On a gravel bike in the Salzkammergut

A hint of arnica is in the air, along with chicory and Hellerkraut, all wrapped in the warm, spicy bouquet of fresh hay. My senses do a joyful somersault. An unmistakable memory of the warm days of my childhood returns: this is what summer smells like! Bernhard Höll responds to my theatrically deep breath with a laugh. “Yes, around here the grass is still hung up to dry, not rolled up in plastic.”

Yesterday the rustle of trees, crickets chirping and the lake sparkling. And today even little bundles of hay. I’m close to seventh heaven.

In fact our whereabouts are quite worldly, and our companion is of a rather prosaic profession – although his commitment and zeal, especially in early summer, sometimes reach otherworldly proportions. We are in the Upper Austrian Salzkammergut, more precisely: Bad Goisern, and sports organizer Bernhard Höll is acting as our guide for two days.

Bernhard Höll has initially put together three tours totaling around 140 kilometers and 3,500 meters of elevation gain. And of course the Salzkammergut Trophy course manager had even more worthwhile variants up his sleeve. "But for now it's a matter of seeing how the whole thing is received," says Bad Goisern's man for new routes and old problem areas, who, when gravel biking mainly on public paths, not only appreciates the combined possibilities of gravel and asphalt, but also the comparatively straightforward legal situation.

The outing to the Chorinsky Klause, intended as a warm-up, a taster and simply to be enjoyed, is followed by a panoramic ride along the Ewige Wand (30 km / 740 m elevation gain). The tour is actually somewhat misleadingly titled "Weißenbachtalrunde", since that name describes only the first of the two loops included — the western one (Weißenbachtal) and the eastern one (Predigtstuhl) of the Traun. But: who, faced with all that scenic splendour and atmospheric glory, is going to bother with such nominal quibbles?

We too tackled the beginner loop into the Brunntalalm and up to the Ewige Wand as the start of our gravel trip. Over the Wildpfad district we soon reached the Weißenbachwirt along a quiet side road. After the fork to the Chorinsky Klause, we worked our way up on gravel smoothed as if ironed, on a moderate incline, to the architecturally noteworthy timber-rafting installation.
The trees stood close together, the ferns grew lush, the path wound gently. Only here and there did abrupt drop‑offs hint that the seemingly rather charming Weißenbach to our right can be quite different.

When the saltworks of Bad Ischl and Hallstatt were in their heyday and the procurement of firewood for the energy‑intensive production of salt was the economic imperative of the hour, the salt barons had little use for the crystal‑clear mountain stream that, in the comparatively wide basin of the Brunntalalm, romantically branches across the meadows.
The first wooden predecessor structures for the purpose of timber rafting—i.e., the transport of felled logs by means of a water surge previously dammed up—therefore already date from the early 16th century. Between 1809 and 1819 the stone bulwark dedicated to the Moravian nobleman and President of the Court Chamber, Ignaz Carl Graf von Chorinsky, was finally built; it survives to this day, fully functional and, not least for that reason, protected as a historic monument.
Its massive blocks, precise alignments and more or less hand‑crafted details are fairly impressive. The same goes for the immediately surrounding nature, which oscillates between charming alpine meadows and wildly plunging boulders.

Together with the peacefully situated Klausstube, the trustingly fluttering butterflies and the tirelessly chirping crickets, it made for an idyll bathed in summer warmth that we could only tear ourselves away from with a heavy heart. But there was nothing to be done. In the second section of the tour another highlight was waiting for us and our gravel bikes!
So, at a brisk pace and over ground that was bumpy in places, we rode out of the valley on the upper Weißenbach side and continued rolling along the bike path beside the Traun toward Lauffen ...

By the way, at this point the river — carrying an enormous amount of meltwater — almost put a spoke in our wheel, its level already lapping threateningly over the riverbank. It still left a narrow ford, though, so we were spared the detour via the main road. But what an impressive roar and bubbling in the area of the Wilden Lauffen, the rapids of the Traun!

In the Anzenau district the four-kilometre climb to the Ewige Wand began. 400 vertical metres made the undertaking a decidedly athletic affair; reasonably good gravel, however, kept the demands within reason.
Only when entering the spectacular panoramic trail did we have to carry our bikes because of some stacked rocks. But then, the section causes headaches for most participants of the Salzkammergut Trophy even when riding it downhill on a mountain bike. So why should we be able to conquer it uphill on a road bike?

