Bicycle tour in Salzburg

Thursday, 2018-11-01: Salzburg ➡️ Hinterwinkel ➡️ Hintersee ➡️ Posch’nhütte

I took the earliest train leaving Nuremberg at 4:39 to be able to start riding from Salzburg as soon as possible. According to the schedule, the train should have arrived in Salzburg at 9:42. The DB train from Nuremberg to Munich ran as  planned, but the Meridian train from Munich to Salzburg  unexpectedly ran only as far as Prien am Chiemsee. Between Prien am Chiemsee and Übersee there was construction work still going on. The Meridian people told me that the construction work should have been finished the day before, but it didn’t finish in time and the DB did not inform Meridian about that and did not change  the  schedules in the Internet. Therefore, Meridian did not have enough time to organize enough buses between Prien am Chiemsee and Übersee. They were only able to get 3 buses which were not enough  to transport the 300 people from each train to Übersee before the next train with the next 300 people arrived an hour later. So the crowd  waiting for buses was getting bigger, it was  very chaotic. In the end it took about 3 hours to get to Übersee, if I had known from the start it would take so long, I would have unfolded my bicycle and ridden to Übersee, it is only about 15 km.

So I arrived about 3 hours later than planned in Salzburg. From the central train station I rode to the Salzach river and the south on the bicycle path along the river.  Just south of Salzburg I left the river and headed east into the mountains.

Salzburg city with fortress Hohensalzburg

Although close to a big city, here are scenic roads with not much traffic. I rode via Hinterwinkl and Hinterschrofenau to the Vordersee lake, the Hintersee lake, and then the Hintersee village.

Hinterwinkel, in the background the Untersberg

In Hintersee there was a bust of Joseph Mohr who is known for having written the words of the famous Chrismas Carol Silent Night. He worked as a pastor in Hintersee for a while. From Hintersee, I followed the narrow paved road leading south to Lammerbach. Shortly after Lammerbach it becomes a steep gravel road leading up to the Genner alp. It’s about 3 km gravel climbing from 820 m to 1280 m above sea level.

Road to the Genneralm

While riding up the gravel road, the setting sun coloured some mountains nicely orange. When I reached the top of the road it was almost dark. Originally I had  wanted to ride much further to the Postalm area where I knew a nice place to bivouac from a previous trip, but due to the late start in Salzburg I could not get there during the daytime. I didn’t fancy continuing a few more hours in the dark, so I decided to pitch up my tarp right here, it looked like a nice place with lots of grass and fine views.

Friday, 2018-11-02: Posch’nhütte ➡️ Postalm ➡️ Schwarzensee ➡️ Weißenbach am Attersee

My bicycle at the summit of the road to the  Genneralm, in the  background the Gennerhorn

When I woke up the next morning, the weather was overcast again but at least good enough  that I could see the mountains nearby.

My bicycle at the summit of the road to the Genneralm

I followed the gravel road which passes the Posch’nhütte. The road starts level for a while, then drops down into the Ackersbach valley.

Suddenly I came to a place where the road was closed because of construction work.

Road under construction

This part  of  the road  was  completely unridable, it looked like a dam made out of big rocks. I guess they first dump these rocks there to get a solid foundation and smooth it out later.

The road under construction was completely unridable

I pushed my bicycle mostly through the grass next to the road and hoped I would not have to do this for a long distance.

At last I reached the end of the construction site

Luckily the construction site was only about a kilometre long and on the other side it was a nice, smooth gravel road again.

Road through the Ackersbach valley

I followed  the road down the Ackersbach valley until it reached the old Postalm road. I turned left into the old Postalm road. After a while there was a sign that the road was closed for more than a month because of lumbering. Entry was forbidden. I chose to ignore that sign and continued to follow the old Postalm road to the historic Postalm hut. I didn‘t see any signs of lumbering, no cut down trees, no machinery, nothing. Strange that the road is closed for such a long time for no apparent reason.

Historic Postalm hut

From the historic Postalm hut I followed a  paved road down to the new Postalm road, which is a paved toll road. Near the summit of the new Postalm road, the “Blonde Hütte” restaurant had still open and I went in and had a Kaiserschmarrn and a coffee.

