Biking up to the Seiser Alm

Published on 2007-6-12 by Michael Stanton

Bike to Seiser Alm

June 12, 2007

This afternoon at 1:20 pm I rode one of the hotel's bikes up to the Seiser Alm. Wow, I never thought I could ride up such a steep road for so long. Maybe it just has a super-low gear, which I certainly used!

I had to walk the bike for some steep stretches of road up to the little town of Pufels (Bulla in Italian). But from there I cranked up in the lowest gear, getting better and better views of meadows, trees and raging river. Every bend of the road where I didn't have to get off and walk was a notch in my belt, because I'm a notoriously lazy biker going uphill.

After about 1 hour, I was in the Seiser Alm, though it took another 10 minutes to reach the road to Compatsch where it meets the road to Monte Piz, which I came up. Earlier in the day the whole family and I took the lift up to Mezdi, and took a horse and carriage ride to somewhere in the middle of the Alm. The driver told us that 160 people live up there year round, including him, and he lives in Compatsch. Farmers come to live here in the summer, and there are a bundle of holiday cabins you can rent. We should do that next year!

I rode quickly to Compatsch, awash in construction, and took the road up to a restaurant called Panorama. This was more low-gear uphill cranking, but I felt more confident after the crucible trip up from the valley. At the restaurant I went in and ordered a Spetzi to go in my nice metal flask. People were playing soccer and volleyball, and a metal band was getting ready to play inside. It seemed like a real fun gathering of Italian high-school kids and a few parents.

I've ignored the scenery so far, but it was amazing! This really massive steep mountain called Schlern loomed to the west. I have to climb one of those faces! Plus it was swaddled in clouds, with some towers seemingly isolated from the rest of the mountain. The sky above it was black, and the black clouds enveloped the more gentle high ridge sweeping back southeast.

The Langkofel and friends were alternately buried in cloud and sometimes pierced by rays of sun that turned the cliffs gold. If possible, the sky was even blacker in that direction, and sheets of rain were pouring over Wolkenstein further up the Groedner Valley. The climb of the Langkofel in 2002 with Mat is such a great memory. It opened so many doors to simul-climbing and other creative techniques. I'm really proud of that climb, and the mountain is even more beautiful to look at than ever.

From Panorama I sped down the road, then cranked back up on a long trip to the Mahlknecht Hut. There was a lot more climbing than I expected. Some people were impressed with my journey, saying "Gute Fahrt!"

From the hut, it was a long and speedy descent to Saltria, then another speedy leg down the Saltria valley (Jendertal in German). Whee! I saw some beautiful scenes of yellow flowers with sun rays, more black skies over the mountains, and lovely meadows.

What a fun trip it had been! And it was (gasp!) all on a bike!