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the Degree Confluence Project
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Austria

1.2 km (0.7 miles) W of Sulzbach, Niederösterreich, Austria
Approx. altitude: 654 m (2145 ft)
([?] maps: Google MapQuest OpenStreetMap ConfluenceNavigator)
Antipode: 48°S 164°W

Accuracy: 15 m (49 ft)
Quality: good

Click on any of the images for the full-sized picture.

#2: North #3: East #4: South #5: West #6: GPS #7: Visitors

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  48°N 16°E (visit #21)  

#1: Overview

(visited by Karl Bryk and Marty Davidson)

23-Jan-2016 -- This is my 4th visit to this CP, Marty’s second. See here for the previous visits:

This was an unexpected visit to this CP. It started with the idea of doing some snow shoeing in a location close to Vienna. The usual suspects of Schneeberg and the Rax were excluded since they were over an hour drive away and the weather forecast predicted snow and black ice. This we wanted to avoid. A quick look in my Wiener Wanderatlas and the relatively low summit Hocheck (1037 m) was found, so the plan was to turn off the Hainfelderstraße (between Weißenbach and Altenmarkt an der Triesting) to a small village Eberbach and walk from there.

We arrived in Eberbach a little after 9:30 AM and put on our walking gear, but not the show shoes. There was snow, but not enough to warrant using the snow shows. We set off, me with my GPS to be used for navigation. It was here that I realized that 48N 16E was nearby. I programmed it into the GPS and it turned out to be 800 metres away. An idea was born - maybe on the way back from Hocheck.

After a few hundred metres there was enough snow to use the snow shoes which we did. The next couple of hours we walked in snowy, easy terrain to the Hocheck Schutzhütte and the summit 80 metres behind it. The last kilometre to the hut was along a wide ridge and there was a gale blowing and the drift snow was half a metre deep. And it was cold. We had lunch inside the Schutzhütte which was open, and headed down the cold, windy ridge, back the way we had come. It was snowing quite hard and with the wind most of our tracks from going up were gone. With the GPS there was no problem following the route. Around 1.5 kilometres from our starting point we detoured towards the CP. It was easy going, except for a couple of steep sections, and soon we were on the walking track that brought us up to the CP from above.

We traversed the steep slope to the CP in our show shoes until about 10 metres from the CP. Now for the photos. I had forgotten my camera in the car - it would not have helped, it had a slide film in it - so I decided to use my mobile phone. This, however, had been in the top of my rucksack for the duration of the walk and was showing red in the battery level display. I managed to take a picture of the overview before it shutdown. This was the first time I had experienced confluence hunting battery related stress. Luckily Marty had an old Samsung with her and we were able to use this to get the photos we needed.

It was an easy walk of about 1.5 km back to the car. The trail is passing below the CP so access is easy from above and from below. Back at the car there was about 15 cm of fresh snow and the roads, which on the journey here had had no snow on them, had a nice covering of snow causing drivers to drive slowly and carefully. We made it back to Vienna without any incidents.


 All pictures
#1: Overview
#2: North
#3: East
#4: South
#5: West
#6: GPS
#7: Visitors
ALL: All pictures on one page