Then I road down the north slope of the Postalm road to Weißenbach, then Russbach and up the road on the other side  of the valley leading to the Schwarzensee lake. A nice scenic road leads east around the Schwarzensee which closed for motorised  traffic.

Schwarzensee lake

At the north end of the Schwarzensee the road becomes a gravel road, following the Moosbach stream through a beautiful alp area. Then it leads into the forest and down to the Attersee. When I reached the Attersee, it was almost dark again. I continued on the big road around the Attersee until Weißenbach am Attersee. There I saw a campsite. The gate was open and there was light and a guy apparently running the site was there. I asked him if I could stay there. But he said the site is already closed for winter. So I road out of Weißenbach on a gravel road through the forest until I found a quiet place to pitch up my tarp. Just when I was finished pitching up the tarp started to rain heavily. It rained all through the night.

Saturday, 2018-11-03: Weißenbach am Attersee ➡️ Attersee via-ferrata ➡️ Seewalchen am Attersee ➡️ Unterach ➡️ Mondsee

Around  sunrise the rain stopped. I cooked some Quinoa with dried tomatos and tea for breakfast and  then rode back to Weißenbach am Attersee.

Attersee lake, seen from Weißenbach am Attersee

I rode along the Attersee until just north of Weißenbach, then turned right into a short gravel road which ended at a trailhead. I parked my bicycle there and walked the trail to the start of the Attersee via-ferrata. The trail was officially closed due to damage by a storm two weeks ago, but other hikers apparently ignored that as well.

Summit of the Mahdlgupf (1261 m)

Near the entrance of the via-ferrata I found a beanie and took it with me because I heard people above in the via-ferrata and guessed that one of them might have lost it. The via-ferrata was a bit wet and slippery but rather easy and I soon caught up to a group of three men. One of them had indeed lost the beanie. They let me pass and I waited for them at the summit. Two other people were already sitting at the summit, they had come up the hiking path.

That’s how the view from the Mahdlgupf would look like in clear weather

In good weather there must be nice views over the Attersee lake from the via-ferrata as shown on a panorama photograph placed at the summit. But today it was unfortunately foggy during the whole climb and one could see nothing but the fog and the rock in front of oneself.

We all descended together via the hiking path to Weißenbach am Attersee. Then I walked north on the road along the Attersee for about 2 kilometres to get back to the trailhead where I had parked my bicycle.

The fog was even thicker than in the morning and I could not even see the opposite shore of the Attersee lake anymore. I rode counterclockwise around the Attersee. All camp sites I passed seemed to be closed already. When I reached Unterach at the south-west corner of the Attersee, I checked out another campsite but it was closed as well. So I continued west to the Mondsee lake and along the south shore of the Mondsee. The shore looked perfect for camping but there were many “camping prohibited” signs. On OpenStreetMap I found a forest road leading uphill away from the lake which seemed to fork into a dead-end road ending at about 100 metres above the lake. I thought that the end of that road might be a quiet place to camp and rode up to have a look. At the end of the road I even found a nice, level meadow with a view over the lake and I pitched up my tarp there.

Sunday, 2018-11-04: Mondsee ➡️ St. Gilgen ➡️ Kühleiten ➡️ Faistenau ➡️ Salzburg

The place where I slept above the Mondsee lake

It didn’t rain during the night and it was fairly warm (10°C).

The place where I slept above the Mondsee lake

There were low hanging clouds but at least I could see the lake while preparing breakfast.

St. Gilgen with the Wolfgangsee in the background

I rode back to down to the lake and followed the lake shore west. There was a nice bicycle path. Below the Kienbergwand the car road goes through a 1 kilometre long tunnel with a separate tunnel for the bicycle path. The bicycle tunnel has several windows where one can see the lake. At Scharfling I turned left into the road to St. Gilgen am Wolfgangsee.

In St. Gilgen I studied OpenStreetMap to find an interesting road towards Salzburg, I had used the main road B158 via the Fuschlsee lake on a previous trip and wanted to try something different. I found a hiking path from St. Gilgen starting at 660 m elevation and ending at 910 m elevation at the hamlet Kühleiten, from where I could use a good roads towards Salzburg again. I thought that I could probably push my bicycle up there and decided to try it. It was a bit more difficult than expected, I could push only partly and had to carry the bicycle for quite a long time, there were many steps, it was quite exhausting.

