Spitzmauer Hiking & Travel Guide

Spitzmauer is a mountain in Upper Austria, Austria. The nearest service base is Liezen, roughly 19 km away.

Spitzmauer at a Glance

• What it is: mountain (Hiking)
• Where it is: Upper Austria, Upper Austria, Austria — coordinates 47.6961, 14.0616
• Why it is listed: a source-verified entry in the CollabsTravel master database, matched against official gazetteer and geographic records before publication
• Time needed: two to four hours
• Best season: late spring to early autumn

Quick Facts

Place type	Mountain
Primary category	Hiking
Also good for	Hiking, Scenic
Region / state	Upper Austria
Country	Austria
Nearest city	Liezen
Coordinates	47.6961, 14.0616
Nearest base town	Liezen (19 km)

Why Spitzmauer Is Worth Visiting

Spitzmauer earns its place in this guide for a simple reason: it is a verified hiking in Upper Austria, Austria,. Its position 19 km from Liezen also makes it an easy add-on rather than a detour that costs half a day. Visitors book it for hiking, scenic as much as for hiking. And unlike listicle recommendations, everything on this page - coordinates, category, sources - was checked against official records before publication.

About Spitzmauer

In plain terms, Spitzmauer is a mountain in the Upper Austria area of Upper Austria, Austria that travellers book around hiking trips. Beyond its main draw, the record tags it for hiking, scenic too, so it rewards more than one kind of visit. Functionally it belongs to Liezen - the town most maps and locals will reference when describing how to reach it. Everything stated on this page comes from that verified record; where background history is quoted, the source is named at the end of the section.

The Story of Spitzmauer: History & Background

With its summit at 2,446 metres (8,025 ft) above sea level, the Spitzmauer (lit. translatable as "sharp/steep wall") is the second highest mountain of the Totes Gebirge mountain range in the south of Upper Austria. A Dachstein Formation, the mountain was first touristically climbed by Vienna botanist Karl Stoitzner, school teacher H. Langeder, and mountain guide Matthias "Haarschlager" Hotz on 23 July 1858. It took several more years until a passage through the sharp, name-giving, eastern wall was found by Robert Damberger and Hans Kirchmaier in 1906.

The most common climbing route takes around four hours, starts in Hinterstoder and passes the Prielschutzhaus mountain hut. A more challenging route starts in Grünau im Almtal and passes the Welser Hut.

On 20 March 1942, during World War II, a military plane of the Junkers Ju 52 type crashed into mountain in dense fog, en route from Wiener Neustadt to Munich. All four crew members were killed. The plane was only discovered by tourists almost 2 months later, on May 10 because parts of the plane were sticking out of the snow. The bodies of the crew members and important parts of the plane were recovered nine days later. While most of the remaining debris was buried, some is still visible from the hiking trails. A memorial cross close to the site carries a license plate from one of the aircraft's units. One part of the landing gear is used as a trail blaze.

The diary of one of the team members involved in the recovery effort reads:

Aufstieg zur Maschine mit Rettungsschlitten zum Bergen der Toten. Es waren ein Feldwebel und ein Obergefreiter. Beide brachten wir mittels Schlitten, auf die sie mit Lawinenschnur befestigt waren, ins Tal zur Polsterlucke. Dort wurden die Toten in Zinnsärge gelegt. Nach Beenden der Arbeit kleines Bad im Schneewasser der krummen Steyr. Am übernächsten Tag Aufstieg zur Spitzmauer. Suche nach MG und Fallschirm.- Ohne Seil – MG – Trommel mit Munition gefunden. Vermeintlicher Fallschirm entpuppte sich als Nachthemd...

Am Samstag Abtransport der Laufräder mit Ochsen. Schwere Schufterei. Dauernd bis zum Bauch im Schnee. Viel Schweiß ist geflossen...

Which translates to:

Ascent to the machine with rescue sledges to recover the dead. There was a sergeant and a lance corporal. We took both of them down into the valley to the Polsterlucke using sledges to which they were attached with avalanche cord. There the dead were placed in tin coffins. After the work was finished, we had a little dip in the snow water of the crooked Steyr. The day after next, ascent to the Spitzmauer. Search for machine gun and parachute - without rope - machine gun drum with ammunition found. Supposed parachute turned out to be a nightshirt...

On Saturday, removal of the wheels with oxen. Hard labour. Up to our stomachs in snow all the time. A lot of sweat flowed...

Lead passage from the Wikipedia article "Spitzmauer", reused under CC BY-SA 4.0 with a coordinate-verified name match; the source article carries the full referenced history.

