The traditional end of the season with the Großglockner failed?

Is the traditional end of the season with the Großglockner a failure?

As almost every year at the end of the season, a good dozen bikers set out to drive up the Großglockner in Austria at the end of October. Also this year the tour should lead to the Edelweißspitze on Saturday, October 30.10.2021th, XNUMX.
This time the majority of the participants wanted to celebrate the weekend with an overnight stay in Carinthia. The Hotel Landhof Simeter in Spittal was particularly suitable for this. No sooner said than done - the outward and return journeys were planned in no time at all.
The departure from the meeting point in Weyarn in the direction of Kufstein, Fieberbrunn and Ferleiten / Mautstation took place with 16 bikes in 2 groups. The webcams on the Großglockner promised pure motorcycling pleasure in great weather early on Saturday morning!

However, this pure motorcycle joy suddenly fizzled out at noon in Fieberbrunn when the Glockner's website suddenly announced that motorcyclists and cyclists were officially blocked. A call to the toll station confirmed the closure due to strong blower winds at lofty heights. No one could say yes / promise over the phone whether it would look better for us an hour later. We wanted to know more about that and still drove to the toll station in Ferleiten.
There we learned that allegedly / apparently a two-wheeler coming out of the tunnel was pushed from the roadway into the ditch due to the strong cross winds, whereupon those responsible from the Glockner immediately blocked the same for two-wheelers.

A good tour guide always has a plan B in his pocket to get the group to their destination for the day. After all, what are the almost 100 year old mountain breakthroughs for? In this case the car loading Tauernschleuse from Böckstein in the south to Mallnitz.

Voilà - and a short time later all the motorcycles were on the train!

From Mallnitz it went on over the B106 to Winklern and over the Weißensee as a small loop via the B100 to Spittal an der Drau to the Landgasthof Simeter. There we enjoyed another fun evening after an excellent dinner.

Sunday morning, 09.00 a.m., after breakfast - all bikers ready to go! But where? The Glockner was still closed to motorcycles. A phone call only brought the knowledge that we could drive to the southern toll station in Heiligenblut on suspicion and that we would definitely not know until 10.00:XNUMX a.m. whether the Glockner would be open to us today with blue skies and sunshine.
Part of the group decided on plan C, to drive over the Nockalmstrasse and the B99 to Bischofshofen and on towards Weyarn back to Germany.

The other part of the group risked turning around at the toll station in the worst case and having to drive home via the Felberntauern route. The tension increased with every kilometer in the direction of Heiligenblut. When we saw no entry on the advance indicator for route closures on Glocknerstrasse shortly after 10.00 a.m., we were relieved, and with the purchase of the tickets, the good day suddenly promised to be an even better one!

Hardly any visitors and empty lanes on Austria's highest road gave us incomparable driving pleasure on 48 km.

Up, to the Kaiser-Franz-Josefs-Höhe and on to the Edelweißspitze through the winding curves. It was almost difficult to stop halfway for a photo.

We went home via Lofer and Kössen across the border towards Munich.

When they got home, the participants agreed that they had two wonderful motorcycle days this weekend. As always, the weekend was too short and could have been longer. The weather was wonderful, there was something for everyone in terms of culinary delights, it was also possible to sleep in (-1 hour free) and the whole thing with a motorcycle - what more could the biker's heart want? The great pictures will stay in our memories for a long time and of the Stammtisch evenings ensure that there is enough to talk about.

Tour guide's insight: Plan B / C and a good hotel increase the patience, discipline and joy in the group. Of course, you also need a bit of luck ... 😉