Molltaler Gletscher Strasse

Woke up early and drove to Austria near Grossglockner.  The weather was much cloudier than expected and cold.  I did a quick warm up around Ausserfragrant on Maxxima and headed up the road.  Like the guide book said, this is a killer.  To complicate matters my meticulously prepared gatorade bottles were all sitting in a bag in the car: I had forgotten to load them on the bike and backpack.  I thought about turning around and aborting but the actual climbing was going quite well.  I decided to continue and turn back if I felt thirsty.

As it turned out it wasn't a problem.  I continued up several dozen switchbacks in the cold damp air.  Finally after the dam at Wurten Speicher I decided to try a couple more switchbacks (which as luck would have it were each about a kilometer long) and then called it quits.  The rain was increasing and I was worried about hypothermia so I turned back.  The climb continues another 6 km, topping out 500 meters higher at 2365 meters.  I'll try it again in better weather. 

Sorry about the drizzly foto.  Next time I'll get more waterfalls.

Hard climb