2023-07-18 07:13:21
The e-bike makes it possible for less fit and ambitious people to experience the Alps by bike. It doesn’t have to be steep routes over high passes. Attractive cycle routes also lead through grandiose mountain valleys and promise beautiful mountain experiences. Five selected alpine valleys in the German and Austrian Alps for fascinating e-bike tours:
The Chiemgau Cycle Path: Bavaria like in a picture book
The Chiemgau cycle path is one of the most attractive routes in the ADFC cycling region Chiemsee-Chiemgau. It shows the Chiemgau Alps like something out of a Bavarian picture book. The 36-kilometer valley route is also ideal for e-bikers and connects the three well-known Upper Bavarian holiday resorts of Inzell, Ruhpolding and Reit im Winkl. The only question is: Do you get on your bike in Inzell or in Reit im Winkl? Both directions have their charms and both places are almost at the same height above the sea.
Let’s decide on Inzell as the starting point. We quickly leave the Max Eicher Arena, the most modern speed skating hall in the world, behind us and cycle uphill towards the Gletschergarten. In Ruhpolding, the cycle path winds past the golf course and along the Weißen Traun. Then we pass the Chiemgau Arena, the biathlon center of Ruhpolding.
Cyclists at Lödensee in the Bavarian municipality of Ruhpolding
Source: pa/imageBROKER/Norbert Eisele-Hein
This is followed by the three lakes area with Lödensee, Mittersee and Weitsee. This is the most beautiful section of the cycle path – an impressive scenery. The entire landscape is under nature protection. Behind the Weitsee you reach the hamlet of Seegatterl, where the cable car to the Winklmoosalm starts. The few houses are quickly passed and in the forest it goes along the Schwarzlofer torrent to the destination, the famous winter sports resort of Reit im Winkl.
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Chiemgau cycle path: From Inzell to Reit im Winkl 36 km, 490 m ascent, medium; chiemsee-chiemgau.info/chiemgau-radweg
The Loisach Valley: From the Zugspitze to the Isar
The Loisach rises at the foot of the Fern Pass in Tyrol near Biberwier. The Loisach cycle path begins in the immediate vicinity, on the idyllic Weißensee directly on the old Roman road Via Claudia Augusta. All around, the majestic rock massifs of the two-thousanders, such as Grubigstein and Wannig, rise up. To the north, the Daniel and the mighty Zugspitz massif form the horizon.
A great alpine scenery, not only for Instagram fans. Tyrol and Upper Bavaria, as you wish. And the best thing about it: there are no long climbs on the Loisach cycle path, at most a few sections along the river bank that have been washed out by the rain. First it goes through the mountain forest to Garmisch-Partenkirchen. Then the river valley widens until you reach the foothills of the Alps near Ohlstadt.
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Safety, motor, battery and Co.
A visit to the Kochelsee is worthwhile Franz Marc Museums. A few kilometers further, many cyclists like to stop in the monastery courtyard of Benediktbeuern. After a little more than a hundred kilometers through meadows, pastures and beautiful farming villages, the Loisach flows into the Isar in Wolfratshausen and the Loisach cycle path into the Isar cycle path. The ideal tour for a long weekend!
Loyalty: from Loisachquelle 114 km, 250 m elevation gain, easy; dasblaueland.de/tour/fernradweg-loisach-radweg
Hohe Tauern for beginners: from Großarl to the national park
The Grossarltal in Salzburger Land is often called the “valley of the alpine pastures”. Because more than 40 managed alpine pastures are spread across the mountain meadows high above the valley. And if you feel a little safer on an e-bike, you can also take a detour up to cow pastures and rustic wooden huts, such as the Hirschbühelalm, on some well-navigable mountain paths.
But the well-signposted valley path is attractive enough to explore the still quite unspoilt region on the northern edge of the Hohe Tauern National Park. Everywhere you see mountain farms on the steep green slopes. In addition, around 40 Marian chapels are distributed along an accompanying pilgrimage route, the “Path of Good Wishes”, in the valley. Most of the chapels were built by the peasants in gratitude for surviving diseases and wars.
Everywhere in the Grossarl Valley you can see mountain farms on the steep green slopes
Source: pa/imageBROKER/Martin Siepmann
You should not miss the small museum village at the end of the valley, where mountain farming life of yesterday and today is vividly presented. At the end of the cycle path, the idyllic Ötzlsee awaits you for refreshment or a picnic.
Großartltal: valley cycle path from Großarl to the end of the valley 35 km, there and back, 180 m ascent, easy; grossarltal.info
Along the stream: From Lech am Arlberg in the direction of the source
The water of the Formarinsee, which nestles in the rocks at an altitude of almost two thousand meters, shines in a strong turquoise. The landscape is so kitschy and idyllic that the viewers of the Austrian Broadcasting Corporation (ORF) voted the Formarinsee the most beautiful lake in Austria a few years ago.
No wonder that mountain cyclists and hikers are not all alone up here. But of course there is not nearly as much going on as in the center of Lech am Arlberg, where the tour begins. The first few kilometers upstream are extremely kind to the e-bike batteries. A narrow strip of asphalt winds gently uphill to the village of Zug. In front of the “Gasthaus Älpele” the guests usually sit in the sun. An inviting resting place.
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After that, the cyclists again enjoy the landscape cinema to the left and right of the gurgling Lech. Sometimes you pass a small mountain forest, sometimes a few alpine houses. The goal is reached at the Formarinalpe (1871 meters) just before the Formarinsee. From here it only goes up to the Freiburger Hütte, much more steeply, on a more or less smooth gravel surface. Pleasure cyclists prefer to sit on the alpine terrace and have their own alpine cheese served to them.
Upper Lech Valley: e-bike tour from Lech, 31 km there and back, 550 m ascent, easy; lechzuers.com
The Habach Valley: where the ice giants greet
In the Hohe Tauern National Park, the largest nature reserve in the Alps, the high mountains show their true size and beauty. Cyclists and hikers stop again and again to admire and photograph this archaic world: glaciated mountain giants, sky-high waterfalls, cute marmots – here called Manggeis -, rare flowers or griffon vultures circling in the sky.
This scenery can also be admired on a tour from Bramberg in the Salzach Valley up to the Habach Valley. In terms of driving technique, the route is relatively easy to complete: There are mostly good gravel roads, only a little steeper section from time to time. At the end of the Almweg, almost at the end of the valley, is the Alte Moa-Alm (1410 metres), which was built in 1771 and has been preserved in its original condition to this day.
The Habach Valley also offers an unusual change: Here you can dig for precious stones. Access is forbidden in the small emerald mine high up in the rocks in the Leckbachrinne. But since a few years ago a mudslide caused waste material to slide down into the depths, hobby diggers have been meeting at the “Alpenrose” mountain inn. From time to time it actually shimmers bright green out of the stream. A little tip: the inn next door lends you a hammer, pickaxe and sieve.
Habach Valley: E-bike tour from Bramberg 29 km there and back, 640 m ascent, medium; wildkogel-arena.at; nationalpark.at/de
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