Having done a few TransAlps, Tours round Mt Blanc and similar stuff, this year was to a be a TransAlp starting at Mittenwald (Germany) and travelling through Austria to the Dolomites and ending at Bassano del Grappa in Italy (just north of Venice). Below is a brief description for anyone that’s interested.

We seem to be pretty good at doing the planning and the sorting out for these trips now. The golden rule is to carry nothing at all that is superfluous. We now have it down to the bike and 4-5kg bag plus 2kg of drink. Absolutely nothing else. I carry a 14 litre rucksack which easily does for a week or two. The whole attraction is being away in the mountains, self-reliant and just having that one small bag for a week or two. For the maps we get the full size OS type maps from Stanfords then copy out the route on A3 photocopies so that the sheets (we had 30) can be written on, carried in the rain, thrown once used etc. of our group 4 each carried a full set of sheets so that navigation was shared, and mistakes reduced! The other thing we carry is a cut-down Michelin map so that if we need to go off route or bail out, at least w eknow where the major towns are.

Anyway, back to the trip, 430km, 14,000m (46,000feet) of ascent. 6 of us who were;

Shaun – the Mr-bodge it of the group, will make a space shuttle out of some old scrap and well known for his thriftyness. Lives in Huddersfield & woks on industrial rope access. Climber.

Mike – ex accountant, lives in south of France and Kendal. Runs a company designing and manufacturing parasgliders and kites and now widely known as a business magnate.

Pete – now a southerner. Ex lecturer now IT programmer and makes money from renting rooms to Chinese students (much to his annoyance). Spends 50% of his time ‘between jobs’ and so canoeing and cycling. Veteran of Trans Alp and Trans Rocky races. Lives in Reading.

Parkin – mountain man and millionaire. Landlord to most of the students in North Wales and puts his business acumen down to his Leeds roots. Works very little and spends much time in the Alps. Body slowly collapsing due to old age and injuries.

Adriano – dashing young man, Brazilian living near Rio. Half the age of some of the group. Owns a company doing off-shore rope access work. Millionaire. Spends much of the time jetting around Europe and the States setting up deals. Babe magnet. Did first TransAlp last year.

Me – needing to work for a living, slowly building our house in the Dales. Paragliding, caving and cycling.

Pete and I had got the evening flight from Manchester to Stuttgart (after a full days work) to arrive there at 23:00. Quick underground to the city then crash out in the YHA there at 1am. Up at 7am quick breakfast and catch the 8am train to Munich and change for Mittenwald. Get there at 12:30 and meet the rest. Mike who has driven to Bassano from Nice, Shaun and Parkin that have driven out from the UK and Adriano that had flown in to Milan. Remarkably everyone arrived there on time and as usual Parkin had broken his bike by stripping the threads on the stem bolts and then proceeded to point the forks the wrong way. He really is senile.


Mittenwald is a small town and virtually the last one in Germany before the Austrian border. It is the start of the Alps and a traditional starting place along with Garmisch or Oberstdorf. From there we took the cycle track that follows the river up to Scharnitz about 6k long and just getting you into Austria. Turn off up a very big valley, part of the Bike Tyrol route and this years Trans Alp race towards the Karwendelhaus Hutte (1771m).



All the way up is a good jeep track and this route seems to be a popular day trip for local riders.

17k up then they have a drink and 17k back down again! Not us – we go over the top (but not in a British v Germans way). That said the whole trip is peppered with 1940’s and 1966 type innuendo – sorry! But not before a quick break in the hut, a drink and snack. The views back down the valley are stunning.

As is so often the case the map shows a more footpath type track down that proves to be very much more interesting than the track. It seems very few of the German/Austrians take these options. It was fantastic.



Still we needed to get on. The omni-present schedule said that we needed to be at the next place to keep pace (this was classed a s a half-day). Down and down again to the river which was massive and showed by the boulders strewn everywhere that there must be a big flow in spring when the snows were melting. We chatted to some old German guy who said we were crazy to go downhill that fast. We laughed. Up a short road and then on the track up to Plumjoch Hutte 1630m.

We were still in the lowlands of the Tyrol but the climbs were feeling long. It was nearly dark when we got to the hut.

