48h across the Alps

Have you ever thought about packing your backpack, taking your bike, booking the next train to the mountains and go for an adventure as spontaneous as it can be? This is the story of my 48h trip from Kufstein, Austria to Brixen, Italy with rain, thunderstorms, a descent of a mountain at night and a lot of epic trails.
Since many years I have the idea of crossing the alps in my mind but I do not like the usual routes across the Brenner or the Reschenpass and it was important for me to ride technical alpine trails instead of making a lot of elevation meters on roads. This made it a huge challenge because the alps do not have many trails across the main ridge which are not in contact with glaciers. A small saddle between Austria and Southtyrol seemed to be perfect to cross the high mountains but let's start with the beginning.

The tour started on Monday evening when I booked a one way ticket for Wednesday from Nuremberg to Kufstein by train. The next day I packed my gear, made last preparations on the bike and watched the whether forecast again and again. Due to the Covid-19 situation in Austria I had to book a room in a mountain lodge one day in advance because the whether was not looking good.
On Wednesday the day started early with a enjoyable train ride to Kufstein. I was in Kufstein at 12 o'clock and directly started with my adventure. It was like an urban adventure in the first hours because I had to pedal on a cycling path to Wörgl where I continued my ride in the Brixental. Half the way between Wörgl and Kitzbühl I left the main road and cycled on a small road until Kelchsau. After Kelchsau the road gets smaller and smaller and the steep increases. The road ended at a car park for hikers and at this point I had to carry my bike for a while through beautiful canyons with smaller and bigger water falls. The path was not changing much until I reached the Neue Bamberger Hütte the lodge where I will stay for the night. The tenants of the hut explained me that it is not allowed to ride a bike at this area. It was a bit surprised because I have not seen a sign which says that it is prohibited. I is a big problem in Austria because you do not know where it is exactly allowed to ride a big which makes it challenging to plan a tour. Lucky the tenants are mountainbikers too and they told me to start early in the next morning and push my bike for a short period of time until I reach the Salzachjoch and the I can ride again.


On top I made myself ready for the first descent , put on my knee pads, tightened the helmet and started the downhill to Königsleiten. It was a flowy and easy downhill but it was perfect to wake up the tired legs from the first day. The descent was followed by quick and short uphill on the old Gerlospass road until a huge viewpoint to the Krimmler Waterfalls. The viewpoint is the start of a singletrail down to Krimml. The trail is very versatile, it has a lot of steep sections than there are a lot of faster sections and the ground is very loamy. The trail ends directly in Krimml where I refilled my resources again in the supermarket, took a short break and continued the tour. I never thought that the day will be so exhausting after this break.
I have never thought that the waterfalls are so popular by tourists but there were thousands of tourists hiking up the mountain to see the falls and a lot of mountainbikers too. It was the first time I could understand the farmers that they do not like cyclists because nearly 95% percent of the bikers were E-Biker and most of them had no control of the bike at the descent. The roads were in bad conditions because the biker looked their rear wheel in front of every turn. I won't judge if it is only because of the E-Bikes but in fact there will be a lot less bikers at this spot because the climb to the Krimmler Ache is extremely steep.


Enough criticism, with every meter I was riding deeper into the valley the number of tourists was decreasing. The nature made the path along the Krimmler Ache to a enjoyable ride. With every meter the glaciers of the Simonyspitze and the Dreiherrnspitze were getting bigger and bigger until I reached the glacier tongue. I filled up my waterbottle with fresh and cold glacier water, took a short break and started the ascent to the Birnlücke. The first part was a normal hiking trail where I pushed the bike through big granite rocks. With every meter which I was pushing my bike the terrain was getting steeper until I had to put the bike on my back and had to carry it. The way was extremely steep so it was a big challenge to hike up the trails with the bike. As always the bike felt heavier with every meter I was carrying it and the climb was really long. Every time when I thought that I'm next to the Birnlücke, a few more switchbacks showed up and I had to continue.


Finally after hours of hiking I arrived at the Birnlücke. I changed my sweaty clothes and rested for a few minutes but with every minute I worried a bit more about the clouds because they were looking like a early stage of a thunderstorm. I checked my mobile phone if I got internet again because I had no reception the whole day. Luckily I had internet again, so that I can watch the weather forecast. I decided to stay on the mountain because the forecast looked fine. In the next hours I had lunch and great conversations with the italian people, explored the area around the Birnlücke by bike.


Finally it was time to get ready for bed. I inflated my sleeping mat short before sunset to make sure that no thunderstorm will surprise me.



I crawled into my sleeping bag and tried to sleep but a few minutes later I was wake up by a bright light. I instantly checked the weather radar but it still said that no thunderstorm is around me. At this moment I was really awake and observed everything what was happening around me. A pair of light flashes later I was sure that a thunderstorm is behind the Großvenediger which is less than 10km away from my place. I packed up my gear really quickly because I absolutely do not want to be on a mountain during a thunderstorm. I stuffed everything in my backpack as quick as possible and went down to the next lodge with the last daylight. Contrary to my expectations the guys at the hut were fascinated by my tour and offered my food and drinks. I was tired from the long day and went directly into the bed. In the night it was a bit windy but we were spared by the thunderstorms. It was only a bit windy, in other parts of the Ahrntal and Pustertal the storm was extrem and trees were fallen over streets, that confirmed my decision of going the safe way sleeping in a hut.
The next morning was breathtaking. The glacier were glowing in the morning light and the dawn was outstanding. I packed my gear again and started very early because I wanted to ride the trail before the hikers start their tour.





At this point of my tour I had to make a really difficult decision. I can go for a few more days into the Dolomites but the train will get very expensive or I could ride to Brixen to get a train back home. I made the difficult decision that I will take the train back home from Brixen. The weather forcast for the next days predicted a lot of rain and my legs were also tired(I had no idea how far and how much elevation meters I already did). I took the road from the Ahrntal to Bruneck where I coincidentally met David while he was driving to a mountainbike tour as well.
A lot of pain in the legs and multiple times of getting lost later I arrived in Brixen, I cycled directly to the center of the city to eat Gelato and Pizza. It felt like heaven to eat something because I had forgotten the breakfast.


In Brixen the tour came to an end after less than 48h. I was cycling and hiking a bit more than 200km and did more than 5200 em but the biggest challenge of the tour was to get home with my bike in the train.