Kammspitz

The Kammspitz stands at 2,139 metres as the highest summit in the Kemetgebirge, an eastern subgroup of the Dachstein range. It rises as the most striking feature of a thirty-kilometre ridge that stretches east from the Hoher Dachstein at 2,995 metres to the Grimming at 2,351 metres. The mountain drops steeply south into the Steirisches Ennstal while its northern flanks slope down through the Kammalm and past the Miesbodensee into a karst plateau covered mainly by forest and topped by peaks between 1,600 and 1,800 metres. A few kilometres west along the same ridge sits the Stoderzinken at 2,048 metres, reached by a toll road, while to the east the Kammspitz falls more than a thousand metres into the Salzatal where the Salza reservoir cuts a deep gap toward the Grimming. The usual route starts in Gröbming in the Ennstal and climbs steeply up the sunlit southern face to the summit. From the top there is a wide view over the Dachstein, the Ausseer Land and southwards down the Ennstal to the Schladminger Tauern. Walkers then descend to the Miesboden and turn west through the Öfen notch back into the Ennstal. Seen from Bad Mitterndorf the jagged crest of the Kammspitze forms an especially striking silhouette that gave the peak its name. On the summit ridge the sharp granite teeth of the crest catch the wind and the light at every hour. Below, the Miesbodensee lies in a hollow of the karst plateau, its waters reflecting the pale limestone walls. The forested high plateau stretches northward with scattered clearings where cattle graze in summer, while to the south the valley floor of the Ennstal appears as a green ribbon winding between the lower hills.