day than we'd expected. Ended up dropping straight off the south face to get back in time for the last tram. There was some routefinding and a few stretches of 4th class but nothing too rough.
Walked into Ijes Farm from the Alpibahn. Dropped our tent and bags and hiked on up to Vorder Grauspitz.
Summited at 5.45pm - 2h 45m from Ijes and 6h in total from Alpibahn allowing for snack and photo stops.
If you head for the centre of the ridge from the Schallfi bowl, where the grass comes down, you will have 1 "bad step" to do on the ridge scramble. However you can ascend the scree slope further north (to your left) just as easily to avoid it.
Great summit - lovely views!
fubar7500 - Sep 19, 2019 3:02 am Date Climbed: Jul 6, 2019
Great solo trip, nice climb, almost nobody in the mountains. Fortunatelly I met two local people on top of Hinter G., who showed me pretty fast and short way down the nothern snowfields:-)
bruno baschung - Oct 20, 2018 12:51 am Date Climbed: Sep 30, 2018
nice hike to Lichtenstein's highest top
Great Hike to this beautiful peak and not so frequented area.
I had a previous try sept. 2017 and went up to the fore summit, but ridge from foresummit to main summit, was icy and Snowy, with a high degree of exposure which tehn prevented me from summiting. In spite of being very close (less than 100m in horizontal distance and 15 m of altitude difference), it's for sure the more exposed part of the hike via normal route since South face of Graupsitz drops vertically and north face is very steep as well. A fall there would be very Dangerous.
With good conditions, normal care give access to the summit without too much worry.
When approaching the peak from normal route ( leaving the ridge going to Hintergrauspitz at 2400m) I suggest not to attempt to traverse to reach col between Hinter and vordergrauspitz. Such a traverse avoid loosing altiude but is very unconfortable, perhaps exposed to rockfalls as well (sometimes provoked by mountain goats)
It's much better and advisable to accept to go down to the Bottom of Schafalpi ( whihc means loosing a maximum of +/- 30/40 m of altitude - good section for camping there) and then climb on the left (west) side of the steep face leading to foresummit pf Vordergrauspitz. One will see from the Bottom pof schalapi a small rocky ridge on this west (left) side of the face, not very well marked (actually, only a few rocks emerging from the scree slope). Just right of it one can find (obvious in sept 2018) quite a good "path" / trail leading you to the top of the ridge wiothout too much effort. The slope is not as steep as it might appear to you when discovering Grauspitz from the ridge leading to Hintergraupitz. It's probably 40 to 45 degrees only, the steepst part being the last 40 m. You will arrive less than 100m east of the foresummit when reaching the ridge, thus accessing easily to it. then as said before, section between foresummit and main top is very brief but requires in normal conditions basic care and attention. be very careful if wet or Snowy / icy.
(note: it is also quite confortable to consider camping / biwak) before reaching the ridge of Hintergrauspitz, good site at 2295m on a flat grassy area)
bruno baschung
atavist - May 23, 2016 11:48 am Date Climbed: May 21, 2016
Lichtenstein HP
Met my friend from Spain at the Alplibahn parking area on Friday night and we hiked up and camped behind one of the cabins before the Alpli Stat. On Saturday we started up and, just past the Alpli Stat, started to encounter fresh snow that had fallen the last couple days.
The trail became completely obscure, so rather than successfully navigate our way to the Ijes Dairy Farm, we turned up the wrong valley which I assume is the regular access for Falknis. There was a cross on one of the peaks which we used as our beacon, assuming it to be the Hinter Grauspitz, however there are actually at least 3 peaks with crosses in the vicinity. The peak we thought was Hinter Grauspitz was actually Sammi Claus.
We got as far as the saddle between Falknis and Sammi Claus at which point reality could no longer be denied. The mountain did not conform to our description or expectation. While most observers reply that the ridge is technical and imposing, generally requiring ropes, it didn't match the pictures I had seen nor could I believe it was at most 4th class. Not to mention that the highest point was at least three peaks away and it was already technical just getting to the 'Hinter', add a significant coating of late season snow and it was quite an imposing sight.
We didn't have any pro and only an 8m rope so my friend wisely decided to call it a day. After trudging most of the day through knee-waist deep snow, I was sufficiently warmed up and wanted to try the traverse. It involved one 5th class pitch of rock climbing (I saw 8 ss bolts and 3 pitons, more might have been under snow), delicate ridge traversing with several large cornices and some hair-raising mixed climbing on wet snow. When I topped out on the real Grauspitz I could see the other cross on the real Hinter Grauspitz and realized what was up.
