3-Country Enduro Trails: in the MTB Paradise Reschen Pass

The water surprisingly warm surrounds my skin. My tired, heavy limbs become pleasantly light. Almost by themselves, they float towards the water surface, while I rest my head on the neck cushion. Softly, the Jacuzzi bubbles the typical melody of relaxation into my ear, as I look over the deep blue Lake Haider one more time towards the Ortler. Then I close my eyes and let my thoughts drift.
Focused enough, looked ahead enough, ridden enough. Now it's the end of the shift.

Warm. Bubble. Soft. Bubble. Light. Bubble bubble. Warm. Bub. Left. Bub. Right. Bub. Wave. Bu-ubb. Soft. Bubble. Left. Wave. Right. Bub. Double. Bub bub. Right.

It was warm there, in the moss-covered, cranberry-cloaked Swiss pine forest below the Piz-Schöneben cable car, pleasantly warm. Softly, every single curve, every wave, every small jump on the recently opened Flowtrail in the area of the 3 Countries Enduro Trails seemed to shine.
Its surface was smooth, from top to bottom free of stones, roots, debris - a rarity in the natural trail mecca at the Reschen Pass. Moreover, incredibly grippy and firm. Those curves where loose gravel could cause unwanted sliding were countable on one hand. And that means something, with a total of what felt like 7,253 changes in direction that mastermind Stefan Falkeis has planned.
All this and more - its only slight gradient, its playful course, its exemplary leveling - makes the Piz Trail easy. However, since it crosses the significantly more difficult Schöneben Trail several times, it simultaneously allows one to gradually approach larger challenges, in this case rooty and stepped obstacles, step by step and section by section.

Last year, launched as the Schöneben Flow Trail, the now 590 meters of altitude encompassing curve-fest was extended by another two to a total of seven kilometers this year and renamed Piz Trail for better distinction from the Schöneben Trail. As the only green, that is very easy classified S0 trail on the western side of the cross-border network of trails between Reschen/St. Valentin in South Tyrol and Nauders in Austria, it now enriches the - nomen est omen - enduro-heavy, technically demanding range of options.

Especially appreciated by those who require less demanding riding skills: The family with the two fully geared up 6- and 8-year-old boys. The two adult friends who are curiously trying "something like this" for the first time. The group of older e-bikers who, with their cross-bikes, are obviously in the mood for a little adventure.
But the newcomer also caters to more experienced MTB enthusiasts: to hone their cornering technique, to try their first jumps, to sprinkle something gentle and delightful among all the jolting and shaking trails, or to warm up for the regional highlights on the Via Claudia Augusta - the historical trade route that once connected the Roman Empire with what is now Augsburg.

Regarding warming up and getting started, we were less wise. Staying at the wonderful Hotel Ortlerspitz in the Italian St. Valentin, our first route naturally led straight to the local Haideralm cable car, and from its mountain station directly onto the Plattweg Trail. Unlike most 3 Länder-Trails, it doesn't plunge uncompromisingly downhill but gently descends across the western flank of Platschwerdakopf, Elferspitze, and Zwölferkopf.
The official trail description by the local tourism associations titles the narrow, 2.3 km long path of category S2 as "unforgettable". And indeed, our entrance into the trail paradise will remain vividly in my memory. The relatively secluded and scenically magnificent Plattweg is anything but flat on its surface. Rocky and spiced up with flat sections, yes, even counter climbs, it's a constant push, lift, and carry momentum to tackle the countless obstacles made of root wood and rock somewhat fluidly. And that at 2,000 m above sea level!
The heart raced, the lungs gasped, the legs burned. My lowland body groaned.

The subsequent Lower Spin Trail (1 km/107 Hm) turned out to be only slightly milder. But at least, via this connector, we gradually reached oxygen-rich altitudes again. That made the matter, which constantly switched between rootstocks and rock passages, small bog holes, and short wooden bridges, easier.
The 1.2 km long Gorf Trail eventually spat us out after another 150 vertical meters and a beautiful view of the Ortler at the lakeside cycle path of Lake Reschen. Pedaling over this nobly wide, perfectly marked track to the Schöneben valley station, we gradually shed the first overdose of adrenaline and yes, actually lactate as well.
What an opening, what an introduction to enduro biking after a fall, winter, and spring full of Lower Austrian tranquility!

