options: an 8-day trek taking in the highlights of the Karnischer Höhenweg; and a more leisurely 12-day trek.
World War I earthworks and remains
Moving a field gun at Filmoorhöhe (Stage 2); Observation post on Eisenreich (Stage 1); Trenches on Kleiner Pal (Stage 5B); Naval gun at Straniger Alm (Stage 6) (public-domain photographs taken from the archives of the Österreichische Nationalbibliothek)
In the Carnic Alps, the World War I front line coincides with today’s border between Austria and Italy, and generally speaking the border follows the watershed. Where the ridges are long and sustained, the trench lines are easy to spot because they are almost invariably orientated to the south (the Austro-Hungarians established their defensive positions first). In the more mountainous parts of the route, the location of the front line is sometimes harder to identify, but all the mountaintops are fortified and here the remains are typically extensive.
The visible evidence of the war is everywhere. As well as trenches and protective earthworks, tunnels were hacked into the sides of mountains, sometimes extending from one side to the other. Command posts, cooking stations and latrines can be found, along with rotting floor and roofing materials. Coils of rusting barbed wire, still where they were positioned over a hundred years ago, are everywhere. Occasionally a brass button or a strip of shoe leather acts as a more intimate reminder, if needed, that men actually lived and fought on the mountaintops.
Less immediately apparent than the remains on the front line are what’s left of the transport infrastructure developed to supply it. At the beginning of the campaign, all the materials were carried up to the front line by pack ponies, dogs and men (often prisoners), so any zigzag trail working its way up the mountainside (sometimes all that’s left is the outline on the hillside) is likely to have been constructed for this purpose. Some of the routes are particularly elaborate and involved significant works of construction and engineering. Later in the campaign, the infrastructure became more sophisticated, and the technological advances involved, including cable cars, were used after the war to develop the skiing industry.
The World War I Open-air Museum at Plöckenpass is particularly interesting. Here, the Dolomitenfreunde have restored an area that, because of the pass, was particularly heavily defended. Both the Austrian and Italian front lines, which here were only 30 metres apart, can be visited. It is not a museum in the conventional sense, there are no entry and exit points and the curation is minimal, but after days of walking through war remains it’s easy for your imagination to fill in the gaps.
Where it can, the route follows the border and the front line. The bigger mountains, however, are typically circumvented either to the north or south. Nearly all these mountains can be easily climbed and the crowning fortifications visited.
Field kitchen on Kleiner Pal (Stage 5B); Insignia carved into rocks; All-too-real dugout on Große Kinigat (Stage 2)
SUGGESTED READING
The White War: Life and Death on the Italian Front, 1915–1919 by Mark Thompson
The War that Ended Peace by Margaret MacMillan
The landscape and views
The Karnischer Höhenweg is a ridge walk and the views in all directions are often spectacular. It sits right in the middle of some huge mountain ranges. The views to the south, particularly at the beginning of the walk, are dominated by what is arguably the most beautiful part of the world’s most beautiful mountain range, the Sesto Dolomites. To the north, the much smaller Lienz Dolomites (the western end of the Gailtal Alps) attempt to grab attention, only to be put firmly in their place by the more distant but much larger white-topped summits of the Hohe Tauern. Views of Austria’s most important range, dominated by its highest mountains the Großglockner (3798m) and the Großvenediger (3764m), can be seen along the entire length of the Karnischer Höhenweg. To the south, views of the Sesto Dolomites are replaced by the South Carnic Alps, a complex range of limestone mountains dissected by deep valleys. The Julian Alps, Slovenia’s most important mountain range, come into view from the southern side of Monte Coglians on day 4 and, like a harbinger of the journey’s end, dominate the second half of the Höhenweg.
The landscape changes as the Karnischer Höhenweg journeys from west to east. Until Nassfeld, it is alpine in character and features massive limestone peaks and long ridges of granite and gneiss. After Nassfeld, and dropping down a little, forests dominate and here the highlights are the little hamlets, occupied only in the summer, dedicated to the production of cheese.
The highest point on the route is Pfannspitze (2678m), a granite mountain climbed on the second day. There are, however, a series of optional climbs, some of which, if the weather is good, will be irresistible to those with time. These include some of the highest mountains of the Carnic Alps, the massive limestone lumps of Monte Coglians (2789m), Monte Peralba (2694m), Große Kinigat (2689m) and Trogkofel (2279m).
The limestone stretches of the Höhenweg are the most dramatic, characterised by towering cliffs, steep banks of tumbling scree, and dry valleys. Although less dramatic, the gneiss landscapes provide the best walking. Here, the ridges are more sustained, and the hillsides, particularly those facing south, are grassier.
The silhouette of the Julian Alps from the unnamed pass near Ringmauer (Stage 6)
Geology
Some argue that the Carnic Alps, from a geological perspective, are the world’s most interesting mountain range. They are designated, along with the Gailtal Alps, as a UNESCO Global Geopark.
The geological boundary between the African and European tectonic plates, the Periadriatic seam, runs along the valley immediately to the north of the Carnic Alps. In a simple world, this would have provided the dividing line between mountains to its north, dominated by the granite and gneiss of the Hohe Tauern, and mountains to the south, the limestone of the Dolomites. However, although the Carnic Alps are on the southern side of the dividing line, they don’t just consist of limestone but also include the granite and gneiss of the Hohe Tauern.
The area was covered twice by the sea for hundreds of millions of years. The first of these seas covered today’s Carnic Alps in the Ordovician age, during which sediments were formed. Then 440 million years ago an ‘event’ triggered the first build-up of mountains in the area and an igneous plate was pushed over the sedimentary rocks. The remains of this plate can be seen in several places on the main Carnic Alps ridge.
Some 350–400 million years ago, and after erosion had removed most of the mountains, a second sea (the Thetis Sea) covered the area for some 200 million years. This enabled the formation of incredibly thick coral atolls, the remains of which are today’s limestone mountains, including the Dolomites.
The final formation of the Alps began 200 million years ago, and here again the Carnic Alps are special. The mountains folded upwards and rolled northwards like waves breaking on a beach. (The geological term is ‘nappe’, from French nappe, a tablecloth, because of the way a tablecloth folds and crumples when it is pushed across a table.) With the waves breaking over the Periadriatic line, the layering of the rocks became more and more complicated. ‘Suddenly’ (in the geological timescale) old layers were sandwiched between younger ones, sometimes vertically, sometimes horizontally.
The Carnic Alps UNESCO Global Geopark is well resourced, with a visitor centre at Dellach and six geotrails
