Euro Ramble 2004

Friday - High places

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Today's ride may be the highlight of the trip, with a ride over the Grossglockner Pass. So after breakfast we extracted the bikes from the hotel's garage and set off.

It's 60 miles from Zell Am Ziller to the North end of the Grossglockner Pass, and on the way we go over Gerlos Pass. There are two ways over, the old north side public road or the south side toll road. We took the old north road outbound and what an interesting road it is, the surface is crumbling all over the place, nice scenery though, but quite a challenge in places, it seems to top out at 5000ft (GPS)

But this is where the fun really starts, the Northern toll booths for the Grossglockner Pass (3785ft), it's also where my camera battery failed, and I discovered my spare was also dead <scream!> how could I be so stupid! (Er, Dave, can I borrow your camera, cheers mate!)

After paying the toll (&euro;17/&pound;12) we started the ride to the top.

In slightly over 8 miles we climbed to 7965ft, stopping at Fuscher Törl, this picture was taken from the gift shop entrance, the scenery is amazing.

From the gift shop, just to the right is this view of the observation platform and memorial chapel for the workers who died building the road between 1930/35, the views from up here are breath taking!

The air is somewhat thinner at this altitude, Patto's bike wouldn't idle and some of the others were reluctant to re start. When we did get started, we left Fuscher Törl behind us and rode the remaining 10 miles to the Southern Toll Booth's via the Hochtor Tunnel, then turned around for a leisurely ride back, its a superb road.

On the way back we stopped at the south end of Hochtor tunnel to visit the gift shop, It's slightly higher here than Fuscher Törl at 8210ft,  Oh, and that oil slick isn't mine!

Turning around, this is the road we had just ridden up, stunning, you could play on here all day!

We then rode back around Fuscher Törl and took the right turn off for Edelweißspitze, the highest point on the road, and said to be the highest road in the Alps.

Dave parking up on Edelweisspitze with the viewing tower in the background, at 8450ft we're just over 1.5 miles above sea level. There's a cafe one level down on the left side of this picture.

Ian and Patto enjoying the view.

Just a small part of the view from Edelweißspitze, this picture is made up from four joined together.

The road disappearing top left is going South through Hochtor tunnel toward Lienz, the road dropping to the right is heading North to Zell Am See, back where we came from. A full size version is available here.

On Edelweißspitze, Patto, Dave & Ian

I had a minor mishap taking this picture half way down from Edelweißspitze, I thought the bike was secure on the prop stand, but it gently rolled forward, and with me holding it, landed gently on its L/H rocker cover, Doh!, damage was very minor, just a little gravel rash, click here to see the picture.

We all deserved a treat after so much excitement, I certainly needed a coffee after laying the bike down, so we stopped in the cafe pictured above, and treated ourselves to coffee and apple strudel!

David, Ebbo & Patto

It was very quiet on the Grossglockner. As you can see from the picture above, there weren't very many customers. If you can get the weather in early September its a good time to visit the Alps, the roads will be much quieter.

After refreshing ourselves we headed back to Zell Am Ziller via the Gerlos Pass again. This time we took the southern Toll road that starts near the krimmler Water fall, Its a nice piece of road, around 6.2 miles long, starting at 3568ft, it tops out at around 5253ft. To be honest, looking back, I preferred the challenge of the old north road.

When we got back we had another excellent meal on the terrace of the Gasthof Waldheim, and more beer in the same bar as yesterday evening, a perfect day!

This is Friday's route over the Grossglockner Pass, its a roughly a 170 mile round trip. A Garmin GPS track and waypoints download is available here

Note: If you're studying the GPS track, don't forget to add an hour to the time shown as I left my GPS on UK time.

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