Alpine Club maps (German : Alpenvereinskarten, often abbreviated to AV-Karten i.e. AV maps) are especially detailed maps for summer and winter mountain climbers, hikers, and ski tourers. They are predominantly published at a scale of 1:25.000, although some sheets have scales of 1:50.000 and 1:100.000.
The cartographic library of the German (DAV) and the Austrian Alpine Clubs (OeAV) has about 70 different high mountain maps. Individual map sheets of the Alpine region or other interesting mountain areas in the world are continually published. The publication of its maps has been a function of the Alpine Club since 1865.
The two clubs still issue their maps to complement the official maps of the high mountains with special large-scale maps. This is especially true for the Austrian Alpine region, which is a popular area for club members, where there are no official maps at a scale of 1: 25.000, and the Alpine Club fills an important gap.
The characteristics of AV maps are their large scale (usually 1:25,000), high accuracy, and a great wealth of terrain detail in the high mountains (rock, rubble, glaciers, etc.). The contour interval is a maximum of 20 metres. The mountaineer should therefore be able to orient themselves using Alpine Club maps, both on the marked trails or in open terrain, i.e. away from the marked routes. In addition, the map sheets are divided in a way suitable for climbers and hikers with overlapping map sheets and a focus on the high mountain regions. Map names and height information (spot heights) are more densely printed than in other comparable maps.
Mountaineering, mountain climbing, or alpinism is a set of outdoor activities that involves ascending mountains. Mountaineering-related activities include traditional outdoor climbing, skiing, and traversing via ferratas that have become sports in their own right. Indoor climbing, sport climbing, and bouldering are also considered variants of mountaineering by some, but are part of a wide group of mountain sports.
Scrambling is a mountaineering term for ascending steep terrain using one's hands to assist in holds and balance. "A scramble" is a related term, denoting terrain that could be ascended in this way. It can be described as being between hiking and rock climbing.
Swisstopo is the official name for the Swiss Federal Office of Topography, Switzerland's national mapping agency.
The Karwendel is the largest mountain range of the Northern Limestone Alps. It is located on the Austria–Germany border. The major part belongs to the Austrian federal state of Tyrol, while the adjacent area in the north is part of Bavaria, Germany. Four chains stretch from west to east; in addition, there are a number of fringe ranges and an extensive promontory (Vorkarwendel) in the north.
The Austrian Alpine Club has about 700,000 members in 194 sections and is the largest mountaineering organisation in Austria. It is responsible for the upkeep of over 234 alpine huts in Austria and neighbouring countries. It also maintains over 26,000 kilometres of footpaths, and produces detailed maps of key mountain areas within Austria. Much of this work is done by the association's 22,000 volunteers. The association has a museum in Innsbruck dedicated to the history of alpinism. It also has sections in Belgium and the United Kingdom, and a group in Poland.
Werner Munter is a mountain guide, author and safety-expert for Alpine climbing.
An orienteering map is a map specially prepared for use in orienteering events. It is a large-scale topographic map with extra markings to help the participant navigate through the course.
A national mapping agency (NMA) is an organisation, usually publicly owned, that produces topographic maps and geographic information of a country. Some national mapping agencies also deal with cadastral matters.
The Wetterstein mountains, colloquially called Wetterstein, is a mountain group in the Northern Limestone Alps within the Eastern Alps, crossing the Austria–Germany border. It is a comparatively compact range located between Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Mittenwald, Seefeld in Tirol and Ehrwald along the border between Germany (Bavaria) and Austria (Tyrol). Zugspitze, the highest peak is at the same time the highest mountain in Germany.
The Sonklarspitze, also Sonklarspitz, is a mountain in the Stubai Alps on the border between Tyrol, Austria, and South Tyrol, Italy.
The German Alpine Club is the world's largest climbing association and the eighth-largest sporting association in Germany. It is a member of the German Olympic Sports Confederation and the competent body for sport and competition climbing, hiking, mountaineering, hill walking, ice climbing, mountain expeditions, as well as ski mountaineering. It is an association made up of local branches known as 'sections'.
The Alpine Club classification of the Eastern Alps is a common division of the Eastern Alps into 75 mountain ranges, based on the Moriggl Classification (ME) first published in 1924 by the German and Austrian Alpine Club. The present-day division established for the German-speaking world was compiled by the German, Austrian and South Tyrol Alpine Clubs and published in 1984 and is also used for the basic numbering of Alpine Club maps for mountaineering.
The Alpine Club Guides were the standard series of alpine climbing guidebookss that cover all the important mountain groups in the Eastern Alps. They were produced jointly by the German (DAV), Austrian (ÖAV) and South Tyrol Alpine Clubs (AVS). They had been published since 1950 by the firm of Bergverlag Rother in Munich, Germany.
Alpine club huts or simply club huts (Clubhütten) form the majority of the over 1,300 mountain huts in the Alps and are maintained by branches, or sections, of the various Alpine clubs. Although the usual English translation of Hütte is "hut", most of them are substantial buildings designed to accommodate and feed significant numbers of hikers and climbers and to withstand harsh high alpine conditions for decades.
The Fritz Pflaum Hut is an Alpine club hut belonging to the Bayerland Section of the German Alpine Club, located in the Kaisergebirge mountains in the Austrian federal state of Tyrol.
An alpine route or high alpine route is a trail or climbing route through difficult terrain in high mountains such as the Alps, sometimes with no obvious path. In the Alps, the various alpine clubs define and mark an alpine route, also called alpinweg or alpinwanderweg. More generally, the term is used for routes of crossing the Alps, such as Roman crossings and Napoleon crossing the Alps. It is also used to describe routes in other mountains with alpine conditions.
Mururaju, Murrorajo or Pongos Sur is a mountain in the Cordillera Blanca in the Andes of Peru, about 5,688 metres (18,661 ft) high. It is situated in the Ancash Region, Huari Province, Chavín de Huantar District and in the Recuay Province, Catac District. Mururaju lies southeast of Lake Querococha, northeast of the lake Qishqiqucha and south of Queshque.
Manfred Ferdinand Buchroithner is an Austrian cartographer, developer of autostereoscopic cartographic visualisations, geologist, mountain researcher and mountaineer.