Ötztal, Austria, is located close to Innsbruck on the South side of the river Inn. Being 60km long it is the longest of the Inn side valleys. The valley itself has many more side tributaries and hanging valleys which make the whole area a great wilderness location for mountain biking, climbing, kayaking and skiing. Closest airports are either Innsbruck or Munich, with the latter having better connections.
The following video and pictures I took in September 2011 with Johannes Pistrol and Fabian Gleitsmann. It shows an incredible high mountain “bikebergsteigen” loop that we did at the end of the Ötztal valley, above Vent. The short story is written by me and is from the camera man's perspective. I'd also like to thank EVOC, Norrona, Schwalbe and Platzangst for supporting our adventure in the mountains that day.
5am starts from Munich are painful, especially in summer time. I drove to Garmisch and parked at Fabi's an hour later. He drove the rest of the way into Austria. The long windy road up Ötztal took longer than I remembered. After Sölden the main valley divides and we took the right branch up to the end of the road at Vent. Johannes was already parked and waiting. The weather was perfect. The lads got the bikes together and I fretted about what camera gear to take. They spent a lot of time worrying about shock pressures, clothing and food. I spend the same time thinking about the lenses to take then throw in a jacket.
We rode out of Vent just after 9am and picked up the track leading to the Martin Busch hut. It was a steep climb to begin with then it laid back a little for several kilometers up to the hut. The valley opened up into some beautiful scenery with the amazing Similaun mountain dominating the skyline on the ride in. The hut, as with most Austrian huts, is a plush place. The promise of a cold beer always has a magnetic attraction but we resisted, stayed outside and just ate some chocolate for 10 minutes before shouldering the bikes and beginning the hike towards the summit of Saykogel. We ascended over some meadows and the steepening grass soon gave way to boulders and a rocky ridge line.
With the weight of the camera gear and the bike on my back and with feeling the effects of the thin 3000m air the lads had started to wait for me. That's the problem with being an aging desk jockey out with two young tigers. Fabi decided to be charitable and swapped me his super light carbonized Liteville 301 to carry instead of my bigger 901. Johannes sent some more chocolate my way. The weight reduction and sugar gave me the final boost to the summit that I needed. We were on top at 2pm and enjoyed a magnificent view all to ourselves. Light was amazing so I instantly felt re-energized. The lads rested and I began to shoot.
I probably shot for too long on top. It's like that; always hard to pull me away from a good spot. But I was also kind of conscious of the descent from having looked down at it from the summit. It was like one of those “where the hell is the trail” moments. We'd just walked up a perfectly acceptable path and we were about to drop down a seriously exposed ridge line into the next glaciated valley. Fabi the time keeper was making noises. He'd done the tour before and already knew what we had below to look forward to. We had to get going to get back before dark.
We started the descent from the summit onto the ridge line. Riding was airy, scary and spectacular. The first ridge has to be one of the most amazing lines to ride a bike above 3000m – completely rocky, wild and like something from the moon. We descended another 100m, shooting and not getting very far quickly but the light and situation were too good to miss.
The whole ridge turned out to be one big photo spot. Exposed, rocky, technical. Fabi and Johannes were riding most of it. I was shooting mostly and doing some riding. After about 300m vertical descent the “trail” branched off left through a small gap in the ridge onto more open scree terrain interspersed with rocky slabs. The riding was amazing and dust was beginning to rise behind our tracks. The sun was getting lower in the sky and the light was casting across the glacier just beneath us.
In terms of seriousness the worst of the danger was over and the trail from now on down to the glacier snout was more normal technical terrain. The kind of trail the lads could stretch out on and I could finally ride fluently again. The photo spots just kept on coming, and giving. We rode faster and got more dust in our eyes.
We hit the base of the valley just as the sun left us behind the mountains. It was so well timed I couldn't believe it – just as the sun left the trail we were finished the main descent. We crossed the river and sat on a rocky ledge among some cairns. The last remaining food and water were scraped out of the sacks and we sat there for about 15 minutes taking in the situation and what we had just done. I took a few more atmosphere pics before putting the camera away. In the bottom of the valley the light was now dead, darkness would soon be upon us.
Out rest stop was magnificent but were weren't finished yet because we had another hour of up and down trail riding back to the car. Some switchbacks took us down from the cairns, over another river and past a hut. Another small climb took us over a saddle in the valley and from then on it was just trail cruising back to the car. We hit the road back to Vent at about 8pm just as darkness fell. Timing was unusually perfect. We were happy but whacked. Gear was hastily packed in the cars because we knew Pizzas were waiting to be washed down with a cold beer at Sölden. After we ate, Johannes hit the road back to Vienna and Fabi and I headed North towards Garmisch and Munich. I finally arrived home after midnight and the lights went out pretty fast.
