E-Biking in and around Ischgl

Ischgl, of course. Everyone knows it. Alpine mass tourism, après-ski parties, gigantism on the mountain and in the valley.
Sitting at the modest beer table in front of the weather-beaten wooden shingle facade of the Niederelbe hut, we can't help but grin.

The snippets of conversation from the few other guests around the corner sound subdued, occasionally cutlery clatters or the stairs to the vestibule creak under the steps of the hut team. Otherwise, only the wooden material basket of the aging material cable car swings quietly squeaking in the wind. Above us, some bird of prey circles. In front of and behind us lies the high alpine, untouched expanse of the Paznaun: Samnaun, Silvretta, Verwall.
Time to reconsider the prejudices. Or at least to add other facets to them.

This actually started with the check-in process. What we initially dismissed as a "humble 4-star" in the breathtaking crescendo of high-caliber and highest-caliber hospitality soon turned out to be a family-run stroke of luck.
The Hotel Ischgl does not exaggerate when it promotes its location right at the entrance of the village, a ten-minute walk away from the densely stacked luxury beds of the former mountain farming village, as the best in the Paznaun: The rooms overlook a huge, flat flower meadow, behind which the Trisanna river flows hastily. "And this meadow will stay," as well as the most hours of sunshine in the valley, "because it belongs to my brother, the farmer next door," knows managing director Philipp Zangerl for sure.
Moreover, the establishment has long committed itself to regionalism and sustainability, long before it became fashionable, and thanks to pastry chef Sabine Baurecht, it not only serves up sweet masterpieces as the crowning touch of the finest dinner menus. Almost in passing, it also offers the pleasingly colorful, educational art of the landlord himself and, in addition, raises the topic of bike washing and maintenance to a new level through a state-of-the-art easypower Bike Service Station ... we like!

With the proclamation of our first tour destination, the expansion of the horizon continued because: Heilbronner Hütte, Verbellner Winterjöchl, Transalp - does that ring a bell?
Since the dawn of the Alpencross, the picturesque crossing from Paznaun to St. Anton am Arlberg or into Montafon has been one of the highlights of a mountain biker's touring life. At 2,320 m above sea level, it's high but by no means as exposed as, for example, the Idjoch, and with the surrounding three-thousanders of the Verwall range, most notably the striking Patteriol, as well as the Scheidsee, it is truly lovely to look at. The shelter of the German Alpine Club with its 134 beds has early on made its way into the bucket lists of elevation-loving off-road cyclists.

They arrived sweaty, heavily laden, and primarily around noon, as hut landlady Olivia Immler recalls.
Today, e-bikes greatly facilitate the task and keep the stream of visitors constant from early until late, because: "It goes quickly," the young leaseholder describes the new era with a smile.
The motors also relieve us to a large extent from the arduous conquering of the brutal steep ramps at the end. We too replace muscle power and endurance at the push of a button with Newton meters and watt-hours. And yet we arrive at the top with the deep conviction that we have really earned something good from the kitchen of our tour destination. From a certain altitude, in a particular environment, and with the seductive scent of delicious sweet dishes in our noses, carried in waves over the pass and the lake, the touring biker's brain seems to be somehow conditioned in this regard.

But wait, we are not that far yet. First, we have to cycle out of Ischgl towards the southwest to Galtür, "over the top," as our guide Christian Pfeifer from Rock your Bike describes it, that is, over Mathon, instead of down in the valley as accustomed from the Ischgl Ironbike.
Mathon is mostly located on the sunny side on the north bank of the Trisanna and is not only for this reason a kind of counterpoint to the world-famous neighboring village. Hardly less touristy than Ischgl, it is where guests seeking peace and quiet, families, prefer to stay. Halfway between the Tyrolean ski mecca and the border to Vorarlberg, what geomorphologists call a valley widening begins in the village of 300 souls. Or in Christian's words: "In Ischgl, the valley floor forms a V, in Galtür then a U."

