Climbing gyms in Austria

Austria is one of the great climbing countries of the Alps, with rock for every style from family crags to thousand-metre walls. The Northern Limestone Alps carry the classic big walls and alpine history – the Wilder Kaiser with the Fleischbank and Totenkirchl, the Gesäuse with the Hochtor (2,369 m), Ödstein and Planspitze, the Dachstein with its south faces and the Loferer and Leoganger Steinberge with more than 1,000 sport routes and the 45-pitch "Pinzgawurm". The Central Alps add granite and gneiss: the Zillertal with the Ewige Jagdgründe near Ginzling and over 1,000 boulders, the Ötztal with more than 750 routes on 21 crags, and the Maltatal in Carinthia with over 350 sport routes, 80 multi-pitches and 200 boulders.

Close to Vienna, the limestone of the Hohe Wand, Peilstein and the Rax-Schneeberg group – the home ground of Viennese climbers for over a century – and the gneiss of the Wachau on the Danube make Lower Austria one of the busiest climbing regions in the country. Most low-lying crags are climbable from spring to autumn, some all year round, while alpine routes are mainly done from June to September; access is good almost everywhere thanks to dense road and rail networks and a well-kept Alpine Club hut system.