Kühleitn

Finally I reached Kühleitn and was really happy to be able to ride again instead of pushing and carrying.

Road from Oberwinkel to the Gaisberg

I continued using small country roads and some gravel roads to Oberwinkel at the east slope of the Gaisberg. A paved road leads to the top of the Gaisberg where a big radio and tv antenna is.

My bicycle on the summit of the Gaisberg (1288 m). Above the luggage rack one can see the Watzmann, at the right edge of the picture is the Hochstaufen.

From the top of the Gaisberg one has very good views over Salzburg and the surrounding mountains. There are two restaurants on top and I went into the smaller one which looked like a mountain hut and had a piece of cake and a cup of coffee.

My bicycle at the summit of the Gaisberg (1288 m)

Then I went back to the meadow looking towards the sunset and stayed until it was dark because the view was so nice.

My bicycle at the summit of the Gaisberg (1288 m)

Riding from the Gaisberg down to Salzburg was fun, one can go pretty fast. I reached about 60 km/h. With daylight one can probably go even faster but in the dark one has to be a bit more careful, although it is a very smooth road. I had to brake very hard once because a deer suddenly jumped out of the forest and crossed the road through the beam of my front light.

I reached Salzburg’s central train station around 18:00 and took the 18:15 train to Munich and from there the München-Nürnberg-Express to Nuremberg. The München-Nürnberg-Express sometimes offers bicycle transport and sometimes it doesn’t, one can never know because the Deutsche Bahn doesn’t publish anymore when this train has bicycle transport and when it doesn’t. Today it had no bicycle transport, but with a folding bicycle this doesn’t matter. So I could take this fast train instead of having to use a much slower train with bicycle transport.

Climbing the Kaltwasserkarspitze

Saturday, 2018-09-08: From Mittenwald to the Kaltwasserkarspitze

I rode my bicycle to the main train  station of Nuremberg where I entered the 06:29 train to Munich. After entering the train I folded my bicycle and put it into a bag to avoid an extra fee for the bicycle transport.

In Munich I changed to another train to Mittenwald. I met a nice cyclist with a cyclocross bike who wanted to ride from Garmisch Partenkirchen to Rome. He was using a  bike-packing setup with only one  big saddle bag. Today his destination was Gries am Brenner. We had a nice conversation and he stayed in the train until  Mittenwald where we arrived at 09:53.

I unfolded my bicycle while he checked his tire pressure at the bicycle shop at the train station, then we rode together to Scharnitz using the gravel road near  the Isar river.

In Scharnitz he continued south  towards Seefeld whereas I turned east into the Hinterau valley.

Road into the Hinterau valley.

Cairns at the shore of the river Isar.

Place marked as the source of the river Isar. Several small streams flow together here.

I continued on the gently sloped smooth gravel road until I reached the Kastenalm where I turned left into the road leading to the  Roßloch. I continued about 1.5 kilometres on this somewhat bumpier road until  I reached  the place  where the  trail to the  Kaltwasserkarspitze forks off  to the left. I locked my bicycle to a tree, put some stuff into a small backpack and started walking up that trail around 13:00 o’clock.

Lower part of the trail to the Kaltwasserkarspitze.

View  from the trail to the Kaltwasserkarspitze towards the Moserkarspitze. I think the Moserkarspitze is the mountain in the centre of this picture.

After a while the path emerged from the dwarf mountain pines and I could see the whole south ridge of the Kaltwasserkarspitze up to the summit. The route is occasionally marked with cairns but it is mostly obvious anyway. There were a few spots of UIAA climbing difficulty II but not that many, actually fewer than I had expected.

South ridge of the Kaltwasserkarspitze. A little bit of the summit is visible at the end of the ridge. The mountain at the left side of the picture is the Birkarspitze.  

It was a lot of fun to climb over that ridge but a bit lonely, I didn’t see any other climbers neither on the way up nor on the way down.

