“UPWARDS”
Part 1
“Overwhelming!”
There is not much more to say about this idea.
The second day of the “The Long Weekend Ride in the Alps” was a real eye opener. It showed pretty well what is possible in over regulated Austria apart from well known tourism sights and often dense crowded tourism areas.
Have a look …
Part one (=this report):
On the second day of the “Long Weekend Ride in the Alps” Чернотa and I started from our last nights shelter in the Tauern-Valley near Mallnitz. We wen´t on for a few km to Wurtenbach-Valley where we climbed up a maintenance road to the top of the “Mölltaler-Glacier-Cable-Car”. After that we continued our ride with a visit of the Felbertauern-Pass-Street and took another remote side valley there near the Außergschlöss.
Part two (=next ride report):
Around midday we rode on south-west-wards via the well known single lane “Staller Sattel” and passed over to southern Tirol/Italy. Along the Italian villages Bruneck and Sterzing we finally passed back over to Austria/Northern Tirol. Therefore we took the famous alpine pass road “Timmelsjoch”.
On this beautiful day I was aroused from the noise of a small diesel engine which was moving up the mountain in the distance. I did the morning toilet and …
while I was bridling the pony, the noise slowly came closer. Just while I was intending to leave two huntsmen came the to the place/the dead ed where my tent was standing during the last night and parked their Suzuki Vitara there beneath. I wen’t to them, introduced myself and was looking forward to get some troubles … . But that didn’t happen. They just asked me what I was doing here at this early time. I told them that I love it to be in the nature with the bike and that I slept here the last night. The talk went over to some fuel-palaver and my incoming plan for the day. I told them that I was intending to get to the nearby hiking hut “Hagener Hütte“. Then something happened what I wasn’t expecting. They told me NOT to go there. The owner would get me in troubles when I came to the hut with the bike. Good to know. So I canceled this day target immediately, said thank you to the two hunters and fired up the thumper. Чернотa and I really enjoyed …
this mornings …
mood in the remote alpine valley. The first km we followed some …
easy to ride gravel tracks and later some tarmac streets until we reached the valley of the river Wurtenbach near Innerfragant. It’s feeding a few huge water dams called “The Fragrant-Group” and on the end of the bottom of this valley there is the entrance station of the Mölltaler-Glacier-Cable-Car located. It’s leading up to the glacier and there is also a small maintenance road which is passing the dams. This street …
has been taken. We really often passed this pressure pipe …
while we climbed up this little curve road which was too much for the Garmin device. It wasn’t able to follow. On the first plateau …
the terrain opened. The climb went on …
and after riding through some long avalanche galleries we …
reached the next plateau. The view downwards and …
upwards was astounding. Чернотa climbed with me …
the last few hundred m/ft and finally we arrived at the top …
near the mountain “Weinflaschenkopf”. There is a small water reservoir called “Eissee” for the snow making in the skiing area. It’s located at a height …
2790m or 9150ft. While the …
coffee was brewing on the stove …
I enjoyed the view to the opposite lying Austrias highest research station, the: “Sonnblick-Observatorium.”
After the breakfast (a strong coffee and some nuts) I did a round at the miserable left over of the glacier called “Wurtenkees”. It didn’t look like that this, in former times all year open skiing area, will be open many summers longer due to climatic change. But that’s another story.
The way back …
offered a few other great …
impressions of this …
alpine area. Around the 10:00 we …
came back to the …
entrance point of the “Mölltaler Glacier Cable Car“. Further west was the plan. Next target: The Felbertauern Pass Road/Southern Portal.
We passed the Village Heiligenblut which is the entrance Point to Austrias highest pass road the famous “Großglockern High Alpine Road, which is leading up to a hight of 2428m or 7965ft and is connecting the two Austrian States Carinthia and Salzburg. After that nice panorama we went on via the city Lienz, further to the village …
Matrei in Osttirol. There lies the entrance to the “Felbertauern Road”. It’s an alpine road which is connecting the Austrian states Osttirol and Salzburg through a long tunnel.
Near the southern portal of this tunnel my black beauty and I started the second …
climb this day in the Außergschlöss- and Tauernbach-Valley.
The view down to the the “Felbertauern-Pass-Road” where we just came from was great! Just around the …
corner was the Valley of the “Tauernbach”-River. We followed this old track as far as possible.
Nearly on its end this memorial plate is located. Trading People of the past often lost their lives climbing over the “Felbertauern-Pass” to bring alpine stuff like salt down to Italy and other stuff backwards to the alps. That’s the reason for the attachment of this memorial plate here on this rock.
After a short break and falling down two times along this …
stony washed out track while we tried to climb it, Чернотa and I rode carefully …
back. I took …
another glance at the high alpine panorama before …
Чернотa and I arrived back near the southern tunnel portal.
Here you can see in the distance a huge stone avalanche which destroyed in the year 2013 a tunnel gallery of the pass street. Due to the instability of the terrain a bypass street was created on which we rode on for northern Italy.
That was the first part of day number two. The second part will follow soon … . ^_^