The Beauty of Spitzmauer

What people mean when they call Spitzmauer beautiful is usually elevated, unblocked views - the kind of layered landscape that photographs badly from the road and perfectly from the first viewpoint. The light does most of the work: mid-latitude light gives the place two looks: clean blue summer noon and a low amber angle in spring and autumn. The seasons restyle everything around it - wildflower spring, deep-green summer, gold-and-rust autumn and, above the snowline, a winter version of the same scene. And the beauty compounds with context: with 8 other verified places nearby, the Upper Austria area reads as one continuous landscape rather than a single viewpoint, which is worth more than any filter on the photos you take here.

Getting There

Spitzmauer sits at 47.6961, 14.0616 in Upper Austria, Austria. Most visitors reach it by car, regional rail or local transit; pin the coordinates above rather than only the name - Spitzmauer names repeat across regions, and rural entries often lack street addresses.

Base yourself in Liezen and make this a half-day trip; services, fuel and lodging are easiest there. The run from Liezen is about 19 km (12 mi) each way, so allow Liezen as your anchor for the day.

Best Time to Visit

Late spring to early autumn (May to September) brings the warmest and most reliable conditions across Austria. Shoulder months just before and after that window trade a little weather for noticeably lower prices and thinner crowds.

Spitzmauer Season by Season

• Summer (Jun-Aug) - peak season: the warmest, longest days and everything open, which also makes it the priciest and busiest window
• Autumn (Sep-Nov) - shoulder season: crowds drain away, the light turns photographic, and lodging rates typically fall
• Winter (Dec-Feb) - off-season: cheapest beds and empty viewpoints, but check for closures, snow or rain before committing
• Spring (Mar-May) - rebuild season: wildflowers, newborn wildlife and reopened facilities - the best balance if the weather holds

Things to Do

Planning what to actually do at Spitzmauer comes down to the setting it sits in:

• Arrive with the exact coordinates (47.6961, 14.0616) pinned in your maps app — rural place names repeat across states
• Walk the shortest signed loop first, then decide how far to push on with the lightest pack
• Check sunrise/sunset times before setting out; carry water for double the distance you plan
• Photography stops at the first viewpoint are usually the best framed ones
• Chain the stop with what is nearby — see the list below before fixing your day route

None of this needs a rigid schedule - the honest pattern at Spitzmauer is one anchor at the trailhead or first viewpoint, one longer stop, and the rest of the time left for whatever looks better from the car window. That flexibility is what separates a good half-day from a rushed one.

A Perfect Day in Spitzmauer

Morning (start early). Have breakfast at Liezen and roll out before mid-morning - the light is softer, parking is open, and Spitzmauer is at its quietest before the day-trippers arrive. Give the main stop its full due first rather than saving it for later.

Midday. From Spitzmauer, Schermberg is only 2 km away - pair the two rather than driving home for lunch; a picnic beats a reservation near most of these spots.

Afternoon. Keep going to Grosser Priel (2 km) if the group still has legs; it is the standard second half of this loop.

Golden hour. End at the main viewpoint, waterfront or main street as the light drops; this is the hour Spitzmauer is genuinely famous for locally, and it costs nothing.

Evening. Sleep at Liezen unless the road out is long - leaving at dusk is the one mistake that can flatten an otherwise perfect day.

Know Before You Go to Spitzmauer

• Save the pin (47.6961, 14.0616) offline - reception in Upper Austria is exactly as good as it needs to be and no better
• Check the official source listed at the bottom of this page for current hours, fees and closures before driving out
• Carry more water than the plan says; shade is usually optional on these routes
• Tell someone the turnaround time - help arrives slower than it looks from the trailhead

Nearby Places Worth Combining

Spitzmauer does not sit in isolation - these verified places are all within a short hop and combine into a full loop:

• Schermberg — hiking, about 2 km (1 mi) away
• Grosser Priel — hiking, about 2 km (1 mi) away
• Ostrawitz — hiking, about 2 km (2 mi) away
• Im Zöbel — hiking, about 4 km (3 mi) away
• Kreuz — hiking, about 4 km (3 mi) away
• Öttlberg — hiking, about 5 km (3 mi) away
• Zamseggerkogel — hiking, about 6 km (4 mi) away
• Schnablwipfel — hiking, about 6 km (4 mi) away

Planning More of Your Trip

See everything in Austria on the Austria country hub, browse the full Hiking Austria collection, or take in the whole Upper Austria region.