(Heiligenblut am Großglockner) He came 20 years ago on the legendary Grossglockner Alpine Road, with a view of Austria’s highest peak. Back home, Herbert Högl is appalled by the impact of climate change on the grandiose landscapes.
Like him, nearly a million visitors, by car, motorbike or bicycle, criss-cross this 48 km route punctuated by 36 bends each year, from the beginning of May to the end of October.
The highlight of this spectacular route, the Pasterze, the longest glacier in Central Europe, “has retreated 100 to 150 meters today”, notes the 58-year-old computer scientist from Upper Austria.
“At the time, you could reach it directly by elevator,” he sighs.
Jürgen Neumann, a retiree from Bavaria (Germany), makes the same observation. “It is inconceivable that he has lost so much ground! “, he launches.
Below, the ice has given way to a bluish lake, witness to the record melting of alpine glaciers observed by scientists.
Accustomed to the place, Mr. Neumann, 67, evokes “the efforts made” in the first years of his visits to “plow snow in the spring”, as explained by signs along the road.
It was then necessary to employ 350 men for 70 days. Now the snow is no longer an obstacle.
Symbol of prestige
Among the main tourist attractions in Austria, this road built at the foot of the Grossglockner (3798 meters above sea level) is made up of a series of switchbacks, soft windings overlooking ravines, cirques, small wooded gorges and waterfalls .
Over the years, forest ranger Heike Renger has also “noticed the difference”.
“The solar radiation is more intense, the precipitation in the form of less snow,” she says. The thermometer sometimes exceeded 20°C at the end of the day last year, despite the high altitude.
Used for centuries by Romans and Celts for trade, the trail was transformed as part of a massive construction project from 1930 to 1935.
“It was to be a symbol of the status of Austria”, eager to restore its image after the fall of the Habsburg Empire in 1918, explains the guide.
Intended to connect the village of Heiligenblut in the south to that of Fusch in the north, the site was a technical feat. Its designer, the civil engineer Franz Wallack, who later compromised with the Nazis, made it one of the first major modern mountain roads studied for the automobile.
It was also an opportunity to employ more than 3,000 urban unemployed, only too happy to escape the economic crisis.
test track
Nearly a century later, tourists are delighted to be able to access a high mountain site that they could not reach with the strength of the calf alone.
They can discover there “a hundred species of plants per square meter”, enthuses Heike Renger, also evoking marmots, ibexes or bearded vultures, rare and well-brooded vultures.
For the preservation of the site, which belongs to the Hohe Tauern National Park, the authorities have limited speed and they encourage electric cars – which benefit from a reduced rate, compared to the 40 euros paid by conventional vehicles – as well as the use of the bicycle.
But Route 107 is intimately linked to motorsport: the Porsche family came to spend their holidays there and it still serves as a test track for many prestigious brands, as a current exhibition reminds us.