Colleague Lukas has discovered the control panel of the Jacuzzi. Being a technician, he immediately starts pressing it. The bubbling becomes a bit stronger, the air bubbles pushing towards the surface get a tad larger. To the individual water droplets that reflect either the garden of the Hotel Ortlerspitz or its eponymous, still deeply snow-covered mountain giant, depending on the viewing direction, is added the soothing pressure of water jets that gently, almost imperceptibly, massage our backs.
"Funny: A bit more of everything, just like over at the Hofratstrail," it shoots through my head.
Although that's not really true. Because: There can't be more curves than on the Piz Trail - really not. But there is more slope, more tables, more uneven ground and also more views over the land.

The second, great novelty for fans of simpler trail fun winds down 5.5 kilometers from the Bergkastel station.
So now we are on the other side of the 3 Countries Enduro Trails - in a double sense: on the one hand on Tyrolean instead of Vinschgau soil as before; and on the other hand on the east instead of the west side of the Reschen Pass. There, not only at the top of the mountain in the freshly expanded Goldwasser adventure world, where an ultra-easy practice course with a conveyor belt awaits the little ones, and in the valley a recently adapted pump track, but also a brand new Bag-Jump Area right next to Billy's Lounge, where on its two differently high starting ramps and kickers with air-filled landing cushions, especially the kids practice their first tricks and jumps with joy and enthusiasm.
By the way, anyone wondering what the Swiss contribution to the 3-Countries project is, apart from the few meters of trail between the Green and Black Lakes: "We take the francs, the watches, and the precision from the Swiss," jokes tourism chief Burger, about the unique meeting of Griaß enk, Ciao and Grüezi. Nota bene: The man can say that, he's just hosting his cousin from Zurich...

The fact that there is now a beginner-friendly option with the blue-rated S1 Hofratstrail, which allows you to shuttle between the mountain and valley station of the Bergkastelbahn, is not only pleasing to those who found the route via the Stieralm plus forestry road too unrewarding or the consistently challenging Bergkastel Trail too difficult.
In times of late snowfalls, the entertaining and fun journey through pine forests, open meadows, and lingonberry groves also serves as an adequate replacement for the popular Zirm Trail, whose starting point at 2,500 m above sea level is sometimes still under meters of white at the start of the season.

Admittedly: The Hofratstrail is not as panoramic as the Hochschaubahn, which opened in 2020 and started everything in terms of "beginner-friendly" at Reschen, but it also features countless rollers, small tables, and some stone fields. It also brings variety to the action with recurring views and a small wallride, and it also offers faster riders plenty of options for doubles and further jumps.
In between, the new trail is still almost virginal slippery in places, because it is so freshly dragged through the scree and hardly worn. However, the latter will change quickly, we dare to bet on the fun factor of this latest Reschenpass acquisition...

Who doesn't know the iconic images of the famous rock nose, which stands solitary above the flat meadow hilltop, overlooking the Reschen and Haider lakes, contrasting with King Ortler? Who could resist the charms of this unique mountain landscape, surrounded by the mystical meadows of the high moor, which one conquers step by step on the flat, easy Plamort Trail, and more recently on a comfortable wooden walkway in the final part?
Who wouldn't be relieved that at least here the former wars and threat scenarios have been replaced by cultural enrichment and mutual fertilization, in the face of the brutal, spiky concrete dragon's teeth and gloomy bunker facilities of Mussolini's Vallo Alpino?
Who wouldn't marvel at the colorful crowd of mountain enthusiasts bustling around on the Plamort plateau: enduro riders armored with protectors, unsuspecting families with children, heavily laden alpine crossers, hikers of all ages, e-bikers of all kinds, trail runners, gravel bikers? Only the road cyclists, also regularly seen in the area thanks to nearby highlights like the Stelvio Pass, are absent up there.
And would anyone fail to search the 360° panorama for all the lifts and trails that the Resia Pass offers in an almost circular arrangement? Hardly likely. Not to mention that just below the rock the Bunker Trail begins – one of the first nature trails of the enduro region opened in 2015, which by now proudly boasts 30 lines and 60 kilometers; and with its varied, demanding mix of intense rock sections, hefty root passages, dry sandy soil, tight forest sections and turns, it is also one of the most characteristic.

