The Gschloss Valley

Hohe Tauern, Austria

William Mackesy’s account of this walk

 More a few notes than an account:

We made the long, long ascent the on the northern valley flanks on route 916A to join the Venediger Höhenweg on the high traverse described above. Our younger was very slow, and turned back; our older and I got to the hign junction, but time was running on and we might not have finished the circuit before dark (and long after we agreed to meet our slower half), so we had to reluctantly turn back.

What we did was, though, itself a superb walk in beautiful slopes of grass and low shrubs. The effort-to-reward ratio wasn’t as good as if we had had time to head on along the traversing hohenweg, but it was a very good time nonetheless.

The views from the upper valley bottom really are absurdly lovely, but they get even better with a bit of elevation: then the majesty of the icy mass of the Venediger group is more fully laid out before you. While climbing west-ish towards Venediger is arguably more interesting, the more distant views from the northern valley flanks are even finer.

The flowers on the northern valley flanks were still delightful in mid August when we were there. We saw a kestrel in acrobatic action from the northern flanks, frogs galore and (perhaps unsurprisingly) a quick 30cm+ snake, not a viper we thought.