12,208 ft) high Glocknerwand.