to walking and skiing. There are several large ski resorts in the area both in the Tyrolean and Salzburg regions. The Dienten Mountains are a geologically-related extension of the mountains to the east. The Pinzgau Ridgeway (Pinzgauer Höhenweg) runs through both ranges in an east-west direction. Many ski route and the Saalach Valley Ridgeway (Saalachtaler Höhenweg) run through the Kitzbühel Alps. Neighbouring ranges The mountain ranges that surround the Kitzbühel Alps are: Kaiser Mountains Lofer Mountains Leogang Mountains Salzburg Slate Alps Glockner Group Granatspitze Group Venediger Group Zillertal Alps Tux Alps Brandenberg Alps Geology The Kitzbühel Alps belong to the greywacke zone and are mainly composed of slate and phyllites. The mountain top profiles and the cirques are relatively smooth; their slopes mostly green with numerous alpine meadows (Almwiesen). Nevertheless, rock formations of limestone and dolomite do occur e.g. on the Großer Rettenstein. n the western part of the Kitzbühel Alps most of the valleys run in a north-south direction; in the east they are predominantly oriented east-west. The Alpine geographical reason for this is the striking longitudinal trench of the river Salzach. This so-called Tauern Northern Edge Fault (Tauernnordrand-Störung) played an important role during Alpine folding and even today forms a distinct landscape and geological boundary with the three-thousanders of the High Tauern. The western border of the mountain range is, petrographically, less clear because here its transition to the Innsbruck quartz phyllites is not clear-cut. By contrast, in the northwest and north (Inn valley near Schwaz, Brixental and the Steinernes Meer) the difference between the gently folded slate and the limestone and dolomite rock of the Limestone Alps hits the observer in the eye. The major rocks of the Kitzbühel Alps divide into two groups by age, the older rocks probably dating to the Ordovician period. For example, the deep underground complex of Wildschönau slate is quite uniform and has no fossils at all, just volcanic deposits. Above it lies weakly metamorphosed volcanic rock, up to 600 metres thick, made up of quartz porphyroids and tuff, mainly in the west (Hohe Salve, Hahnenkamm and Wildseeloder). Over the porphyroids lie various horizontal beds of slate from the Silurian period that are often clayey-sandy on top. In the vicinity of Kitzbühel itself, Silurian limestones may also be found and, to the west, the grey, coarse-grained Schwaz dolomite which transitions towards the east, near Leogang, into Spielberg dolomite. Also represented is