Richterhöhe

This guide to the Richterhöhe in Salzburg centers on Eduard Richter, a gymnasium teacher who spent fifteen years slipping into the Alps on weekends to measure ice, compiling the first full scientific inventory of the glaciers of the Eastern Alps by hand. You'll hear how that obsession carried him to the presidency of the International Glacier Commission by the 1890s, decades before anyone spoke publicly about a warming climate, and how the city renamed this fortress high point after him following his death in 1905. It also points out what still frames the view around you, the medieval walls and the Josefsturm and Michaelsturm towers that once watched for enemy troops. Stand where the soldiers once scanned the valley, and look for the quiet stone marker nearby.