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The Crossing of the Tennengebirge on one wheel

You can either read the hole story or you are lazy and just watch the picture.

The Tennengebirge – a mountain range in Salzburg, Austria – always had a special appeal to me. But due to my non-hiking ability I just enjoyed it from the valley. But things started to change in 2003, when I started to mountain
unicycle (MUni). During the summer of 2004 the idea stroke my head to try a Tennengebirgs-crossing with the Muni. People told me that I can’t ride there and that I’m crazy – which pushed me even more to do it. But the summer passed by and I didn’t try it. This year Babsi and I definitly wanted to do the crossing, but the summer was marked by rain and even more rain. Eventually I got a little bit grumbly, because I thought that I couldn’t do it this year …

But then autum turned out to be perfect and on Friday, the 14th I checked the sleeping opportunity and Michi agreed to drive us to Werfenweng – the starting point of our tour (961m). We shouldered our backpacks at 8:00 and ascended the mountain. After one hour we got to the Hackl-Hütte, where we met the first – astonished – people. We heard questions like „What do you do with a unicycle on a mountain?“ but the people where all really positivly interested and they even gave us some hints for beautiful photo options.

Our uphill continued, with a short breakfast break, up to the Tauernscharte. There, at 2108m, it was time to get dressed for riding. I took the shin protectors, closed the helmet and slipped in my gloves – and started some high alpine municycling. The plateau of the mountain range turned out to be quite challenging, but I found some really cool lines. The tour via the Schubbühel to the highest point of the tour, the Bleikogel, was marked by carrying, pushing and riding my municycle.

But I was just happy – my dream of crossing the Tennengebirge had became a reality! Sometimes I even had to encourage Babsi, because she didn’t have the rush of good vibes I had – I was stocked for the hole day!

After the cool riding (and the carrying…) at the plateau we arrived at the Bleikogel in 2411m and I tought that it was time for a downhill to the Laufner Hütte, our sleeping point. Everthing started good – the loose rocks turned out to be rideable and I was really looking forward to the downhill. But then we arrived in the Fritzerkessel and the path wasn’t a path anymore. We had to scramble from one rock to the other – no way of municycling. Exhausted but happy we arrived at the Laufener Hütte where we enjoyed a super delicious Radler (a mixture of beer and lemonade) in the last sun rays. Slowly the sun set and we prepared our dinner – marrocan style couscous. After some time, we hopped in our sleeping bags and enjoyed the sleep.

The next day started rather cold – temperatues just a little bit above zero and frost outside. Around 9:00, after 2 pots of hot tea, we started our descend to Abtenau. The path was partly rideable – partly not … But again I was justed stoked from the landscape and the short opportunities of riding. Finally we came to the forest where treetrunks waited for some serious trials. I used my remaining power to clear some cool lines until we reached Abtenau at 12:00.

After a rest with filled pancakes we tried to get a lift back home. But somehow the people either had no place left in the car or they justed looked away …. we had a lot of fun with the cars passing by but finally we had to take the bus to
get back home.

Overall – was it worth the trip?
Yeah – definitly. I had the chance to see this astonishing landscape, ride on really challenging terrain, meet only nice people and just enjoy two perfect days with my girlfriend Babsi. And additionally I know that multiday trips are easily possible with the municycle – we already started to think about a similar tour in the dolomites in southern tyrol ….

Werner

Wer ich bin? Na Werner eben und wer mich kennt der kennt mich. Sonst schaut euch einfach am Blog um und ihr werdet sehen was mich so interessiert....