Luki has found level 3. Bubbling and booming, fizzing and roaring, the Jacuzzi kicks off. Almost as abruptly as the 1.2 km long Bunker Trail, whose first key section lurks just moments after the start.
The foaming water and the wildly stacked boulders; the clattering chain and the polished roots; the spraying mist and the stirred-up dust. All of this suddenly somehow resembles each other. And just as relentlessly as the powerful jet pushes me towards the center of the pool, so unstoppable does it shake and jolt one down the Bunker Trail for nearly 300 vertical meters until you finally collapse exhausted onto the benches and chairs of the restaurant Mein Dörfl right by the Reschensee.

Regarding Lake Reschen: It's gone. Only temporarily, but still. Where normally turquoise-blue water provides the last bit of scenic kitsch, there is now a brown-beige ebb tide, through which an armada of excavators and dump trucks are digging like in a hopelessly oversized sandbox. Only the famous church tower of Old Graun still stands with one foot in the water that was so ruthlessly and traumatically dammed up for the former inhabitants of the village in 1950.
However, the cause is not drought and climate change. Or is it? "The road will be relocated quite a bit towards the lake," explained tourism chief Gerald Burger, "because the mountain through which the tunnel runs is collapsing." The mega-project will cost 20 million, at the end of which a bike path and a footpath will also be newly traced on what is currently lakebed. Until it's completed, the sailors will have to pause occasionally, and the kite surfers will have to scale down. But with the water level rising daily by 15 to 20 cm, Mussolini's second architectural legacy at Lake Reschen, next to the Alpine Wall, will probably be two-thirds full again by the end of the year.

Lukas has turned off and has already gone ahead to get ready for our dinner menu worthy of our tri-border region, a 5-course evening meal. After the initial salad buffet, we are expecting exquisitely tender beef carpaccio with Parmesan Espuma, crispy bread, and arugula; then homemade Maltagliati pasta with basil, pine nuts, and Stracciatella; followed by the tenderest veal steak on celery puree, Swiss chard, and marjoram jus, and ending with a sophisticated, frozen Kaiserschmarrn with cranberries, or alternatively Brugger Alm cheese with tomato chutney.
I, on the other hand, am still drifting, listening to the birdsong and winking one last time at King Ortler. It has become quiet in the outdoor whirlpool of our hotel. Quiet as on the Mutzkopf when you float upwards with one of the last rides of the local chairlift.

The old facility at the southernmost outpost of the 3 Länder Enduro Trails in Nauders seems a bit out of time with its narrowly measured entrance, raw framework, and only rudimentarily cushioned double seats. But it took us up like a bird using the lift: Effortlessly, quietly, without any effort on our part, gliding just over the treetops.
The descent over a piece of Kreuzmoos Trail (1.5 km/200 Hm), Gerry Trail (1.2 km/150 Hm), and finally the transfer to the Bergkastel-Bahn through 'd'Höll' was not quite as gentle and meditative - on the contrary. Especially the latter, on the black variant because of countless, steep, and ever-closer consecutive steps, turned out to be a true stairway to hell. A worthy finale, if one still has halfway strength and concentration!

By the way, hardly any of the original Enduro network trails have become easier in the past years; most of them are increasingly worn out.
The same goes for the S2 combo down to the Riatschhof. "I have no idea what is supposed to be red here," Lukas commented amusedly on an absurdly twisted root section, whose ideal line remained a mystery to us even after a thorough inspection. But at least: The trickiest parts of the Gerry Trail have easier detours, and generally, there is also toying with the idea of creating an easier descent option for the south side of the Mutzkopf.

At the Reschen, many ski cellars have been converted into bike garages, the sons of perhaps initially skeptical hoteliers, foresters, and hunters are at the start of the annual Enduro race, all mountain huts are also open in the summer, the former midday breaks of the lifts are history. The lift attendant, who takes the sometimes miserably heavy bicycles off the hook with impressive skill and strength at the Mutzkopf mountain station, reported about a thousand rides alone on the Saturday of the Corpus Christi weekend (of which about ¾ included bike transport).
In short: At the Reschen, modern MTB sport has finally arrived as a successful tourism model and will continue to be expanded in the future - for now, primarily in the direction of being beginner-friendly and family-friendly. Blubb.