The Hut sat perfectly on a col, looking every bit the Tyrolean typical hut with a few cattle, pigs and chickens hanging about. It had been tiring to get there and not heleped by the track that went up to 100m above the hut then dropped down to it. It did however get us in advance of the schedule so we were all happy to be there and to have the first day under our belts. The Hut was pretty basic with no mains electric and three dorms.

There were about 12 other people there and the hut-meister was having a night off from cooking so offered us only a plate of meat and sausages. That was fantastic. He also made us have a glass each of his specially distilled liquor. That was enough to send us all to bed!

The next day it was raining. We faffed around a long as possible with the breakfast of coffee, bread and cheese. We had to make the break at 8:30 so set off.

At first the rain was only light on the very rough vehicle track down to Gernalm where the road started.


We met there a group of about 6 Germans who were doing a TransAlp although I think they must have set off from there that day. The rain got heavier and heavier on the downhill road and we were soaked. Then Mike had a flat but luckily we found shelter to change it in. We all got involved in the traditional find the dropped-dustcap dance

It did keep us amused as Mike, ever the non-tech had picked up what he thought would guard off the break-down bad spirits. That was two 24” tubes to go in his (26”) wheels and some 10 speed quick links to go on his 9 speed bike. How on earth did he make £1million! We chain ganged along the roads and the massive river in the Innsbruck valley to the big town of Schwaz (550m). There it was lunch time so we stopped in a bar and had something to eat. By the time we came out the rain had stopped and we started the road climb up to Friedheim (890m)

and from there the climb up forest tracks to the Weiderner Hutte (1799m). It seemed an endless grind up to there and all the time we were above cloudbase (about 1200m) the rain was omnipresent. We got there to find the hut had been re-built and was now the most posh hut in all the alps, with underfloor heating, fantastic showers, the best shoe-drier, and a Bavarian Umpah band. Four of the guys had a room and Mike and I had the run of a 20 person dorm all to ourselves. The meal was good and the dinks were just enough to make the band palatable.

In the morning the rooms were still warm and the breakfast was the usual big spread of hams, cheese, bread, yoghurts etc but the bill did reflect the upgrade in facilities from the previous night. It seems the hut is a favourite for locals to drive up through the woods in summer and have a Saturday night boff-out there. We saw three other German groups there doing TransAlps (I use the word German to cover the generic terms for any of the bike groups that might be German, Austrian, Swiss etc). Outside there was ice everywhere but a clear sky.

We set off up the track to Geiseljoch at 2292m.


Mindful of course that we must beat the Germans, we must overtake and never be overtaken!



We did well. On speaking to them they were all going West from there and over to the Brenner Valley. Some were going to Garda, some to Bassano. One of the Bassano groups was a paying, led, group. Seeing these people gave me some comfort that spending many hours plotting maps, looking at GoogleEarth and surfing the web had not been totally in vain. There was still one point of worry (and more!) which was the highest point in our journey for the next day. I couldn’t find anything on the Web for anyone that had been over it on a bike. I needed to keep worrying. The downhill was great.


From 2292m to 777m The first was rough singletrack down to the road at 1500ish m. Of course most of the Germans opted for the (TyrolBike) jeep track. Not us and not one of the German groups. Of course we all know that Germans surrendered their downhill genes a long time ago but supprisingly some of this group were not bad. We re-grouped at the road head then raced down the road to get past them.

I boiled my brake fluid by going into the bends too fast but managed to get away with it (it was a bit scary though) and we left them at Tux-Vorderlanersbach as we carried on and they went West. Then down to Finken (near Mayerhoffen) and up the Ginzling Valley (777m). This was always going to be a long road climb up to the dam at 1800m. It turned out not too bad as the last third was on a toll route where cars pay 10 Euros to drive up some single carriageway tunnels and bikes just take their life in their hands.

There were traffic lights on the tunnels which meant when the green was against you then you needed to hide in the alcoves and wait for the cars to pass. The weather was blisteringly hot and the tunnels gave a good respite. At the dam there were hundreds of tourist cars, bars, a crane for bungee jumping and so on.





We had a bite in a bar and re-filled our Camelbaks. We then set off up the path to Pfitscherjoch at 2248m. I thought this would be a jeep track but far from it. It was a boulder ridden path. Ridable in some parts but not in others.