Suddenly I noticed that I had forgotten my head light in my bicycle panniers, so Ihurried up a bit to make sure I would not have to descend in the dark.

The weather was perfect and the views from the summit fantastic.

View from the summit of the Kaltwasserkarspitze over the south ridge.

View  from the summit of the Kaltwasserkarspitze towards the Lalidererspitze.

View from the summit of the Kaltwasserkarspitze. The mountain at  the left is the  Birkarspitze.

Me on the summit of the  Kaltwasserkarspitze. No summit cross, just a wooden pole.

Although there was no summit cross, there was a metal box with a summit log book. I didn’t count but there were not many entries from this year. One single climber had made an entry last weekend. I made my entry as well and had a short rest eating some dates, then started the descent.

While walking  down from the Kaltwasserkarspitze (in the  Background).

Kaltwasserkarspitze, the ridge on the right hand side is the south  ridge.

To see a different path I decided to descend via the Hochjöchl and not go back all the way over the south ridge. But even when one wants to go to the Hochjöchl one descents a little bit on the south ridge anyway (maybe about 100 metres?). Then there is a gully leading down on the west side which I had noticed already on the way up. There are some cairns which confirm that this is the right way. and one can easily descend through that gully onto a scree slope and  then  continue to the Hochjöchl. There is no obvious path down from the Hochjöchl into the  Hinterau valley, one can practically go anywhere, just down  towards the south until one reaches  the path coming down  from  the Birkarspitze (“Adlerweg”).

It was around 20:00 when I reached my bicycle and almost dark. I rode a little bit back  past the Kasten Alp  towards Scharnitz until I saw a nice stretch  of  grass next to the river Isar. I decided  to bivouac there, the grass was soft and it was nice  to have fresh water from the Isar.

Sunday, 2018-09-09: Kasten Alp to Halleranger Alp, back to Mittenwald and then to Kochel

The place near the bank of the river Isar where i slept.

In the morning I cooked red lentils with dried tomatoes, tomato paste and pepper and tea on my alcohol stove, then packed my stuff and rode up again towards the Halleranger Alp. The road is very steep, some sections have a gradient of up to 25%. I could ride the steepest sections only partly, it was not really difficult as the road was still good. But I just didn’t have enough endurance to keep on going until the steepness relaxed. Lots of riders with electric support passed me there.

When I finally reached the Halleranger Alp I had a long rest there with non-alcoholic wheat beer and a piece of Austrian cheese cake (Topfenstrudel).

Halleranger Alp with the “Kleiner Lafatscher” in  the background.

Chapel next to the  Halleranger Alp, “Kleiner Lafatscher” in the background.

Halleranger Alp, “Kleiner Lafatscher” at  the  left.

Halleranger  Alp, the mountain directly above the flag is  the Suntiger-Spitze. 

“Real” source of the Isar river.

There is another “Source of the Isar river” only a few hundred metres from the Halleranger Alp. The source further down in the Hinterau valley has water running all year round, the spring near the Halleranger Alp does maybe not have running water all year round.

Hallerangerhaus, a hut  of the Alpine Club. 

After having a look at the source of the Isar river, I rode to the nearby Hallerangerhaus (a hut of the Alpine Club) and then started to ride back down towards the Kasten Alp.

Lafatscher Niederleger. On the way down to the Kasten Alp.

I used this bridge on the way down to avoid a ford where I got my feet a bit wet on the way up.

From the Kasten Alp I rode back through the Hinterau valley to Scharnitz and then again on the gravel path along the Isar to Mittenwald. It was still early when I reached Mittenwald so I had time to ride a bit more before taking a train home. I rode north the the Walchensee lake and along its west shore, then down the road to Kochel. Unfortunately there was a terrible traffic jam starting in Walchensee almost until Kochel. Therefore I could not descend on the nice winding road as fast as I would have liked to, the cars were going at walking speed and it was difficult to overtake them safely.

Ice cream shop in Kochel

When I reached Kochel I had about an hour until the departure of my train home to Nuremberg. I found nice ice cream shop where I had an ice cream and then a Turkish kebap shop where I got a vegetarian kebap with falafel to eat later on the train.