Trekking in the Stubai Alps

A engineer by profession, Allan Hartley has spent the majority of his working life overseas engaged on major construction projects. However throughout this time he has maintained his close links with Austria, which he discovered totally by accident in the early 1970s in respite from atrocious weather conditions in the higher mountains of the western Alps. He maintains that Austria and the Dolomites of neighbouring Italy remain one of mountaineering's best kept secrets with their heady mix of superb scenery, good huts and first-class food, and are areas better suited to the average mountaineer than the higher mountains to the west. In addition to Austria, Allan has climbed extensively throughout the Alps, together with East Africa and the Greater Ranges in Nepal and Pakistan, and lesser known Zagros mountains of Iran and, more recently, the Hajr mountains of the Arabian peninsula. Not surprisingly, the author is a long-term member of the Austrian Alpine Club. When not abroad, the author's home is on the edge of the Yorkshire Dales.

Introduction7 Topography7 Getting to Austria7 Central Innsbruck: Important Sites and Locations9 Accommodation in the Valley10 The Austrian Alpine Club11 Huts12 Currency18 Kit and Equipment18 Maps19 Route Descriptions and Sketch Maps20 Route Grading20 Standard Times20 Route Finding21 Seasonal Change22 Children22 Altitude23 Glaciers and Glacier Travel: Crevasse Rescue Techniques23 Mountain Rescue and Insurance27 Language27 The Stubai Rucksack Route29 The Stubai Glacier Tour83 Appendix A: Hut Descriptions and Locations120 Appendix B: Useful German Words and Phrases135