At 2002 metres the Vordere Kesselschneid is the highest summit in the Kaisergebirge, the northern chain of the Kaisergebirge

Kaisergebirge

The Kaisergebirge is a mountain range in the Northern Limestone Alps and Eastern Alps. It consists of two main mountain ridges – the Zahmer Kaiser to the north and the Wilder Kaiser to the south. The entire range is situated in the Austrian state of Tyrol between the town of Kufstein and the...

 in the Austria

Austria

Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...

n state of Tyrol

Tyrol (state)

Tyrol is a state or Bundesland, located in the west of Austria. It comprises the Austrian part of the historical region of Tyrol.The state is split into two parts–called North Tyrol and East Tyrol–by a -wide strip of land where the state of Salzburg borders directly on the Italian province of...

.

Its summit is located southeast of the oft-visited Pyramidenspitze

Pyramidenspitze

The Pyramidenspitze is a peak, high, in the Kaisergebirge in the Austrian state of Tyrol.The Pyramidenspitze is only the second highest summit in the Kaisergebirge after the largely unknown, 2,002 metre high Vordere Kesselschneid, but is nevertheless its most well-known and most frequently...

 and is separated from it by a ca. 50 m deep saddle. To the east of the mountain is a long, rocky arete

Arete

Areté is the term meaning "virtue" or "excellence", from Greek ἈρετήArete may also be used:*as a given name of persons or things:**Queen Arete , a character in Homer's Odyssey.***197 Arete, an asteroid....

, partly covered with mountain pine

Mountain Pine

Pinus mugo, the Mountain Pine or Mugo Pine, is a high-altitude European pine, found in the Pyrenees, Alps, Erzgebirge, Carpathians, northern Apennines and Balkan Peninsula mountains from 1,000 m to 2,200 m, occasionally as low as 200 m in the north of the range in Germany and Poland, and as high...

s which runs over the Hintere Kesselschneid (1,995 m) to the Roßkaiser (1,970 m). To the north its steep rock faces drop into the Winkelkar cirque

Cirque

Cirque may refer to:* Cirque, a geological formation* Makhtesh, an erosional landform found in the Negev desert of Israel and Sinai of Egypt*Cirque , an album by Biosphere* Cirque Corporation, a company that makes touchpads...

, to the west lies the long plateau of the Kaisergebirge and the Pyramidenspitze and to the south the mountain falls sharply into the Kaisertal

Kaisertal

The Kaisertal is a striking mountain valley between the mountain chains of the Zahmer and Wilder Kaiser in Austria's Kaisergebirge range in the Tyrol. In the ravine on the valley floor flows the stream of the Kaiserbach , which discharges north of Kufstein into the Inn...

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Routes

The easiest and most-frequented route to the Vordere Kesselschneid is from the Pyramidenspitze to the northeast. From there you have to descend about 50 metres to a saddle and then make your way without the help of a path, but without any difficulties, across a grassy slope to the cairn

Cairn

Cairn is a term used mainly in the English-speaking world for a man-made pile of stones. It comes from the or . Cairns are found all over the world in uplands, on moorland, on mountaintops, near waterways and on sea cliffs, and also in barren desert and tundra areas...

on the summit. The walk from the Pyramidenspitze takes 20 minutes.