Blauberge. Still sounds like blueberry to me. The first pictures you can remember from your childhood as an adult are from the age of five or six. You don't usually look back any further than that. That's not me saying that, but people who deal with the human brain professionally. So I must have been a schoolboy when I had to go to the Blauberge mountains from Munich with my parents. For hiking. Phew! I don't remember any peaks or lakes. Just a handful of blueberries. And a mountain hut.
The tour around the Guffert is one of the tour classics. Its 2194 metre high peak can even be seen from Munich.
E-bike tour: Stage 1 - from the Achensee to the Gufferthütte
Since then, a lot of water has splashed into the Achensee. 45 years after my first ascent of the "Blaubeeralm" aka Blaubergalm, I am here again. With my friends Appi and Leoni. And as befits the third millennium, not on foot, but on an e-mountainbike.
"The area around Lake Achensee is literally crying out for an e-bike," says Appi, whose real name is Markus. He should know, because as a bike guide (and Innsbruck resident) he knows the Tyrolean top and flop spots better than anyone else. He was also the one who suggested a weekend tour to the Blauberge mountains. Shortly before the hut season closes, at the beginning of October. In the best of times. And I immediately had my déjà vu: blueberry hands in 1976!
The great thing about the Blaubergen is that they are much quieter than their well-known, overcrowded neighbour on the other side of Lake Achensee, the Karwendel. Especially now in autumn. "Most bikers are drawn towards the Plumsjochhütte or Lamsenjoch," says the local. "If you want some peace and quiet, head in the other direction!"
So from the "Tyrolean Fjord" up into the gentle Blauberge mountains. They form a natural barrier between Bavaria and Tyrol. But they are admittedly far less spectacular than the rock faces in the Karwendel. But that doesn't matter! On the contrary.
The three of us want to spend a deeply relaxing e-bike weekend at the end of the season. Without a slalom of hikers and waiting times at the charging stations, but with alpine cruising, chatting, feasting and enjoying the peace and quiet. Our overnight hut fits seamlessly into Appi's masterplan: the Gufferthütte. The most beautiful (and only) Alpine Club hut in the Blaubergen. But more about that later.
MTB classic: the Guffertrunde
We start in Achenkirch. But first: where to park? My mate Appi doesn't hesitate for long, plays the local trump card and asks the lady at the Spar checkout in the deepest Tyrolean Aboriginal slang whether we can leave our car in the car park overnight. We can.
So we quickly pack our overnight gear, don't forget our sleeping bag and battery charger - and off we roll towards Achenwald. On this Friday afternoon at the beginning of October, the warm foehn wind blows all the stress of everyday life over the waves of Lake Achensee and down into the Inn Valley. We take the other direction. Blauberge, here we come!
The best thing about e-MTBs is that you can still ratchet uphill. So I don't even notice how quickly we fly up the 600 metres in altitude through the golden autumn forest to the Blaubergalm.
The landlady greets us warmly - and with an interesting slang. "Dutch, not Dutch," she corrects me and laughs. The hut is bursting with knick-knacks and odds and ends. I buy a pair of chimney pots hanging above the tiled stove. You never know what a day of touring will bring.
After this refreshment stop, it's time for the final spurt to the Gufferthütte. I'm curious to see how many mountain bikers we'll meet at the hut. After all, the Guffertrunde is one of the absolute classics.
Kathi and her team take great care to serve healthy food. The ingredients come from Lake Achensee. I like that.
Once at the top, the surprise: we are the only ones! Despite Friday after work, a perfect mountain road, a battery-friendly incline and ideal mild autumn weather. Well, all the more relaxed! Leoni takes three deckchairs on the large south-facing terrace and we enjoy life.
The Gufferthütte has inherited its name from the Guffertspitze, which, at 2195 metres above sea level, blocks our view of the Rofan mountains. Meanwhile, the sun is already hanging low over the jagged Karwendel horizon. Time for dinner! What is immediately noticeable: the pragmatic wind of the sixties is blowing through the Gufferthütte. Burnt down in 1957, it then had to be completely rebuilt. But hut landlady Kathleen Beutmann and her team put their heart and soul into creating a mountain home for one night where you immediately feel at home.
