Weißsee, reservoir in Salzburg

The Weißsee is a large water reservoir in the Hohe Tauern in Austria, situated above 2000 meters elevation and surrounded by steep, snow-covered mountains. Its calm waters reflect the surrounding landscape and contrast with the rocky, glacier-carved slopes that frame the basin.

The natural lake at 2,225 m was dammed between 1950 and 1952 with a 39 m high gravity dam and a 235 m long crest, creating a reservoir of 15.7 million m³. The first full impoundment in September 1953 flooded the 1873 Rudolfshütte, which was blown up; its replacement opened higher up in 1958. From 1941, forced labourers and around 450 Dachau concentration camp prisoners dug a tunnel to the Tauernmoossee.

The lake's name means "white lake", after the pale glacial water. From 1951 a cable car ran from Enzingerboden up to the Rudolfshütte at 2311 m beside the shore, opening the area to tourism. The surrounding ski and summer area is marketed as the Weißsee-Gletscherwelt. The hut itself was rebuilt higher up in 1958 after the old one was blown up before the reservoir filled.

A cable car runs from Enzingerboden up to the Rudolfshütte at 2311 m, right beside the reservoir; the lift has served the area since 1951. The dam crest is 235 m long and 39 m high, and the lake surface sits at 2250 m. The surrounding terrain is open grass, so weather can change fast at this altitude.

The 1953 impoundment submerged the original Rudolfshütte, which was blown up just before; the Alpine club then used former Dachau subcamp barracks as the Austria Dörfl refuge until the new hut opened higher up in 1958.