The mountain was first ascended on 22 August 1871 by Eduard Richter, professor of geography at the University of Graz, and Johann Stüdl, a merchant from Prague and co-founder of the German Alpine Club.

According to the original account, they then went over the Obersulzbachtörl (2,918 m) and circumnavigated the expansive Obersulzbachferner glacier in a wide arc to the west almost as far as the Krimmler Törl (2,776 m).

They then crossed the Western Sonntagskees, and advanced up several rocky ridges, with randklufts and hollows, not shown on the contemporary Alpine Club map.

[4] Today the base for an ascent of the Schlieferspitze is the Warnsdorfer Hut to the south in the upper Krimmler Achental valley at 2,336 metres.

The normal route to the top heads in a northerly direction to the southwest arête and then continues up a steep gradient classified, according to the literature as a UIAA grade II- climb to the summit cross.