Grossglockner High Alpine Road

The Grossglockner High Alpine Road climbs in dizzying hairpins to nearly two and a half thousand metres in the High Tauern National Park, leading to the foot of the Grossglockner, Austria's highest mountain, and the Pasterze glacier below it. One of the most spectacular mountain roads in the Alps, it is open only from late spring to autumn.

History

When Austrian engineers proposed a road over the Hochtor in 1924 they were laughed at, but after the crash of 1929, with a quarter of output lost and unemployment at 26 per cent, the government revived the plan to give work to 3,200 people, widening it to six metres for the international traffic it hoped to draw. The first blasting was at Ferleiten at 9:30 am on 30 August 1930, four years later the Salzburg governor Franz Rehrl and the engineer Franz Wallack made the first crossing in a Steyr 100 car, and the road opened on 3 August 1935 with an international car and motorcycle race the next day; planners had expected 120,000 visitors a year, and in 1938 it drew 375,000 (Wikipedia, Grossglockner High Alpine Road).

The landscape

• The hairpin road - the dramatic switchbacks climbing the high pass.
• Kaiser-Franz-Josefs-Hohe - the viewpoint facing the Grossglockner and Pasterze glacier.
• The high alpine world - the marmots, ibex and wildflowers of the passes.
• The glacier - the shrinking Pasterze glacier below the peak.

When to go

The open season from late May to October, the only time the road is clear of snow; even then weather at altitude is changeable. Clear days give the best glacier and peak views.

Good to know

The road is a toll road, closed by snow much of the year, and can be busy with cars, coaches and motorcycles in summer. Weather can shroud the peaks even in season. The glacier has retreated dramatically, so it is smaller than in old photos.

Nearby

Zell am See and Kaprun are to the north; Heiligenblut and Carinthia lie to the south.

Key facts