The only “calcareous Alpine glacier in
Salzburg” is found on the Hochkönig
plateau in the Northern Calcareous Alps.
While the glacier surface was still 5.5 km²
in size around 1888, today there is just
under 1 km² of glacier surface. The name
“Übergossene Alm” (Covered mountain
pasture) is based on a legend that goes
back to the “Little Ice Age”.
A wide, white glacier field lies on
Hochkönig mountain. This glacial field
was not always there. A long time ago,
instead of cold ice, there was a beautiful
alpine pasture here, with lush grass,
bright flowers, stately cows and laughing
people. But the people became haughty.
They bathed in the delicious, rich milk of
the cows. They paved the paths to the
Alm with round, yellow cheese wheels.
They even spread butter on the gaps. But
when they chased away an old beggar
who was begging for food because he was
hungry, that was the final straw. Heavy,
black clouds gathered over the Hochkönig.
A terrible ice and snow-storm buried the
alpine pasture – for all time. Since then,
people have called this field of eternal ice
the “Übergossene Alm”. It will probably
never be known whether the begging
wanderer was actually the Lord himself.