The Hohe Wand is a mountain ridge in Lower Austria

Lower Austria

Lower Austria is the northeasternmost state of the nine states in Austria. The capital of Lower Austria since 1986 is Sankt Pölten, the most recently designated capital town in Austria. The capital of Lower Austria had formerly been Vienna, even though Vienna is not officially part of Lower Austria...

 and is part of the Gutenstein Alps

Gutenstein Alps

The Gutenstein Alps are a mountain range in the Eastern Alps in Central Europe, and the northeasternmost part of the Northern Limestone Alps, reaching heights over 1,000 m.- Topography :...

.
The Hohe Wand lies west of Steinfeld in the Vienna Basin

Vienna Basin

The Vienna Basin is a sedimentary basin between the Alps and the Carpathian Mountains...

; its highest peak (Plackles) attains a height of 1,132 m.

General

It derives its name, which means "High Wall", from the steep rock faces on its south and southeast side. The high plateau is about 8 km long and stretches from the area of the Plackles peak in the southwest to the so-called Wandeck in the northeast.

The plateau of the Hohe Wand may be accessed over a toll road built in 1931/32 that branches off the road between Stollhof

Hohe Wand

Hohe Wand is a municipality in the district of Wiener Neustadt-Land in Lower Austria, Austria....

 and Maiersdorf. From 1965 until it was dismantled in 1994 there was also a double chairlift

Chairlift

An elevated passenger ropeway, or chairlift, is a type of aerial lift, which consists of a continuously circulating steel cable loop strung between two end terminals and usually over intermediate towers, carrying a series of chairs...

 from Grünbach

Grünbach am Schneeberg

Grünbach am Schneeberg is a town in the district of Neunkirchen in the Austrian state of Lower Austria.-References:...

 to the Plackles summit.
Easy, but little used, hiking trails runs from the Dürnbach valley, from Grünbach and from the "rear side", from Miesenbach, up the mountain. Most of the climbs on the southern and southeastern sides are more challenging, requiring surefootedness and, in places a head for heights. In this area are most of the over 700 climbing routes of all levels of difficulty; there are also numerous Klettersteigs.
In the area of the Hohe Wand are numerous caves. The Unicorn Cave near Dreistetten is accessible to the public as a show cave

Show cave

Show caves — also called tourist caves, public caves, and in the United States, commercial caves — are caves that are managed by a government or commercial organization and made accessible to the general public, usually for an entrance fee...

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Due to its location on the edge of the Vienna Basin and its accessibility by car, there are 3 popular take-off points on the Hohe Wand for paragliders and hang gliders. The most popular of these is the eastern one, the Oststartplatz, the most challenging and the one most used by hang gliders is the southern one, the Südstartplatz; there is also the less used Almfrieden Startplatz. The Hohe Wand is especially suitable for flying due to its south-to-east wind situations and is also the local mountain for the Viennese.

On the plateau there is a large number of mountain inns and Alpine huts, but also numerous weekend houses, especially in Wanddörfl.

Part of the Hohe Wand has been placed under protection as the Hohe Wand Nature Park, but the name is used to market tourist attractions, some of which have been heavily criticised as being incompatible with a nature park (e.g. the "Skywalk" observation platform that juts out from the rocks).

Popular easy hiking routes

The following paths and climbs are listed in order beginning from those southwest of the Hohe Wand (the southern end of the rock faces) then via the mainly eastwards oriented rock faces, the north and northwest and back to the southwest (i.e. anti-clockwise).

Pfarrersteig Grafenbergweg Wagnersteig Springlessteig Leitergraben Straßenbahnerweg Krumme Ries (von Maiersdorf)

Völlerinsteig Leiterlsteig Drobilsteig Einhornhöhlenweg Waldeggersteig (Große Klause) Krumme Ries (Kleine Klause)

Popular Klettersteige

• Blutspur
• Drobilsteig
• Frauenluckensteig
• Ganghofersteig
• Hanselsteig
• HTL-Steig
• Kammerlingsteig
• Leiterlsteig
• Naturfreundesteig (Kleine Klause)
• Springlessteig
• Steirerspur
• Völlerinsteig
• Wagnersteig
• Währingersteig
• Waldeggersteig (Große Klause)
• Wildenauersteig

Popular climbing routes

• Austriasteig
• A-Steig
• direct Sonnenuhrwand
• Draschgrat
• Fredsteig
• Freundschaftssteig
• Grafenbergsteig
• Kanzelsteig
• Postlgrat
• Reineke Fuchs
• Tirolersteig
• Totenköpflsteig
• Turmsteig
• Weningersteig
• Wienersteig

Popular Klettergärten

• Almfriedenwände
• Baumgartnerturm
• Milak-Klettergarten
• obere und untere Naglplatte
• ÖTK-Klettergarten

Huts

• Gasthaus auf dem Geländ (1023 m), formerly TVN, now private
• Plackleshaus (1132 m), private
• Wilhelm Eichert Hut (1052 m), ÖTK
  OTK
  OTK may refer to:* Accident Investigation Board of Finland * One Time Key, a method related to encryption* One Turn Kill* Open Tool Kit, a graphical user interface library...
  
  
• Turmsteig Hut (1000 m), privat
• Hubertushaus (946 m), ÖGV
• Hochkogelhaus (932 m), TVN
• Alpengasthof Postl (892 m), private
• Herrgottschnitzerhaus (826 m), formerly Alpine Gesellschaft „D'Herrgottschnitzer“ (Wien), now private
• Wiener Neustädter Haus (1035 m), formerly TVN, now private
• Kohlröserlhaus (900 m), private

External links

• Hohe Wand Nature Park
• The old chairlift on the Hohe Wand
• Climbs on the Hohe Wand
• Allerlei. Österreich. Eine Drahtseilbahn auf die Hohe Wand und auf den Schneeberg. Badener Zeitung, 2 April 1927, p. 5 http://anno.onb.ac.at/cgi-content/anno?apm=0&aid=bzt&datum=19270402&seite=5&zoom=2