Eisenerz Alps

The Eisenerz Alps to the southeast of the Gesäuse are quieter and tamer, with a green covering of vegetation at many places on their steeply scarped ridges. The highest peak, the Eisenerzer Reichenstein (2,166m/7,107ft), attracts many climbers for the sake of the view it affords. One mountain in the group is of more importance from the economic than from the tourist point of view - the Erzberg (see Eisenerz), the location of one of the richest iron ore deposits in the world, its reddish-brown workings hewn out of the hillside like a gigantic staircase.