While riding over the rocks I bust a wheel.

I had some spare spokes and resolved to replace it that night. The views were stunning of glaciers and waterfalls.


Still Eventually after a combination of riding, pushing, resting, we got to the top. The border with Italy and stunning views down the Stein Valley. I relented to ride down the jeep track as I didn’t want to ‘pringle’ my wheel while the rest went straight down the footpath route.


The jeep track was never ending and swooped in the evening sunshine. The evening got warmer and warmer as I dropped into the valley. By all accounts the path down was even better.

We all dropped into Stein (1607m) and made for the big house there.


It was a house/hotel and the Frau there was dressed in traditional Tyrolean outfit of black skirt, white frilly blouse and leather laced up basque. For Adriano it was all too much. After arriving at about 7pm we ate there and asked for rooms. I tried to mend the wheel but (incorrectly) thought I needed the cassette off to change the spoke. After a small amount of hitting the cassette I gave up and thought we’d try to find a shop on the way. The food was incredibly cheap and the rooms were good. Six of us shared two double and two single beds.

In the morning again we had the daily over-facing breakfast, paid Sonja (as we now knew here) and set off.

Riding down the valley was nice. Much of the riding was on an old grass road that was now redundant.

We found out later that the Transalp race had been over here in July but they kept all the way in the valley instead of climbing over as we would do.

At Weiden (1381m) we turned off the valley and started to climb up to our high point (altitude) of Pfunderjoch.

This was the place that was worrying me as I couldn’t find anything about it on the web and the map showed it as a path. Path can mean anything from rideable to hard-to-carry. The summit would be 2568m (8430ft). The map showed a track up to some farm buildings at 2007m then path to the summit. We got up to there, a good track up through the woods.

The shade in the woods was very welcome as the day was getting ever hotter. As we came out of the trees at 2007m we spotted another group of bikes.

Imagine my relief! In fact there were two other groups of German bikes. The route up from here is an old military route.

Checking the history shows that the Austrian empire, pre 1918 came further south than this and included Riva del Garda and Cortina. In fact the area south of that was the province of Venice which was in some way independent of the main body of Italy. Still today the people in the Dolomites and Tyrol speak mainly German in preference to Italian and most of the signs are written in both languages. It was clear that the road had not been well used since – well 1945 and that although well made it was ‘missing’ in some short sections. It was however all rideable if you had the energy.

All three groups got to the summit at the same time and there was still a small patch of snow to cross at the summit.


The downhill was brilliant.


Steep in some places, faster in others, all singletrack to the drinks-bar at Weitenbergalm (1958m)

From there very fast track to Dun (1550m) in fact I looked at my computer which was showing 70 Km/h.

From there the road went down to the valley bottom at Neidervintl (755m) so we had lost more than 1800m of altitude. It was out of this world.


There we believed there was a bike shop but we were wrong. Apparently it was in the next town 5km along the main road. We spun out along that and found the shop. We borrowed the cassette tool only to find the spoke would have gone in without the cassette off! Never mind it was fixed now. The guy in the shop was very nice and helpful. It was a bike/gardening/hardware shop. He wouldn’t take any payment so I shared my jelly babies with him. We were both happy with the deal.
It was now 4pm and we needed to get on. We called at the tourist information and got them to check there was room in the Roderneckeralm Hutte (1832m). There was and we were booked in. The only thing that stood between us was 1150m of climbing and about 18Km. The guy in the tourist information said it would take us one and a half hours. I think he thought we were on motorbikes! We span very slowly up the hill, the last 150m being on a track. It took us two and a bit hours but the last 2km gave us our first views to the Dolomites proper in the evening sun.

To the back of us were the Trento Valley and the way over towards Garda. We got to the hut and was greeted by a babe in a tight t-shirt offering beers.


Oh dear what can we do with Adriano. Things just got better and better.

There was only room for 3 of us so three would need to sleep in an annex but would not be charged except for the meal. In her sublime accent she said would we like the meal. It was dumplings for starters. What was in these we said? ‘Wait a moment she said, I will go to the kitchen then come back and show you my dumplings……..’ You can imagine our response.

A fantastic meal, a great room and just six blokes drooling all evening.

