Pasterze

Elevation: 500m / Lenght: 9km / Time: 4h
Visit rate: 5/5 / Rating: 5/5

Austria's most famous glacier, the Pasterze, or rather what's left of it. Seeing it diminish really significantly over the course of a few decades with my own eyes is quite frightening, so go there as soon as you can while there's still something to see.

After driving through the Grossglockner Hochalpenstrasse, David and I arrived at the glacier and headed straight for the Elschberg peak (2664m). Those with time and enough energy in their legs can walk up to Oberwalderhutte and beyond. Unfortunately we didn't have the time, but we definitely got some amazing photos and experience. Just be warned, after you reach the last viewpoint on the tunnel trail, the hiking trail may be closed (47.0822025N, 12.7457019E), but according to the signs it looks like the closure is mainly for safety reasons for tourists, experienced hikers and climbers walk around as if there is no closure.

While enjoying the view from the top we noticed that we could see several black moving dots (people) right next to the glacier, I immediately got the idea that we had to go there too, David wasn't exactly thrilled because he knew we had about 3 hours of walking ahead of us and probably wouldn't make the last "cable car" back to the parking lot, he was right.

There is no trail leading directly to the glacier, and the "road" to it is quite dangerous. There was no direct ban anywhere visible, but I don't recommend anyone to go there, several tons of ice broke off almost before our eyes until the ground thundered, it's really not safe at all! However, I understand that many of you will have the urge to go there, as we did, so please be careful. If you ever want to see a glacier up close and want to understand what global warming means, then this is the perfect place and I recommend it to everyone.

More about the Grossglockner Hochalpenstrasse in the article:

https://www.trailtherapy.cz/l/en/austria/austria-hikes/grosglockner-hochalpenstrase/

The QR code will link you to my route in app Mapy.cz (better than Google maps).