The Dachstein now also has a ladder to heaven

Gosaukamm and Dachstein will have one more thing in common from Friday. Because then there is no longer just a ladder to heaven that leads to the Donnerkogel. However, the one on the Dachstein is significantly shorter and is not only reserved for those who can handle a via ferrata set: twelve steps lead to a glass platform on which visitors have to choose between intimate views of the south face and souvenir photos.

It is one of numerous innovations that Austria’s highest construction site is leaving behind. Work on a new mountain station at 2,700 meters above sea level took nine months – when the wind wasn’t blowing over the peaks at 150 km/h. A total of 130 workers were employed, most of them experienced alpine skiing, some of them “real mountaineers,” as Georg Bliem says. The managing director of the Planaibahnen, like everyone involved, has an “extreme feeling of pride” because from Friday the new gem will finally be open to the public. The centerpiece is the Dachstein Glacier Restaurant, designed for around 240 guests, including a spacious outdoor terrace. On the top floor, the “Himmelsbar” invites you to enjoy ice-cold drinks. Anyone who would like to use the mountain air to increase creativity can now book a seminar room for up to 40 people. “We are also dealing intensively with the retreat of glaciers. This will also be evident in new attractions in the Ice Palace,” says Bliem.

Bliem expects more comfort and more ambience from the new mountain station – but not more guests. “We continue to allow no more than 2,500 visitors per day,” he says. He will always remember this special construction site, also because of the 43 meter high crane, which was specially manufactured in Pamplona and which a crane operator from Cologne who was about to retire was hired to operate. “He also pulled up his lunch with the crane,” says Bliem. And some workers even voluntarily stayed longer because of the atmosphere – and slept in containers on the mountain.