Bratschen

The east ridge of the Fuscherkarkopf looking toward Sinwelleck source ↗

Bratschen are weathering products that occur as a result of frost and aeolian corrasion almost exclusively on the calc-schists of the Upper Slate Mantle (Obere Schieferhülle) in the High Tauern mountains of Austria. The term is German but is used untranslated in English sources.¹

The calc-schist, which appears blue-gray when freshly broken, weathers to a yellow to brown colour and flakes off on the surface to form bratschen.²

These form steep (up to 40°), rocky, almost unvegetated mountainsides with an odd and rough-textured surface, caused by wind erosion. Bratschen are found on the mountains such as the Fuscherkarkopf, the Großer Bärenkopf, the Kitzsteinhorn, the Schwerteck, or on the eponymous Bratschenköpfen.

References

For example here: Kendlspitze at www.summitpost.org. Retrieved 12 Dec 2016.
H. P. Cornelius, E. Clar (1935), Geologische Bundesanstalt — Wien III (ed.), "Erläuterungen zur geologischen Karte des Großglocknergebietes" (PDF), Geologische Karte der Republik Österreich (in German), p. 10, retrieved 2010-05-05

Sources

Karl Krainer (2005), Nationalpark Hohe Tauern GEOLOGIE – Wissenschaftliche Schriften (in German) (2nd ed.), Klagenfurt: Universitätsverlag Carinthia, p. 140, ISBN 3-85378-585-9

[1] For example here: Kendlspitze at www.summitpost.org. Retrieved 12 Dec 2016.

[2] H. P. Cornelius, E. Clar (1935), Geologische Bundesanstalt — Wien III (ed.), "Erläuterungen zur geologischen Karte des Großglocknergebietes" (PDF), Geologische Karte der Republik Österreich (in German), p. 10, retrieved 2010-05-05

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