Krimml Waterfalls

Interesting facts

The daily peak of the falls arrives between 9 pm and midnight, because meltwater takes 9 to 12 hours to travel the 18 km from the glacier snout.

During the flood of 25 August 1987 the flow reached 166.7 cubic metres per second, about thirty times the summer average, and caused enormous destruction.

The falls survive because the river drops over hard granite at the edge of the Tauern Window, left high as Ice Age glaciers deepened the main valleys.

About 12 percent of the river's 110 square kilometre catchment is covered by glaciers, which is why its flow swings so sharply through the day and the year.

In the Middle Ages a mule track passed the falls and crossed the Krimmler Tauern pass into South Tyrol, carrying salt southward and wine northward.

The Krimmler Tauernhaus, a rest stop on that old trade route above the falls, is first mentioned in documents in 1389.

Medieval travellers cared nothing for the scenery: the old pass road approaches the falls only where the terrain leaves no other choice.

Around 1835 the local official Ignaz von Kürsinger built a path and a small hut for tourists and painters, in the days before cameras were common.

In 1899 there was a first attempt to hand the falls to an industrial entrepreneur, and Salzburg's parliament passed a protective law that never took effect.

Why it is worth it

In the Hohe Tauern mountains of the Austrian state of Salzburg, the Krimmler Ache leaves its high glacial valley by throwing itself over a rock wall in three great leaps. Together they drop about 380 metres, which makes the Krimml Waterfalls the highest in Austria. The upper cascade falls roughly 140 metres, the middle one about 100 and the lowest about 140, each with its own character: the bottom fall is a broad, roaring curtain you can feel before you see it, while higher up the water narrows and splinters into white ribbons against dark rock and forest.

The volume of water changes dramatically with the seasons, because part of the catchment is still covered by glaciers. In February only a trickle comes down, around 0.14 cubic metres per second, but in June and July, with snowmelt and ice melt at their height, the flow reaches about 5.6 cubic metres per second and the whole valley fills with spray. That permanent mist creates its own small world of mosses, lichens and ferns, and dozens of bird species nest in the damp woods beside the falls; since 2015 the site has also been recognised in Austria as a natural healing resource, on the basis of research into the effect of the spray on people with asthma.

People have come to look at the falls for a long time. A path to the upper cascade was laid out in the 19th century, and when the narrow-gauge Pinzgau local railway reached Krimml in 1897, visitor numbers rose so fast that the Warnsdorf section of the Alpine club built a proper waterfall trail in 1901. The falls received the European Diploma for protected areas in 1967, which ended plans to harness them for industry, and today they lie within the Hohe Tauern National Park and draw around 400,000 visitors a year.

The walk itself is the experience. The path climbs in switchbacks through the forest, with viewing platforms thrust out towards the water at each level; it takes about an hour to reach the top of the upper fall, and from there trails continue up the quiet Krimmler Achental towards the Krimmler Tauernhaus and the huts beneath the glaciers.

Getting there

The falls rise directly above the village of Krimml in the Salzburg Pinzgau; the nearest larger town is Saalfelden am Steinernen Meer, about 57 km away by straight line. The nearest airport is Innsbruck (INN), about 63 km as the crow flies. The Pinzgau local railway runs to Vorderkrimml, and bus line 670 stops at "Krimml Wasserfälle" at the foot of the trail, where there is extensive parking.

Krimml Waterfalls

Interesting facts

Why it is worth it

Getting there

On these lists

From the encyclopaedia