Admittedly, the Three Peaks have not been an insider tip since the first ascent of the Große Zinne in 1869. But which mountain with such a profile and such level of fame is there? The Watzmann? Despite his reputation as a cruel, petrified tyrant, he is overrun by the masses, literally. The Matterhorn? It has such radiance that even distant lakes in which the mountain pyramid is only reflected are populated. And of course a tourist feeding point like the Dreizinnenhütte (2405 meters) at the foot of the triumvirate is the purest gauntlet for misanthropes. According to the hut website, more than a thousand requests for overnight stays for the high season are received there in February. In the summer, all hell breaks loose with all the low-shoe alpinists who want to enrich their photo library with the trio of rock teeth.
And yet there is still peace there too. On a sunny Thursday at the beginning of June, I saw exactly one person while climbing to the Große Zinne via the normal climbing route: my rope partner. At the summit the view went 600 meters down to the still closed Dreizinnenhütte, with the sloping gravel fields in front of it and very few ant people. Because remember: No matter how popular a once-in-a-lifetime place is, there is usually a time to avoid the crowds. The Dreizinnenhütte goes into hibernation again at the end of September.