With a steady gaze on the bold mountain figures of Gorfenspitze and Ballunspitze, we pedal past the Galtür gentian cultivation, whose purpose is the exclusive production of schnapps, continuing towards the valley end and Zeinisjoch, where the European Continental Divide, that is, between the Rhine and Danube, lies.
If it were up to the plans of the TVB Paznaun-Ischgl, by 2023 the new Trailpark Galtür would already be enriching the MTB offerings. Nine lines with a total length of almost 15 kilometers are projected in the Silvapark ski area, and they have been approved from a nature conservation perspective. However, the State Environmental Advocacy filed a complaint, which is why no excavators have been deployed yet, and we keep pedaling without the corresponding stop to the "Vorbecken Zeinis" including its nice campground and finally the Kops reservoir.

As soon as the initial switchbacks into the Verbellatal are conquered, the steep asphalt road, which later turns into gravel, levels out, and there is ample time to enjoy the scenery.
This high valley is definitely the quieter, lift-free side of Ischgl, which is actually already Vorarlberg. Here live the marmots and the cows, the flowers bloom and the stream babbles. Except just behind the Verbellaalpe. There, the water makes its way in a wild, almost gorge-like constriction over a good 100 meters in elevation so rapidly rushing that one might worry about the stone walls of the idyllic hut, if it hadn't stood there for so long.
The higher we get, the more peaks emerge, and behind us, the dramatic zig-zag of the Silvretta High Alpine Road pushes into the picture. Less than 24 hours earlier, hundreds of marathonists conquered it as part of the Arlberg Giro to cross the Bielerhöhe ...

Our tour destination is even a good 300 meters higher than the pass height at the Silvretta Reservoir, and in any case more tranquil. Woolly white cottongrass trembles incessantly in the wind, peak after peak and cloud after cloud is reflected in the surface of the Scheidseen, surrounded by high alpine grassland. Towering over their southern shore stands the majestic Neue Heilbronner Hütte, as if it were personally guarding this corner of the vast European protected area Verwall.
Olivia Immlich tells us that she has been the hut tenant since 2019, after her parents had run the 1928 inaugurated replacement for the Alte Heilbronner Hütte, lost in World War I, at the South Tyrolean Taschenjöchl for 42 years. "I grew up here and spent a wonderful childhood up here, with my own ski lift and a lift attendant as my godfather," she recounts.
Meanwhile, the winter operation at the Heilbronner Hütte has been discontinued, but the summer operation is buzzing all the more. No wonder: a sun terrace meets a dream panorama, and a strategically varied location meets easy accessibility, good cuisine, and summit bliss.

With a few concessions in terms of charm, all of this also applies to the hut at the very back of the Jamtal at an altitude of 2,165 meters. This elongated side valley of the Paznaun branches off to the south at Galtür. And since our E-bikes alone have not fully exhausted us yet, we decide on the spur of the moment to also pay a visit to the Jamtalhütte.
Certainly not without first paying homage to a true masterpiece of statics. As we look down the mighty, double-curved dam walls of the Kops reservoir, we suddenly remember the saber-toothed squirrel from Ice Age: Would this bulwark hold if Scrat were to bury his acorn here? The idea of a crack in this masonry is creepy. Better to quickly focus again on the surrounding mountain beauties and direct our pedaling towards Jamtal!

This valley stretches about 13 kilometers into the Silvretta Group. Initially, in the area of Scheibenalpe, Mentaalpe & Co., it is extremely charming and relatively wide, but towards the end, it becomes increasingly rugged and narrow, until there is barely enough space left for the Jamtalhütte - after all, one of the largest and most modern Alpine Club huts, as the DAV, which maintains a training center here, proudly claims.
Behind the historic hut, also known as a station on the culinary Jacob's Way, the Jamtalferner glacier licks over the stone flanks of Ochsenkopf and Jamspitze - or what is left of it. It's hard to believe that, until not so long ago, there were plans to develop the glacier for skiing with lift facilities from here!
Dark clouds from the west drive us out of this primordial summer residence for cows, horses, geese, and more, quicker than we would have liked. However, via the Paznaun cycle path, we escape the threatening raindrops downstream just as quickly and comfortably, and arrive with dry heads at our 4-course evening meal.