It appears from the north, east and south as a gently curved firn summit, but from the west it has a mighty, 1,400-metre-high (4,600 ft) and 40 to 60° rock face.

The peak was first climbed on 18 September 1869 by the Munich Alpinist, Karl Hofmann, the Prague businessman, Johann Stüdl, and mountain guides Thomas Groder and Josef Schnell from Kals am Großglockner.

[1] The name "Hinterer Bratschenkopf" was given to the mountain in 1871 on the recommendation of the Imperial and Royal Austrian survey officer, Major Joseph Pelikan, of Plauenwald.

Not until the 1891 Alpine Club map was issued was there an authoritative allocation of names, that gave a recognised schema for Alpinists and reduced the then common difficulties of orientation and mistakes in climbing and surveying.

The trail blazed by the Alpinists in 1869 runs from the Kaprun side, i.e. from the north, over the glacier saddle with the misleading name of Wielingerscharte ("Wielingen Notch") to the top.

Routes of up to about UIAA grade III+ difficulty and 1,300 metres in height run up the West Face, first conquered in 1928, but there is a high risk there of falling rocks.