When I got to the saddle before Hinter it was already after 7pm so I bailed off. In retrospect it would probably have been faster and safer to continue over the normal route. It turns out bailing off the saddle is not trivial. Regardless I met my friend back in the amphitheater and we walked out as the full moon rose over the Eastern Alps. All in all, a fantastic day though I could do without the sunburn and wet feet.
highpointa - Jun 18, 2013 8:50 pm Date Climbed: Aug 18, 2012
Great ridge traverse
Most people seem to scale this wonderful peak from the Swiss side but it can also be done from Liechtenstein. We started hiking up the Valüna valley from Steg, climbed up Liechtenstein's second-highest peak, Schwarzhorn, then did the airy ridge traverse over to Grauspitz.
rgg - Jul 13, 2012 10:49 am Date Climbed: Jun 24, 2012
A beautiful day!
A few days before, I met a climber from the area, who explained the route quite clearly. And so I went from the Pfälzerhütte to Ijesfürgli, over Schwarzhorn with the (h)airy scramble to Grauspitz, back over Schwarzhorn to Ijesfürgli and from there to the Schesaplanahütte.
project360 - Oct 14, 2009 11:19 pm Date Climbed: Jul 19, 2009
Highest point in Liechtenstein
Great climb to the highest point in Liechtenstein.
Joerg Marretsch - Aug 16, 2009 5:19 pm Date Climbed: Aug 15, 2009
Grauspitz ridge traverse
Hot day! Awesome ridge traverse from Schwarzhorn (Hinter Grauspitz).
Dziku - Oct 21, 2008 9:10 am Date Climbed: Oct 17, 2008
Sucka-Schwarzhorn-Grauspitz
Very interesting mountain and whole area. Some troubles with finding path to the summit. It's very hard to find it when visibility is not good. The steepest ridges i've ever seen.
Great climb to the highest point in Liechtenstein that I've been waiting to do for a while. Nice weather, a little foggy on the summit, nice class 3 scrambling with decent exposure on the ridge, and an interesting "direct" descent down cliffs and scree. Tiring, yet fun. 1st country highpoint!
Andinistaloco - Nov 10, 2022 3:33 pm
Longerday than we'd expected. Ended up dropping straight off the south face to get back in time for the last tram. There was some routefinding and a few stretches of 4th class but nothing too rough.
babika - Jul 26, 2020 1:48 pm Date Climbed: Jul 25, 2020
35th Euro High pointWalked into Ijes Farm from the Alpibahn. Dropped our tent and bags and hiked on up to Vorder Grauspitz.
Summited at 5.45pm - 2h 45m from Ijes and 6h in total from Alpibahn allowing for snack and photo stops.
If you head for the centre of the ridge from the Schallfi bowl, where the grass comes down, you will have 1 "bad step" to do on the ridge scramble. However you can ascend the scree slope further north (to your left) just as easily to avoid it.
Great summit - lovely views!
fubar7500 - Sep 19, 2019 3:02 am Date Climbed: Jul 6, 2019
Pfälzerhütte-Alp Ijes-Hinter/Vorder/Hinter Grauspitze-StegGreat solo trip, nice climb, almost nobody in the mountains. Fortunatelly I met two local people on top of Hinter G., who showed me pretty fast and short way down the nothern snowfields:-)
bruno baschung - Oct 20, 2018 12:51 am Date Climbed: Sep 30, 2018
nice hike to Lichtenstein's highest topGreat Hike to this beautiful peak and not so frequented area.
I had a previous try sept. 2017 and went up to the fore summit, but ridge from foresummit to main summit, was icy and Snowy, with a high degree of exposure which tehn prevented me from summiting. In spite of being very close (less than 100m in horizontal distance and 15 m of altitude difference), it's for sure the more exposed part of the hike via normal route since South face of Graupsitz drops vertically and north face is very steep as well. A fall there would be very Dangerous.
With good conditions, normal care give access to the summit without too much worry.
When approaching the peak from normal route ( leaving the ridge going to Hintergrauspitz at 2400m) I suggest not to attempt to traverse to reach col between Hinter and vordergrauspitz. Such a traverse avoid loosing altiude but is very unconfortable, perhaps exposed to rockfalls as well (sometimes provoked by mountain goats)
It's much better and advisable to accept to go down to the Bottom of Schafalpi ( whihc means loosing a maximum of +/- 30/40 m of altitude - good section for camping there) and then climb on the left (west) side of the steep face leading to foresummit pf Vordergrauspitz. One will see from the Bottom pof schalapi a small rocky ridge on this west (left) side of the face, not very well marked (actually, only a few rocks emerging from the scree slope). Just right of it one can find (obvious in sept 2018) quite a good "path" / trail leading you to the top of the ridge wiothout too much effort. The slope is not as steep as it might appear to you when discovering Grauspitz from the ridge leading to Hintergraupitz. It's probably 40 to 45 degrees only, the steepst part being the last 40 m. You will arrive less than 100m east of the foresummit when reaching the ridge, thus accessing easily to it. then as said before, section between foresummit and main top is very brief but requires in normal conditions basic care and attention. be very careful if wet or Snowy / icy.
