Hochiss and Hochnissl

Published on 2018-11-21 by Michael Stanton

Hochiss

Saturday I drove to the mountains, intending to hike up the Sonnjoch, but the road from Pertisau was closed. So I made do with a hike up Hochiss in the Rofan Mountains on the other side of the Achensee.

Descending from Hochiss

Looking east to the Spieljoch

The Spieljoch

This was a fantastic hike!

Hochnissl (2546 m)

I wasn't sure what to do the next day, but finally decided on a little-visited peak called Hochnissl, on the long Vomper Kette ridge that travels down from the high Lamsenspitze (2508) to the town of Stans, almost 2000 meters below.

I was able to start at about 850 meters elevation on the Vomperberg, first with about 30 minutes walking flat along a road, then steeply by a hunters cabin and into a relentless climb on the south side of the ridge. I'd hate to be here in high summer! Latschen and scree forever. About 1000 meters straight up through that. Finally a little rest break on the Niedernissl (2067 m), then steeply up to the ridge and on the ridge for the last 400 meters. Really fantastic. I believe I saw one guy near the summit, but on the way down, as the sun dropped below the trees there was a guy hiking up for a night-time ascent. Wow... pretty interesting idea in such rugged terrain!

Hochglück and the Kaiserkopf on the left

The mighty Sonnjoch

A really long ways down to the Inn!

From the high Karwendel to the Guffert

The Lamsenspitze from Hochnissl

Hochnissl panorama

Another great hike. Sigh. Time to go home.