Steinschneider

The Steinschneider is a 2,070-metre peak in the Koralpe range of southern Austria’s Carinthia region. It stands on the western edge of the main ridge, north-west of the Great Speikkogel, and is topped by a tall concrete mast for radio transmissions. Three municipalities meet at the summit: Wolfsberg, Frantschach-St Gertraud and St Andrä. The mountain’s southern and western flanks lie within the Koralpe ski area, where lifts and pistes converge. To the east, the Great Kar is protected as a nature reserve, while the smaller Kar and Erlenloch basins lie to the north and north-west. The Steinschneider’s rocks belong to the old crystalline core of the Koralpe. Bands of marble and lenses of amphibolite and eclogite appear within the prevailing garnet-mica schist and paragneiss. On the steep eastern and south-eastern slopes above the Great Kar, thin striped gneiss layers dip at thirty to forty degrees, forming cliffs. Post-glacial rockslides have left coarse scree slopes below these walls. One striking formation here is the ‘Hotel Kar’, a cluster of boulders at the western edge of the Great Kar basin. Walkers usually combine the Steinschneider with the Great Speikkogel. The simplest route starts from the Koralpenhaus, reached by ski piste from either the Koralpe holiday village or the Alpengasthof Sonnhof in about an hour and a quarter. From the Weinebene via the Grillitschhütte and through the Great Kar, the ascent takes roughly two and a half hours. The concrete mast stands where a summit cross once marked the highest point.