Walcher Waterfall

The Walcher Waterfall was an impressively tall series of cascades tumbling down a mountainside very close to the toll booths for the Grossglockner High Alpine Road at Ferleiten. According to the maps, this was where the Walcher Bach tumbled a reported 520m down several disjoint cascades.

If they’re counted together, it’s possible that this could very well be Austria’s highest waterfall by cumulative height. However, it’s a bit subjective to consider whether this stringy but seemingly consistent-flowing cascade ought to be considered as such.

In any case, this waterfall was kind of obscure from the standpoint that it didn’t appear to be mentioned by name on any of the maps we came across, including the Grossglockner fold-out that they handed out to us once we paid the hefty 36 euro toll to go onto the famous high alpine road. Fortunately for this waterfall, I didn’t need to pay that hefty toll since it could be seen before reaching the toll stations.

I did notice that this waterfall could also be referred to as the Schleierfall (a seemingly popular name amongst German and Austrian waterfalls as I believe it means “Bridal Veil Falls”). Nevertheless, this was essentially a roadside attraction as I found the views were best from the road where the cross-valley view yielded the most contextual look at the entirety of all the cascades comprising the Walcher Waterfall.

That said, there wasn’t an official or sanctioned pullout conveniently yielding the best roadside view. Instead, I had to walk carefully along the road until I spotted openings between the obstructing trees to get the best views. It was also possible to park in one of the parking spaces further down the road at Ferleiten, but all that yielded me was a closer look at the falls, which appeared smaller as the forced perspective of the slopes supporting the falls obstructed chunks of it.

To make matters worse, I believe the trail to climb up alongside the Walcher Waterfall was closed indefinitely because of the high exposure to dropoffs combined with the rockfall danger. There must have been evidence of geological instability as well as fatalities for the authorities to be erecting stern warnings suggesting an unnecessary risk to life if one were to attempt it. I was only able to get as far as a junction in the trail, where some construction work was being done, and even that access trail was closed during work hours, which was pretty much all the daylight hours.

Maybe one day, they may re-open the trail alongside the Walcher Waterfalls, but it certainly doesn’t seem like the risk versus reward was there to justify such an undertaking.