Kellenspitze

Kellenspitze
The Kellespitze from the Schneidspitze
Highest point
Elevation	2,238 m (AA) (7,343 ft)
Prominence	1,088 m ↓ Tannheimer Tal
Isolation	9.2 km → Leilachspitze
Coordinates	47°24′01″N 10°37′50″E / 47.40028°N 10.63056°E / 47.40028; 10.63056Coordinates: 47°24′01″N 10°37′50″E / 47.40028°N 10.63056°E / 47.40028; 10.63056
Geography
Kellenspitze Tyrol, Austria
Parent range	Tannheim Mountains, Allgäu Alps
Geology
Age of rock	Triassic
Type of rock	Wetterstein limestone
Climbing
Normal route	via the col of Nesselwängler Scharte and northwest flank (UIAA grade II)

The Kellenspitze, often also called the Kellespitze or Köllenspitze, at 2,238 m (AA) is the highest peak in the Tannheim Mountains. It lies in the Austrian state of Tyrol. Originally the mountain was known locally as the Metzenarsch, but when in 1854 Marie Frederica of Prussia visited the hunting lodge on the Tegelberg and was having the surrounding peaks pointed out, they called it after In der Kelle, the name of a strip of land at the foot of the mountain, because its original name referred to a Matz, in other words a prostitute, and seemed inappropriate.

The summit lies a good 2 kilometres as the crow flies northeast of Nesselwängle and 7 kilometres west of Reutte. To the north is the valley of Raintal and, to the south, the start of the Tannheimer Tal. Nearby peaks are: to the south the Hahnenkamm (1,940 m), to the east the Gehrenspitze (2,163 m) and to the west the Gimpel (2,176 m) and the Rote Flüh (2,111 m).

The Tannheim Mountains are part of the Northern Limestone Alps, whose folding began during the Alpide orogeny in the Lower Cretaceous about 140 million years ago and has not quite finished even today. In the wake of this mountain folding various nappes (Decken) of sedimentary rock (parts of the earth's crust broken off from the subsurface and pushed over one another) were stacked up and reach the surface as the Lechtal Nappe (Lechtaler Decke) in the area of the Kellenspitze. The summit and northern mountainside consist of Wetterstein limestone, whilst the southern flank comprises soft marl of the so-called Partnach beds . The rock of the Kellenspitze is very crumbly in places and relatively unattractive to climbers as a result.