This peak proves that one can be powerful even without being the biggest. When it comes down to the mere facts, the Habicht with its 3,277 meters a.s.l. has to line up behind its colleagues Zuckerhütl and Wilder Freiger, however the Habicht is an equal competitor to the others in the Stubai Alps, being the highest peak of the Habicht ridge. No wonder that the “Hoger”, as it is called by the locals, due to his distinctive shape was believed to be the highest mountain of the Tyrol for a long period.
Whoever wants to see the Stubai Alps in all their greatness, along with a view on the Northern Limestone Alps as well as the western Zillertal Alps and the Dolomites, absolutely must hike up the Habicht. It is an additional bonus to get to see the rocky bastions of the Tribulauns and the Goldkappel in the south of the isolated peak of the Habicht.
Imagine hiking up a mountain and believing that you are the first person in history to do so, only to realize at the top that perhaps someone else had already been there before. Peter Carl Thurwieser from Kramsach experienced this. On his first ascent of the Habicht on September 1, 1836 he found a figure made of stone on the peak, which led to the conclusion that someone must have been there before him. Even though Thurwieser chose and ascended the Habicht out of all the high peaks of the Stubai as the first mountaineer, local hunters and the helpers of the field measurement had probably been there before him. There are no written documents of an earlier ascent, so Thurwieser has kept the honor of being the first. According to Thurwieser’s report, it took him and his mountain guide, Ingenuin Krösbacher from Fulpmes, 3 hours and 25 minutes to ascend from the northern Pinnisalm (mountain pasture) via Pinnisjoch gap, from there onto the west to the Speikgrathöhe and across a snow field and the eastern ridge of the Habicht to the top. They then stayed 4.5 hours on the mountain, wrote rave reports about the view and took barometric measurements.