Hohe Tauern

My latest trip led me to the region of the highest mountain in Austria - the "Hohe Tauern".

Glacier covered mountains, difficult trails and rocks that offer lots of grip.

Compared to the trails I did in the Dolomites, these here are steeper and more demanding.

 

One of them I did quite often over the last years. It´s not that hard to get up, thanks to a road

they build up to a man made lake. Depending on how much descent you wanna do,

you can either start at the lake or hike up to a glacier. The second version offers 

about 1100 meters of descent - and most of them are a hard work down.

Lots of sections are tricky: either they are steep or have tight switchbacks or high steeps -

often a combination of all.

One is very special to me: till 2010 we didn´t even consider riding this section.

It´s like a stairway made of rocks, very steep and - the tricky part - a "S"-bend curve.

So you can´t just open your brakes, you have to do it really slow.

In 2011 I had an incredibly good day and for the first time I could ride it flawlessly.

One year later I was too scared of the steepness and failed.

This year - with my new bike - I had enough confidence to master it again.

 

Due the high level of difficulty and therefore slow speed it takes a long time to get back

to the starting point. Only the last meters are a simple, fast singletrack - pure enjoyment

after all the exhausting riding.

 

The pictures below on the slick rocks - polished from the glacier long time ago -are "selfies".

What can't be seen on the pictures is the cold and strong wind, making it a very

uncomfortably place to be. With stones I build a small tower for my camera to put it

in a higher position, setting it to the 10 sec selftimer function, pushed the trigger and

hurried to my bike - hoping that I´m at the right place at the right time ...

 

Greetings from Austria,

Horst

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dolomites ... again!

Like every year I make a trip to the Dolomites.

It´s not only the landscape that´s outstanding, there is also a dense trail and road network.

Some of them were build in the first World War at the Austrian Italien frontier.

 

One of the trails I rode twice this year is a real highlight:

it summens up everything that a bikeride in the Dolomites is all about!

You have an amazing scenery the whole tour, steep uphills and a good mix of singletrails.

First the uphill starts slowly on a small gravel road, gradually getting steeper - finally you have

a 20 to 30 % incline with lots of loose gravel ... After 600 m ascent you can either make a rest in a nearby hut or directly turn into a singletrail with another 200 meters of uphill.

The trail then goes up and down for quite a while beneath a 3000 m summit.

Finally you are at the highest point where a long descent starts. There a some tight switchbacks and steeper sections mixing up with faster, narrow singletrails.

What´s consistent is a amazing view!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dolomites 2013

A four day trip with Martin in the Dolomites.
He did a blog entry with lots of photos!
Season Finale ...?

High again

On our way back home from the Eurobikeshow we (Martin and me) made a stop in Easttyrol
for a 2 day trip. Together with 2 friends - Mihi & Herwig - we were riding and walking up to the
hut which is 2650 m a.s.l. Half of the way up is rideable, the other half we had to carry our bikes.
As always I reduced my gear to a minimum, to keep the weight of my backpack down.
No problem as the first day was very warm and sunny, but the next morning when we headed for
the summit, it was freezing cold and a strong wind made it even more chilly ...
I went up in a fast pace to keep my body warm, only my fingers got a bit cold.

Because of fog and the cold wind we didn´t walk up to the main summit (beside there is a 50 m
long, difficult section with ropes where you need 2 people to get one bike up and down).
So we were resting at the lower summit, hiding from the wind and prepared ourselves for the descent.
The downhill isn´t that difficult, there are some long slopes with fine gravel which are fun to ride.
Altogether we had 2200 m of downhill on this day. From a 3192 m peak with glaciers and snow
to the green and warm valley.

Thanks to Martin, Herwig and Mihi for their company!
(Photos by Martin, Herwig and Mihi)

Night Flight

For two years, this project was on my list.

A two day trip with a difficult downhill and a overnight stay on the summit.

Roli and I are starting in the late afternoon, unfortunately too late to see the sunset

from the summit. Half of our delay is because of a large

Road diversion, the other half is due to the heat (in the valley it has 35 ° C!) and the heavy backpacks.

Along with our bikes we are carrying almost 25 kg on our shoulders!

In dim light we get on top of the summit plateau, we are searching for a good place to put our sleeping bags. 
The night was not sooo uncomfortable, only the wind was a bit annoying.

The first dawn appeared shortly after 4: 00, after 5 o'clock, we're out of our sleeping bags

and we can see a really beautiful sunrise!

After a small breakfast we head for the downhill.

To keep the backpack as light as possible for the downhill, we even reduce our trinking water

to a minimum, something we regret soon as it got very warm later ...

The trail was difficult, the large and heavy backpack didn´t make it easier!

This trip taught me 3 things: schedule enough time to be in time for the sunset above,

severe downhills and heavy backpacks are not a good match and a campingmat is a worthy investment!

  

Fire & Ice

Last winter was an unusally long and snowy one. Still in April all of the surrounding mountains
were covered with snow. Despite that fact Martin came up with a "good" idea:
Riding with our bikes up a well known mountain near Graz, stay for the night
in a tent and head for the downhill the next morning!
Martin H. was also crazy enough to join us. ;-)
We knew that the weather was going to be bad - about minus 2°, tense fog and snowfall ...
We were all surprised how much snow there was on this mountain (1445 m a.s.l.).
30" of snow everywhere and we had the 6th of April!

After riding up and some fooling around on a kind of ski slope we searched for a good place
to put up our tent. Martin was eager to build a igloo, so we shoveld like crazy, good thing was
it kept us warm. Meanwhile we tried to start a fire, which took us a long time because
of the snowfall. After hours of digging we compared our nearly finished igloo with our tent ...
the tent looked much more comfortably!

The night wasn´t that cold as feared (because my sleeping bag is only good for about +5°),
anyhow we got up before 6 o´clock, slipping in our cold clothes and frozen shoes.

The bikes were covered with ice, the brakes and the suspension needed some time
till they worked properly.
The downhill was great, a nice singletrack and the cold snow had a good grip.

If you ask yourself why are our backpacks so small?: There is a cablecar on this mountain,
so we transportated the big parts with it.

All in all it was a real good trip, something you will remember for a long time!

Perfect Day

What do you need for a perfect Bikeday?
Take a great mountain scenery, blue skies, cover the mountain peaks with some
fresh snow (just for the looks!) and ride your bike there with a friend.

The summit Martin and I did on this day is not a famous one, not a really high one
and hasn´t a spectacular downhill. But it offers a great view, including the highest
mountain of Austria - the Großglockner.
On our way down we often grapped our cameras to "memorize" this perfect day.

Sometimes it´s not all about the bikeride, on a day like this it´s about being there
at this particular moment.