Pillersee Valley
The Pillersee Valley is a valley in the district of Kitzbühel in the Austrian state of Tyrol, on the border with Salzburg state.
Location and landscape
The Pillersee Valley is characterised, like its neighbouring valleys, by a concise valley-floor watershed near St. Jakob in Haus, where the two river valleys of the Pillerseetal meet:The northern valley branch drains through the Grieselbach, Pillersee and Loferbach (Haselbach) streams into the Saalach/Salzach, and is bounded by the Öfenschlucht gorge, part of the Strubtal valley of the Loferbach stream near Waidring.
In the south, the entire east–west running valley of the Rothache and Fieberbrunner Ache rivers, from the Grießen Pass in the east to the parish boundary between Fieberbrunn and St. [Johann in Tirol] in the west, also counts as part of the Pillersee Valley. St. Johann, where the Fieberbrunner Ache empties into the Großache, is the junction with the Leukental valley of the River Großache. The Grießen Pass is the transition to the east into the Salzburg Leogang.
The Pillersee Valley is bordered by the Loferer Steinberge mountains and the eastern foothills of the Leoganger Steinberge in the east and by the Kirchbergstock in the west. In the south the edge of valley is delineated by the Kitzbühel Alps. As a result, the Pillersee Valley lies on the geological boundary between the Northern Limestone Alps and the Slate Alps, made of grauwacke, in the south.