AUSTRIAN ALPS
GREAT ESCAPE
The late 19th-century Glocknerhaus is a
hiker-friendly hostelry in a glorious location near
the Pasterze Glacier. It’s spartan – pine-panelled
rooms come with a shower, bed and not much
else, but the views make up for the basic facilities.
The restaurant specialises in hearty walkers’ grub
like baked fish, stews and hotpots (private
en suite rooms from US$98; dasglocknerhaus.at).
The standard one-way vehicle toll on the
Grossglockner Road is US$33 (grossglockner.at).Essentials
Double back over the Grossglockner Road (or take
one of the tunneled alternatives to the east or west)
to reach the heart of the Salzburgerland – the
province of which Salzburg is the capital.3,000m, including the mighty
Grossglockner itself – Austria’s highest
mountain at 3,798m, and the summit after
which the road is named.
The road itself was the brainchild of
a group of entrepreneurs who wanted to
capitalise on the new-fangled pastime of
motor-touring in the early 1930s. At a cost
of more than 55 million euros in today’s
money, it seemed a madcap project, but
today, some 900,000 people pass through
the Grossglockner’s toll-gates every year.
On this morning’s ascent towards the
Edelweiss-Spitze, a veil of cloud hangs
over the mountain, obscuring everything
but the next bend and the headlights of
the car in front. But the Grossglockner
gloom doesn’t last long. As the road
weaves upwards, the weather unexpectedly
breaks. The mist thins and dissipates.
Streaks of sky appear overhead. Yellow
pastures appear by the roadside. On the
far side of the Hochtor Tunnel, it climbs
over a final ridge and a chain of peaks
looms along the horizon, like soldiers
standing to attention along a castle’s
battlements. The summit of the
Grossglockner itself appears, an icy
spike towering above silver cloud.
Suddenly, the boom of engines cracks
the silence like cannon fire, and a
phalanx of leather-clad bikers races past.
They’re the first motorists of the day on
the Grossglockner, but they certainly
won’t be the last.The village of
Heiligenblut marks
the southern end of
the road – its name
means ‘holy blood’,
a reference to a relic
housed in its Gothic
pilgrimage churchGREAT ESCAPEGREAT ESCAPE
AUSTRIAN ALPS