AT A GLANCE
Why go?
Pockkogel is a 2,807-metre summit in the Stubai Alps (Stubaier Alpen) of Tyrol, rising just south of the Kühtai saddle and its ski plateau, with the village of Silz and the Inn valley lying to the north. A rocky, rewarding peak rather than a gentle hill, it earns its place on many hikers' lists for one reason above all: a sweeping 360° panorama that takes in the high glaciers of the Ötztal Alps, the wild spurs of the Stubai range and, on the clearest days, the distant Ortler group to the south.↗↗↗
The mountain takes its name from Julius Pock, an Innsbruck mountaineering pioneer who, with Carl Wechner and Bernhard Tützscher, made the first ascent in 1876 by the west flank — a route still regarded as the normal way up today.↗
A summit view worth the climb
Stand on the narrow top and the effort simply falls away. From Pockkogel's rocky crown no fewer than 129 named peaks come into view, arranged across every compass point. Turn south and the great wall of the Ötztal Alps unfolds, crowned by the 3,768-metre Wildspitze, the highest summit of the whole North Tyrol/main-range Alps and visible some 37 km away; the broad mass of the Hinterer Brochkogel and the Hochvernagtspitze stand out along the same horizon. To the west and south-west rise the glittering glaciers of the Schnals and the distant Parseierspitze, while the sharp arête running east links the Pockkogel to its near-namesake, the 2,808-metre Windegg.
