The Roof of Austria - The GrossGlockner

Broadsword to Danny Boy, Broadsword to Danny Boy......."The Schloss Adler.....The Eagle's Nest....and it´s well named as only an eagle could get to it"......etc etc etc....these were the words drifting in and out of my mind as I toiled to the 2571m summit of the GrossGlockner Pass in the Austrian Tyrol.

Of course Burton/Eastwood fans will recognise the script of 'Where Eagles Dare' and the area reminded me of the the film...surely there would be an impenetrable castle perched high on rocks as I turned the next corner ?

I had driven to to Venice airport to drop Amy off and then headed back into the mountains, only this time I didn´t stop and headed right over the border into Austria, the town of Lienz and then on to Hellingblut below the GrossGlockner itself.

There are many advantages to riding a bike, but an additional one is that you save €28 by not having to pay the toll to enter the national park. I smugly rode through whilst motorists glared at my cheap abandon...I could hear Kurt saying to Heidi in a parked car ....."why doesn't he have to pay ?".


This mountain was clearly big, so I settled into a rythym and watched the metres go by as I headed up to the Franz Jospeh hut next to the glacier. I can't remember the name of the glacier, it starts with a P and there are some CH's involved too. Petasch or something.

Alpine rides aren't best measured in distance, it's more relevant to measure in height climbed to gauge difficulty, and it was at about 2300 metres that I tuned into the visitors centre next to the glacier.

The glacier, although impressive, is but a pale imitation of it's former glory around 100 years ago. The ice has shrunk dramatically and you now need to get a long cable car ride down to the surface of the ice (which didn't seem worthwhile) The pics on the left show it the day I was there and also in it's heyday.....it really has largely disappeared.


It's still Austria's and the Eastern Alps largest glacier, but it's no Baltoro or Moreno.

I had passed 'Achtung Marmot !' signs along the way, and now I knew why. The little furry critters were gambolling on rocks next to the glacier and a couple got close enough to get some decent photos.

I wrote and posted a few postcards, toured the rather inspirational info centre (which involved walking through a mock-up cave in cycling shoes - hard) just as the the clouds rolled in and I got a bit cold and wet backtracking to the turn in the road
that would take me to the pass proper.

As I toiled up into the snowline it got tough and I had my death-face on (borrowed from Lance...basically a glazed eyed, sunken cheeks look as you deal with the pain) and passed a Dutch couple by the side of the road.

As passed she looked up with a big beaming smile, gave the thumbs up and said "cool !". You can count on the Dutch to appreciate cycling and my facade of being a serious cyclist immediately evaporated. I couldn't help responding with a huge smile and felt in better spirits as I continued up through dark and damp tunnels.

The last 150 vertical metres to the EidelwiessHutte basically involved a spiral of cobbled hairpins where the gradient rose significantly. This was like cycling the Patterberg at 2500 metres !
Fortunately the hut at the top was welcoming and I immediately ordered a wienershnitzel and beer as reward for my efforts. Another cyclist who had ridden up with full panniers had the same thoughts....and we tucked into some tasty fuel.

The descent was marked by tour bus fun. One that came by had an obviously enthusiastic tour rep on board because the entire double-decker gave me a wave as they sped by in the slush. This prompted me to initiate the waving next time, and a succession of tour buses will have waved to a bedraggled looking cyclist high up on the GrossGlockner. Hope they had fun.


It was a great ride, weather was a little ropey...but next stop Italy again and Bormio.