The paying group of Germans we saw back before Mayerhoffen were there. We said hello to them. We scrutinised the maps, they must have done the valley instead of the big pass we did. I called my Dad, it was his birthday. He was so chuffed that I called and the conversation was like a Peter Kaye sketch – what time is it there, is it raining there……

Tuesday dawned fine and blue.

We had a good breakfast and a last look at the Hutte-girl. We rode across the high plateau.

It was cold but destined to get a lot hotter since it was only 8:00.

To get down we needed to drop down through the woods to the valley (940m) 1000m below us.

The map showed a footpath and sure enough the path was a brilliant after a long time we dropped onto a forest fire road.

Again we set off on that going downwards all the time. I saw a path going off to the side so I put the brakes on. 30 seconds earlier I saw my speedo had read 67Km/h. Then disaster. Parkin who was following me had a lapse of concentration, didn’t see me and smacked into me. He went over me and I was turned into the floor and stopped in an instant. I laid on the floor groaning and knew Parkin was laying 15m beyond me groaning too. I dare not move as I was in agony. The rest of the boys were there by then and Pete and Adriano had seen it all happen. My arm was agony and my hand was hurting. We both had our hats on and our heads had been given a good smack too. I was helped to my feet after Shaun had checked my legs. I knew my shoulder was fractured as I could feel the bones grinding. Luckily 4 out of 6 of us are first-aiders and/or rescue trained. Within 5 mins I was strapped up and started to walk to the road head. We passed numerous walkers who gave us concerned looks. Parkin, Shaun, Pete & Adriano went on while Mike accompanied me down. When the 4 got to the road head they went in a house and got the English speaking man to call an ambulance.

10 minutes after I got there the ambulance arrived with what looked like the Chuckle Brothers manning it. The boys managed to con them into putting the bike in too with me and we set off to the hospital, one ambulance with 5 bikes chasing it.

There the medical staff were good and within an hour I was x-rayed and told my TransAlp was over.

I had broken my clavicle (collar bone), scapular (shoulder) and finger. At 12 noon we called the insurers and the plan swung into action. The boys scavenged a box to put the bike in, taxi to an airport, night there waiting for a flight, flight to Gatwick the next morning and from there a 350mile car journey back home. However the boys had a schedule to keep and had missed 4 hours. I have no idea of their route description, but suffice to say they got to Bassano on time and below are a few pics they took to show what the route is like.










Since then, sat at home healing slowly. Many of you know where I live and that’s why its very hard to sit there and watch 100+ bikes per weekend ride past our door, on our bridleway, having a good time!

I’ll be back on the bike in 4 weeks,

Chris

any pics?

i'm not reading all that

Can't believe I actually read all that. I don't think you've can ever fall back on a career as a writer, that's a rather confusing account 😉

Glad you're on the mend though.

Nice post Chris.

Should be just fixed in time for winter hey? ;o)

Take it this is/was a XC trip!

Did almost the same route about 10 years ago, some of the pics are very similar, would love to do it again…
[img]http://photos-h.ak.fbcdn.net/photos-ak-sf2p/v240/81/83/593339745/n593339745_758551_720.jpg[/img][img]http://photos-f.ak.fbcdn.net/photos-ak-sf2p/v240/81/83/593339745/n593339745_758549_9573.jpg[/img]

I enjoyed that. Great pics, and I hope you are on the mend soon, mate.

King Kong – I wish I knew about you, I spent ages and ages trying to research it!

I'm already looking at next yer, probably Geneva to Nice but doing it by straddling the Fance'Italy border most of the way.

C

Lucky, lucky lucky lucky lucky man 🙂 So jealous.

If you dont mind me asking, what kinda money did it take to do something like that if you had you bike and equipment already???

I Enjoyed that. As good as anything in the mag. Top effort and get well soon!

ChrisE, I have loads of pictures and sure some of the "Refugi's", climbs and paths look the same.

There was four of us, me and three German guy's(very well organised people and between us had 5 languages which helped)

We also were self supported, ie. a minimum weight in our ruck sack, slept rough a few times as we where between villages.

We did not realise the effect of the extra weight on our backs for two weeks, "chapped arses" AHOY!!. That was the only issue we had, just bought loads of nappy rash cream from where ever. 😳 AWESOME ROUTE !!!

