Grossglocknerstrasse

[armstrongpiper]

Thinking of a trip to Venice in September and looking at different routes and trips in Austria, and wondered if anyone has taken their M/H over this high altitude route. Any comments on road widths, surfaces, gradients etc please.

 

 

Neil B

[Guest peter]

Been there in my wifes cousins minibus, with him driving as he's a native. But that was bfore the new "High Alpine Road" was opened in May this year. Have a look at this link and decide if you want to pay the toll for the fantastic views and parking places. http://www.grossglockner.at/en/

[RupertGS]

I did the  pass three years ago from south to north and it wasn't a problem. It's vital though that, when descending, you stop a few times, put the kettle on and have a twenty minute break so that the brakes can cool down. There are so many hairpins that the brakes overheat very quickly.

[alan k]

Went up to the view point and back from Zell a few years ago in a Sprinetr PVC (La Strada Regent L), the road is better than many mountain passes, width etc. But yes you do have to think about caring for the brakes on the way down and by the end of the day I was fairly tired of all the wheel twiddling and gear changing. My memory says the road is no steeper and less tighter bends than many alpine passes.

 

But I did frighten some bikers in one of the car parks, I was reverse parking into a space and of course their bikes weren't in a space but were narrowing the road. I missed them by a good foot or so!

 

alan

[spospe]

We did it 4 years ago in a non-turbocharged Autosleeper Duetto without any problem at all. The road up to the Edelweissspitze, off the main road, is a little more challenging as it has 6 or 7 tight, steep hairpins and in our somewhat underpowered Duetto, we would have had problems re-starting if we had been forced to stop. There is limited parking at the top, but the experience was a good one: see http://www.edelweissspitze.at/

for more details.

[mirage]

Really nice trip up and quite a good visitors centre at the glacier if you continue through to Lienz and wish to return to the north the tunnel is a good way but another toll. Road is not the steepest we have been up by any means and plenty of width. I can confirm that Motorhome brakes don`t greatly like steep downhills, on the way down into Innsbruck I was a admiring the size of the escape roads when my other half kept saying whats that smell, not us I confidently replied, eventually after more insistent prodding I saw smoke pouring from the rear wheels in the mirror. Fortunately a layby appeared and we were able to stop. That was a few years ago but even relatively mild descents I take it slow in a very low gear.

[dwaviation]

I landed on the top of the Grossglockner in an Austrian Air Force Huey in the early 90s B-) B-) Jumped out to take a quick piccie and sank up to my shoulders in snow 8-) The Colonel I was with promptly took off and left me to my own devices for twenty minutes - cheers mate :-D

 

Can't help with the original question though I'm afraid :-D

[mom]

We drove through last week.  First gear up the hills, first gear down, but worth every single mile!!

[pomme]

An absolutely fabulous experience. We went over south to north this summer in our Cheyenne 696G, although I've previously cycled over it twice. The views are superb and dramatic, but do take seriously the advice about letting the brakes cool down, particularly if you've a largeish 'van.

 

Pomme