The hiking trail cut right through the soaring rock walls of the Predigstuhl is truly no novelty for Bikeboard readers. An early testament (built 1954–1956) to tourism foresight, it opens up a fantastic view over the Goiserer basin and Lake Hallstatt as far as the Krippenstein, which we honour every year in words and pictures as part of the Salzkammergut Trophy.
And yet this "shared trail", which is used not only by hikers and mountain bikers but also climbers, e-bikers, school classes on outings and many other recreation-seekers, repeatedly holds surprises. This time they were our own impressions:
Who would have thought that the narrow strip would seem even narrower when ridden with skinny tyres? Who would have believed that a wire-rope railing would look even more delicate when a road bike leans against it? Why were the tunnels so dark this time, and the following Sagenweg so rough? Can a few centimetres of suspension travel and tyre width, a few degrees of angle deviation and a change in seating position really make such perceptual differences?

From the Rathluck'n hut we had asphalt under our wheels again and a descent with views of the lake and snow as well as fast curves ahead of us — ideal road-bike terrain. By the time we reached Goisern the intense sensations from the lofty heights had been digested. Time and room for coffee, ice-cream sundaes and cake at Konditorei Maislinger!

Food, above all. As is well known, it, like drink, holds body and soul together. And who could care more about physical and mental well‑being than physically active people, who, because of the countless sensory impressions raining down on them, are also quite mentally taxed?
So much for the justification of our gastronomic indulgences in inns, cafés, specialty restaurants and bakeries (see dining tips).

The next freshly mown meadow — fortune is really smiling on me today. This time the hay isn’t hung up but lies carefully spread out across the entire meadow.
By now we’ve crossed the state border and have the Loser with its distinctive, fortress-like limestone summit directly in front of us. Since Oberlupitsch, where the dense forests and the bubbling waters of the Leisling spat us out, the Styrian Salzkammergut lies before us like a painting: to the left and right the foothills of Sandling and Sarstein, which gently slope down toward Altaussee and Bad Aussee. Behind them, with Trisselwand and Ahornkogel, the nearest representatives of the Totes Gebirge, and opposite Zinken and Rötelstein wave their greetings. Between them, time and again small wooded knolls rise out of the lush green of the valley floor: Tressenstein, Gallhofkogel, Rauherkogel ... And that glittering out there, could that be the Grundlsee?

The loop around the Sarstein, our tour today of 44 kilometers and 875 meters of ascent, is an exceptionally broadly accessible and varied circuit through the inner Salzkammergut, which, so to speak, begins and ends on the Agathawirt’s doorstep. First you tackle the flattest possible crossing from Goisern to Aussee: the wildly romantic, pleasantly shady forest road along the Großer Zlambach over the Leisling, just below the imposing Pötschen cliffs. Then follows a rolling ride on wonderfully quiet, leisurely side roads: via Hinterlupitsch and Lichtersberg you slip into wood-adorned, flower-clad Altaussee and then, once you reach the Traun riverbank, follow the no less tranquil R19 via Obertressen to Bad Aussee.

A Nusskipferl at Kurcafé Lewandofsky is perfectly acceptable before you leave the fashionable centre of the Ausseerland and cross the relatively recently refurbished Koppenpass — first awfully steep uphill, then pleasantly flat, and finally increasingly downhill to the Koppentraun and back into Upper Austria.
Here the Salzkammergut cycle path changes its designation from R19 to R2, and the surface from asphalt back to crushed stone. In the narrow valley, hollowed out by the crystal-clear water over millions of years, isolated last tongues of snow still lick the ground. How much force really lay behind last winter’s extraordinary amounts of precipitation is demonstrated to us shortly afterwards by the Koppenbrüller Cave: the karst spring at the entrance, which sometimes yields scarcely a drop, now bellows and foams out such incredible volumes of water that it buries the footpath that provides access to the show cave beneath it.

What would follow next would be the — also on the A, B and C routes of the Salzkammergut Trophy — famously notorious climb up to the Roßalm, including the unpleasantly coarse gravel and the hideously steep final kilometers. Then the fast, flowing forest-road descent to the Gosausee with two counter-climbs and a dream panorama of the Dachstein and the Gosaukamm; as well as the concluding finale through "d'Gosing" — Hintertal, Mittertal, Vordertal — and the Gosauzwang with a final sprint along the west shore.
However, we already ran into the considerable remnants of the past winter at the Durchgangalm. "There's no getting through," Bernhard had already reported early in the morning, which is why we promptly turn back at the Waldbachstrub and invest the time gained in a stopover at the Koppenrast.

"Gravel and Goisern, does that fit together for you?" the route designer wants to know from us after two and a half days of off-road riding in the UNESCO World Heritage region. Our answer: For sporty types, yes. Anyone who gets the translation wrong or generally can't do anything with longer climbs will, even with the most careful route choice, repeatedly have to stop in the Salzkammergut. For everyone else, the gravel bike offers the chance to rediscover the unique landscape on side roads, bike paths and gravel tracks, in part completely anew ...