(note: it is also quite confortable to consider camping / biwak) before reaching the ridge of Hintergrauspitz, good site at 2295m on a flat grassy area)
bruno baschung
atavist - May 23, 2016 11:48 am Date Climbed: May 21, 2016
Lichtenstein HPMet my friend from Spain at the Alplibahn parking area on Friday night and we hiked up and camped behind one of the cabins before the Alpli Stat. On Saturday we started up and, just past the Alpli Stat, started to encounter fresh snow that had fallen the last couple days.
The trail became completely obscure, so rather than successfully navigate our way to the Ijes Dairy Farm, we turned up the wrong valley which I assume is the regular access for Falknis. There was a cross on one of the peaks which we used as our beacon, assuming it to be the Hinter Grauspitz, however there are actually at least 3 peaks with crosses in the vicinity. The peak we thought was Hinter Grauspitz was actually Sammi Claus.
We got as far as the saddle between Falknis and Sammi Claus at which point reality could no longer be denied. The mountain did not conform to our description or expectation. While most observers reply that the ridge is technical and imposing, generally requiring ropes, it didn't match the pictures I had seen nor could I believe it was at most 4th class. Not to mention that the highest point was at least three peaks away and it was already technical just getting to the 'Hinter', add a significant coating of late season snow and it was quite an imposing sight.
We didn't have any pro and only an 8m rope so my friend wisely decided to call it a day. After trudging most of the day through knee-waist deep snow, I was sufficiently warmed up and wanted to try the traverse. It involved one 5th class pitch of rock climbing (I saw 8 ss bolts and 3 pitons, more might have been under snow), delicate ridge traversing with several large cornices and some hair-raising mixed climbing on wet snow. When I topped out on the real Grauspitz I could see the other cross on the real Hinter Grauspitz and realized what was up.
When I got to the saddle before Hinter it was already after 7pm so I bailed off. In retrospect it would probably have been faster and safer to continue over the normal route. It turns out bailing off the saddle is not trivial. Regardless I met my friend back in the amphitheater and we walked out as the full moon rose over the Eastern Alps. All in all, a fantastic day though I could do without the sunburn and wet feet.
highpointa - Jun 18, 2013 8:50 pm Date Climbed: Aug 18, 2012
Great ridge traverseMost people seem to scale this wonderful peak from the Swiss side but it can also be done from Liechtenstein. We started hiking up the Valüna valley from Steg, climbed up Liechtenstein's second-highest peak, Schwarzhorn, then did the airy ridge traverse over to Grauspitz.
rgg - Jul 13, 2012 10:49 am Date Climbed: Jun 24, 2012
A beautiful day!A few days before, I met a climber from the area, who explained the route quite clearly. And so I went from the Pfälzerhütte to Ijesfürgli, over Schwarzhorn with the (h)airy scramble to Grauspitz, back over Schwarzhorn to Ijesfürgli and from there to the Schesaplanahütte.
project360 - Oct 14, 2009 11:19 pm Date Climbed: Jul 19, 2009
Highest point in LiechtensteinGreat climb to the highest point in Liechtenstein.
Joerg Marretsch - Aug 16, 2009 5:19 pm Date Climbed: Aug 15, 2009
Grauspitz ridge traverseHot day! Awesome ridge traverse from Schwarzhorn (Hinter Grauspitz).
Dziku - Oct 21, 2008 9:10 am Date Climbed: Oct 17, 2008
Sucka-Schwarzhorn-GrauspitzVery interesting mountain and whole area. Some troubles with finding path to the summit. It's very hard to find it when visibility is not good. The steepest ridges i've ever seen.
McCannster - Jul 16, 2006 6:04 pm Date Climbed: Jul 16, 2006
Great, yet exhausting climbGreat climb to the highest point in Liechtenstein that I've been waiting to do for a while. Nice weather, a little foggy on the summit, nice class 3 scrambling with decent exposure on the ridge, and an interesting "direct" descent down cliffs and scree. Tiring, yet fun. 1st country highpoint!