Two of Austria’s best high passes
There is a place where the roads are immaculate, the countryside is well-tended, villages pretty and the mountains majestic. It isn’t too good to be true – it’s Austria. It’s...
EARLY MORNING, AUSTRIA. The countryside looks like a film set. Picture the scene: idealised Alpine perfection. There’s a broad panorama of green meadows dotted with low wooden barns, flanked by towering wooded slopes. Low mist hovers above the grass. Pan round to see the bikes; track them as they tiptoe past wood-fronted chalets framed by window boxes red with geraniums, then out of the village and the speed rises. Cows lazily raise their heads to watch them pass…
I know a few pages ago I was trying to persuade you that the ultimate mountain road is in Italy. The trouble is, so often the best pass is the one you’re riding at the time… And the Austrian Alps are home to some of the acknowledged ‘great passes’. Photographer Weeble and I are making an early start, to ride two of the greatest.
One thing that marks the key Austrian Alpine roads as different to those in other areas is that they’re toll roads. Most were created (at least in part) to attract tourism to the mountains, so the tolls ensure that the roads are well-maintained. They’re often quiet as well — large vehicles and caravans are banned from many, making them ideal for riding.
Nockalmstrasse
A relatively new road, Nockalmstrasse was started in the 1970s, opening as a toll road in 1981. It runs more-or-less north/south through a section of mountains known as the Nockberg – Nock’n meaning knoll or lower, rounded hill. It’s a section of the Alps where the peaks are less jagged and rocky, with a softer, more welcoming landscape than some of the austere, craggy, high-altitude passes. Not that the actual Nockalmstrasse is low: at 2049m, it’s high enough to have restricted opening and is generally rideable only between May and the end of October.
Fortunately, Weeble and I have arrived in the middle of September. The sun is well up in a cloudless blue sky and, after the slightly chilly early morning start, it’s a beautiful day: temperatures in the low 20°Cs, no wind, it’s midweek so the roads are quiet. Perfect conditions.
Even the road to reach the Nockalmstrasse is great. We’re approaching from the north, from the tiny village of Innerkrems. There’s a half-dozen local bikers gathered on the other side of the toll booth as we pay (€12 per bike in 2018) and pick up the guide book and stickers that come with the fee. Does this mean it’s going to be busy? Apparently not. We nod to the riders as we go past and that’s the last we see of them — and we don’t see many bikes (or cyclists, or cars) all the time we’re on the road.
Nockalmstrasse is a relatively short road: just 22 miles (35km) but it packs 52 hairpins into that distance — not to
mention plenty of sweeping turns, some wicked 90° bends and even a chicane-style swerve over a bridge as the road jumps a river. The hairpins are numbered — as “Reidn”, the local dialect term for hairpin. Most are named, again using dialect terms for various flowers found in the region.
The climb is fairly steep: a pair of short, arcing, almost-straights leading to the first complex of two hairpins adding 154m of altitude in just a mile. In that 22-mile length, it climbs just over 1000m. But I’m not worrying about the numbers as I settle in and get to grips with the road.
This is an amazing road. The corners come thick and fast at first, curving round the wooded slopes. As the altitude increases, the straights become longer — it’s taking a bit of self-control to keep speeds sensible. I spot a café and pull in for a drink, just to make sure I don’t get carried away with how good the road is.
Back on the bike, the road breaks free of the tree-line, pushing to the summit of the pass. This is when the views really open up – huge vistas over seried ranks of rounded peaks marching to the hazy distance. There’s a viewing area and a small refuge at the top but we keep riding. The descent towards Ebene Reichenau is every bit as spectacular, with fabulous corners blessed with distractingly awesome views as we spiral back down to the tree-line. It’s almost a relief to get back into the woods…
But from there we have some riding to do. As great as Nockalmstrasse has been, it’s not the only great pass in Austria. We’re moving on to the big one next.
The Grossglockner
From Eben Reichenau, the southern end of Nockalmstrasse, it’s a pleasant, easy 75-mile ride east to Heiligenblut and the toll booth for the most famous Alpine toll road of them all: the Grossglockner Hochalpenstrasse. Usually people just call it “the Grossglockner” but really, that’s Austria’s highest mountain, which gives its name to the high Alpine road — and also to the glacier that slides down its south-eastern shoulder.
The Grossglockner (ahem, the road) epitomises the genius of the Austrian approach to building toll roads. It’s no mere collection of traditional tracks through the mountains: it was built specifically for motorised transport and designed to be good to drive. The day after it opened in 1935, a race was held on it…
The tolls — a hearty €26 per bike in 2018 — ensure not only that the road is maintained but also that it has kept pace with the development of vehicles: over the years it’s been widened as the average car size has increased. In fact, where one of the hairpins is now built out on concrete supports, floating in the air above the steeply plunging mountainside, the stone walls of the older, narrower road can still be seen beneath it.
From the Heiligenblut toll, the road twists and falls to a roundabout: turn left for the dead-end of the Kaiser-franz-josefs-höhe visitor centre overlooking the glacier; turn right to cross the pass to Zell am See. We turn left… but saying it like that doesn’t capture the essence of the next five miles.
If tarmac was dynamite, these few miles could blow most people’s minds. The views along the valley are simply jawdropping – snow-capped peaks rising almost within touching distance as the road jinks and turns, climbing steeply as it passes a couple of hotels (it gains more than 600m in five miles). There aren’t too many hairpins on this stretch, just a trio before the final climb up the galleried sweep to Kaiser-franz-josefs-höhe — which houses Europe’s highest multistorey car park, along with plentiful bike parking and lockers for riders wanting to leave their gear while wandering off.
All that parking space is needed: this is a popular, busy road. Even the midweek afternoons aren’t deserted; it’s pretty rammed on holidays and weekends, unless
you’re out bright and early. One Austrian friend recommends staying in one of the hotels within the toll section, to ride the road as dawn breaks for a truly magical experience… without traffic.
Still, when we set off from Kaiser-franzjosefs-höhe we have a good ride without traffic getting in the way. It’s impossible to have a bad ride on this road, really (and I’ve done it in fog, blinding rain, freezing cold… not just champagne conditions like today). After the roundabout, we’re onto the heart of the Grossglockner — and it’s sublime.
The genius of the road is the way the corners flow into each other, easily and naturally. They’re constant-radius turns, so even though some are tight, none tighten halfway round. The hairpins are broad, most corners have a sympathetic camber, sightlines are excellent… Everything seems set to make it easy to ride.
Everything apart from the views. Because that’s the real glory of the Grossglockner. As it climbs and twists, there’s a constantly changing series of spectacular views to admire. Keeping attention on the road can be challenging with a backdrop like this.
That’s what makes the Grossglockner such a memorable pass. It’s what makes it such a popular, brilliant ride. Being able to ride it on the same day as Nockalmstrasse… Now that’s a stunning day in the mountains. Sounds like heaven.