Zillertal At Risk From Quarrying

© www.stonemonkeys.com
"Zillertal is such a beautiful area. Probably one of the few places in Europe that has amazing bouldering, sports and alpine climbing all so close together and all of such a high standard and in such quantities." commented Jon Redshaw on the UKC forums.

The area is facing a threat from quarrying as various companies are about to be granted permission to harvest the valuable granite found in the area. More information (including an online petition) is available on the following sites:

Thanks to Robin Mueller and Glyn Jones for bringing this to our attention.


This post has been read 27,827 times

Return to Latest News


2 Sep, 2008
Perhaps this is worthy of being a news item?
agreed - have emailed Jack with link.
3 Sep, 2008
Was only there a couple of weeks ago and is such a beautifull area. Probably one of the few places in Europe that has amazing bouldering, sports and alpine climbing all so close together and all of such a high standard and in such quantities. Would be surprised if the quarrying did get the go ahead as is so many business there which depend on the tourists and massive quarries would kill there business.
6 Sep, 2008
yeah, amazing place. Well recommended.
9 Sep, 2008
To everyone.... As an English guy who has been living in Austria for the three years now and made it my home, I can safely say, this place is an awesome climbing spot - it is quite unique! The whole of Zillertal has so many incredible climbs and bouldering, that to see it quarried like this would simply be terrible. Unfortunately the politicians in Austria are particularly weak and money seems to talk - the quarrying companies are amongst some of the wealthiest here and they've already done untold damage to local crags and communities. (If anyone is familiar with the Martinswand on the outskirts of Innsbruck you'll have seen the damage which has been done - it's been a real saga for the people living around here. The quarrying company destroyed the main road in their over-zealousness to dig and then in the interests of 'stabilisation' work were paid even more to go further resulting in a closure of one of the most famous Klettersteigs/Via-Ferratas in the area and the destruction of whole climbing crags). Please take the time to sign the petition at "http://www.stonemonkeys.com/protest.html", consider a holiday here in the near future .... perhaps if the people in charge of such things saw how important climbing is to the tourist industry they would change their minds. To whet the appetite, here are a few links to some of the awesome climbing hereabouts.... http://www.bergsteigen.at/de/touren.aspx?ID=420 http://www.bergsteigen.at/de/touren.aspx?ID=417 http://www.bergsteigen.at/de/touren.aspx?ID=689 http://www.bergsteigen.at/de/touren.aspx?ID=652 http://www.bergsteigen.at/de/touren.aspx?ID=1478 ... in fact, just look at www.bergsteigen.at and search for 'Zillertal' in the search box... there's loads at every level...!!!! If anyone is interested in visiting, let me know and I'll post up some more tips.... Happy climbing Mark.
More Comments
Loading Notifications...