Hobo

you can do it very cheap indeed. We got a £10 flight plus £20 for the bikes out, about the same back, £18 train (Stuttgart to Mittenwald, book in advance on bahn.co.uk) then huts every night. Including a meal and breakfast they vary from 25/30 euros a night (for the very cheapest) to say 50/60 for a posh one. There's not much else to pay for.

C

Any snoring Frenchies or shuffling Japanese types in those huts…..? 😆

Looks awesome Chris, you need to get out less. Hope the shoulder heals soon – takes longer once you get old (apparently).

I enjoyed that. Top job.
I hope your are nicely on the mend now. I managed to break my tib and fib just below the left knee in Feb, just getting out on the bike a bit now. So its all good.

Looks SO much more fun than the organised TransAlp event (respect to those that do it though!)

Hope you heal up quickly.

Boxelder,

no snorers or shufflers in sight. Still no probs these days as I always carry ear-plugs!

Have you stopped going out now that you're officially old?

C

nice post, very jealous, well bar the injury..

another request for rough costings per person?

would love to do it……

edit – doh took me so long to read it about 10 people had posted…. cheap then blimey, it would be rude not to

Jeff,

that Transalp race doesnt look too much like fun. Pete has done it and says never again. They do similar distances to us but take 7 not 10 hours a day. Also they never stay high (as they need to get vans etc to the event centres, and bed 500 people) and never do the same passes as us as they would never do the descents.

Also the best of it is to be in the mountains for 1+ weeks and be self-relyant

C

We didnt go frugal or anything like that and I hink the guys who did the full 8 days spent 400 euros each over that period. We normally all put the money in a pot and so pay equally (whether or not you had an icecream etc!)

C

Have you stopped going out now that you're officially old?

Cheeky get

I'll wave your way while I'm racing the Three Peaks on a proper bicycle on Sunday.

Never mind waving – you better call in. Or do you want a bed etc, we have loads?

Excellent post really enjoyed reading that, looked great fun!!
Hope ya on the mend now!

nina – Member
i'm not reading all that

pisses me off when people say that. if someone's gone to the effort of writing that up for your enjoyment then the least you can do is read it or keep quiet.

Chris. nice one.

wish i was back there now after having read it and seen the pics.

you had what would be called 'pech', un-luck. hope you heal up quick!

another funny thing is the Süd Tiroleans don't say "ciao" like the germans and austrians, but stick firmly to the german "tchuss"; so groß is their dislike of the italians….

re. those asking about costs.

it can be done for very little once your flights are sorted. sleeping out in the open and shunning the huts means it can be done on a shoestring (and the money saved spent on the chairlifts).

"another funny thing is the Süd Tiroleans don't say "ciao" like the germans and austrians, but stick firmly to the german "tchuss"; so groß is their dislike of the italians…."

Pisses me off when people talk sh*te…

Its "servus" and who says sued tyroleans hate italians..

FFS

the süd tiroleans we were speaking to at the campsite. and i didnät say "hate". said dislike.

ok, servus or tchuss. servus being used for both hello and bye. tchuss just bye.

thanks Chris, I enjoyed that article, it's inspired me to be a millionaire! 😀

get well soon.

alpin – sorry for the grumpy reply!

I spent about 6 months working in Bozen / Bolzano, main interface of the Italian/German thing in sued tirol. The dislike is massively overblown by a very small minority of people with a chip on their shoulder.

Nice post. Checked out the photos and they're ace. Bookmarked for when I've got more time to read it. Cheers!

Ta for the offer – I never thought and we've booked a bunkhouse. There'd be two of us and we're not leaving here until about 7pm. I'm definately on for a visit sometime soon though if the offer stands.

I really enjoyed reading that! Looks like an enjoyable way to spend a few days without silly costs.

I'm digging the glasses on one of the chaps towards the latter photo's – havent seen anything like that since the proclaimers were "singing" ;)))

Would the STW mag be interested in taking this on as a reader-feature? but with higher quality images and a little more details as to the bikes used, kit etc? (no, not a 'what tyres for' ;))

nice one
jt

I have nearly 800 photos in total from us all at 8 and 11 Megapix. I would like to see articles on this kind of stuff in the mag as I'm sure there are hundreds of people in and from the UK doing such stuff.

C