Oberissalm - Innere Sommerwand (approach via glacier Sommerwandferner)

Access to the starting point:
From Ljubljana, take the motorway past Salzburg towards Munich. At the Dreieck Inntal multi-level junction, take the A93 towards Innsbruck/Kufstein/Brenner. On your return to Austria, continue to the Innsbruck-Mitte exit. Here, do not turn towards Innsbruck, but continue on the A13 motorway towards the Brenner Pass. Turn off the motorway at exit 10-Schönberg and follow the comfortable road through the Stubai Valley to Neustift im Stubaital, where you take the first exit at the roundabout in the middle of the town and follow the ascending road to the village of Milders. In Milders, follow the Mühlenweg and the signs for Oberissalm. To get to mountain pasture, there are about 8 km of increasingly narrow asphalt road, which is often used by cattle, so you need to factor in any waiting for a crossing into your estimated driving time. At mountain pasture, Oberiss is parked in a parking lot with a parking fee of 5 euros per day.

An alternative is to drive through northern Itali: in this case, take the A2 motorway from central Slovenia to one of the border crossings with Austria and continue to Lienz. Here you continue on the 100 road and pass the Prato alla Drava crossing into Itali. In Itali, follow the SS49 all the way to the junction with the A22 motorway in the direction of the Brenner Pass. After the pass, continue in the direction of Innsbruck to the Schönberg exit. From there, follow the route described above.

Path description:
At mountain pasture, at the signpost above the parking lot, turn onto a wide dirt road, which, within a few minutes of mainly horizontal walking south-westwards, leads to a well-marked off-ramp of a narrow lane, which, with fine views of the eastern part of the Alpeine mountain range and the mountain pasture Oberiss below, leads you in a rather gentle curve through the sparse high mountain forest. A little higher up, we change to grassland with alpine alpine vegetation at the edge of the upper Obergbach valley, and the steepness gently subsides with fine views towards Franz Senn's hut and Vordere Sommerwand above it. Following a pleasant and scenic path in the last part of the way to the hut, you will pass the mountain pasture Alpeiner past a shepherd's hut and climb through an attractive watery landscape to the popular Franz-Senn-Hütte in just over 15 minutes; from the starting point it is about an hour and a half walk to the hut.

At the hut, you will see a signpost pointing firmly south along the path leading to the Sommerwand Glacier, the Vorder and Innere Sommerwand. At first quite leisurely, the path winds across a grassy slope and, at a slightly higher altitude, runs parallel to the torrent conceived on the Sommerwand Glacier. Crossing a partly rocky ledge, we approach the northern ridge of the Sommerwands and continue along the rocky world below the eastern slope of Vordere Sommerwand. After about an hour's walk from the hut, you will come to a crossroads: following the marked path, which turns sharp right towards the slope of Vordere Sommerwand, you can climb to the lowest named peak of the Sommerwand ridge in just under 20 minutes, while the path towards the Sommerwand Glacier continues straight southwards; at this point the path is no longer marked, with the exception of an old and faded specimen, and the boldly placed cairns markers to the bottom of the glacier help to orientate us.
We cross below the Sommerwand ridge for some time, still relatively level, and then after a short climb descend towards the bottom of the glacial valley. Following a number of little men on the rocky world, we pass a glacial lake (dried up in summer) to the edge of the western part of the Sommerwand Glacier. Caution: there is usually a clearly visible gauze running across the western part of the glacier towards Kräulschart, and there should be no glacial crevasses in this area; the same cannot be said for the eastern part of the glacier below the Knotenspitzes, so stick to the verified terrain. Near the lowest point of the valley below Sommerwandi, the cairns disappear a little at the edge of the snowfield, and we look towards our next destination: an oasis of flat rocks in the middle of the glacier, above which we can see the distinct footprints in the snow that will lead us below the Kräulscharte saddle. To avoid the more difficult scrambling over the cliff on the snow to the right of the rocks, cross to easier terrain where you will climb up to the rocks. Among the relatively sharp rocks of the rocky belt, it is possible to trace the little men again, which will surely lead us to the edge of the continuous glacier. Here, look up towards the obvious saddle above the western part of the Sommerwand Glacier; in summer and autumn, the footprints in the trail will probably make it easier to reach, but otherwise cross the moderately steep glacier to the south-west. Just below the saddle, when a fine view opens up towards the Innere Sommerwand peak on the right, the steepness increases; winter gear is more than welcome here in the icy snow.
The difficulty of the ascent of the rugged wall below the Kräulscharte depends on the season or weather conditions: winter and spring are the easiest, but in summer and autumn we have to climb some awkward rocks before we reach the taut rope that makes it easier to get over the wall. With the welcome help of a rope attached from above and a few feet at the top, we climb over a moderately steep wall; without the help of the rope, we would be climbing a concrete grade II. At the saddle linking the Sommerwandov and Kräulspitz ridges, head right (west) and climb a fairly wide ridge to a natural passage between large jagged rocks.
Here you have two options: you can go to the top via the western or eastern slope below the ridge of the mountain. The latter ('right') option is considerably safer and more favourable, as it is relatively easy to follow the tracks of the forerunners on the eastern side of the mountain, and the most suitable direction of approach is also indicated by the boreholes, which occur at sufficiently short intervals to allow reliable belaying if necessary. There are a few short thresholds to be climbed on the route, but the difficulty of the climbing does not exceed level I anywhere. After about 15 minutes of climbing from Kräulschart, we ascend through exposed and crumbly terrain (with the rock on the eastern side of the mountain's summit building being much less broken and unstable than on its western slope) to a cross at the summit lookout, in a very atmospheric high-mountain setting. It is also possible to reach the summit by climbing the western slope below the summit ridge, which I do not recommend in view of the high fragility and the associated objective danger. To avoid a risky climb on broken crags, the step just below the summit can be reached via the flat rocks (II).

The ascent of Innere Sommerwand is a high-altitude tour that requires adequate mountaineering experience: a sense of orientation is required, as we are mostly moving through a fairly clear, but unmarked and rather remote world, and the difficult summit section is pathless, although it is possible to orientate oneself decently in several places with the help of the clues of the forerunners; as far as we follow the optimal ascent route, the (free) climbing in the upper part does not exceed I anywhere, although it does not exceed I. grade, but if we are not overly concerned with finding the easiest passages, the difficulty of the climbing can increase markedly. Even though the glacier is relatively easy to traverse and is not cracked in the western part, it is necessary to have at least a basic knowledge of glacier movement, which is particularly important in more difficult weather conditions.
Nevertheless, Innere Sommerwand is one of the most technically easy and orientationally least complex of the three peaks to reach in the rather remote and still distinctly glaciated world of the Alpeine mountain range. This is why the ascent of Innere Sommerwand can be an attractive choice of excursion for the well-trained mountaineer - at the summit we find ourselves in the heart of a remote world of vast glaciers, where few paths lead to the peaks that rise sharply above them.

On the way: Franz-Senn-Hütte (2147m), sedlo Kräulscharte (3069m)

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