Jonas Norpoth

I'm an avid collector of alpine minerals, a hobby I consider the perfect combination of my passion for mountaineering and my admiration for nature's mineralogical treasures.

Collecting minerals means something dynamic to me: new finds demand their space in the showcase, better specimen replace older ones, the collection focus shifts or sharpens, etc - instead of getting lost with stacks of specimen boxes in my basement, I decided to launch the present website.

Just as with many other enthusiastic collectors, my passion for minerals (and mountains) already developed in my childhood, during many memorable holidays in the Austrian Virgental. A friend of my family led me to field-collecting trips in the southern Venediger group, took me to the stunning showcases in the basements of the local collectors, and told me about the miraculous specimen he had seen or bought at international mineral shows - that's all it took to ignite a boy's mind and constitute a life-long passion...

My private collection comprises alpine cleft minerals from the Hohe Tauern window (Tauernfenster), i.e. from localities distributed over Tyrol, Salzburg and Carinthia. My favorite localities lie in the southern Venediger group, i.e. in the arc of the alpine main ridge from Dreiherrnspitze mountain to the Felbertauern with the Virgental as southern boundary - if you have significant specimen from this area to sell or swap, I would be glad to hear from you!

Personal collection: please find some pictures of specimen from the southern Venediger group below