The dining room is clearly laid out, the dinner is exceptionally fine. No run-of-the-mill hut monotony. You can taste that the food here is cooked with heart and high-quality ingredients. And when the hut is far from the beaten track, it is all the more honourable to rely on regional suppliers. Just like Kathi. As a bedtime treat, we indulge in a glass of Swiss stone pine schnapps from a distillery in Maurach am Achensee. And at ten sharp: lights out! Just as it should be in an AV hut. After all, tomorrow's stage will be significantly longer and more strenuous than today.
E-MTB tour Achensee: Stage 2 - via Kaiserhaus and Kögljoch to Lake Achensee
New day, new touring luck! Unlike yesterday evening, it's quite chilly at nine in the morning. So it's a long, long hike, because we're going downhill at a brisk pace first before we purr up through the north forest to the summit of the Abendstein. One hour - and 800 metres down - later, Leoni, Appi and I swing down to the Kaiserhaus. I have to charge my battery at the managed forester's lodge. That's what happens when you don't have the key for the battery compartment with you. And the bikes unfortunately have to stay outside at the Gufferthütte.
An hour and a few coffees later, I'm back in the game. And I can carry on. If you head straight downhill from the tiny hamlet of Pinegg, you'll soon find yourself in the Inn Valley. But we want to head towards the Rofan mountains, to the mountaineering village of Steinberg. A wide but extremely rewarding track leads here - dizzyingly vertical above the Grand Canyon of the Steinberger Ache.
Steinberg itself offers nothing on this Saturday afternoon that could artificially prolong our stay. No pub. No bakery. And the tourist office is closed. But a boy tells us where to find the power sockets for a last boost. And then: quickly onwards! Lake Achensee is calling. But the last obstacle stands between it and us: the Kögljoch.
Another déjà vu: it must have been at the beginning of the nineties when I trained as a bike guide at Lake Achensee. At Sport Wöll in Pertisau. The memory is as if erased, only the Kögljoch somehow seems familiar to me as we hurtle over the flat crest. I must have been there 30 years ago. With my Marin Team Issue.
No matter! Deep below us, Lake Achensee glistens seductively in the afternoon sun. And somewhere behind the mountain with the impressive name "Vorderunnütz", the Gufferthütte is basking in the October sun. One thing is clear as day: the Blauberge mountains are at their most beautiful when they are glistening golden!
Dates of the E-MTB hut tour at Lake Achensee:
Stage 1 - from the Achensee to the Gufferthütte
- Distance: 22.2 kilometres
- Uphill: 889 metres in altitude
- Downhill: 341 metres in depth
Stage 2 - via Kaiserhaus and Kögljoch to Lake Achensee
- Distance: 50.7 kilometres
- Uphill: 1504 metres in altitude
- downhill: 2052 metres in depth
Info hut tour Guffert
Travelling by public transport
Neither the village of Achensee nor Steinberg am Rofan can be reached by train. The destination station is Jenbach in the Inn Valley. The non-stop journey from Munich to Jenbach takes 1:25 hours from 19.90 euros one way. The bike ticket costs 9 euros. The last twelve kilometres up to Lake Achensee are then done by muscle power. If you are travelling by car, the 100 kilometres from Munich to Achenkirch take around one and a half hours. Take the A8 motorway to Holzkirchen and drive via Bad Tölz, Lenggries and Achenpass to Achenkirch.
The accommodation
The Gufferthütte is a hut run by the DAV Kaufering section. It sits at an altitude of 1475 metres on the south side of the Blauberge mountains in Tyrol. Here, 68 guests can stay overnight in two-, four-, seven- and nine-bed rooms or dormitories. AV members pay between 10 and 18 euros per night, non-members between 20 and 28 euros. Half board with breakfast and a three-course dinner costs 29.50 euros. The hut opens in May and closes in mid-October. It is perfectly accessible by E-MTB from Achenwald, Pinegg and Valepp.
E-biking in the region
Standing on the shores of Lake Achensee, you are spoilt for choice: head west towards the well-known Karwendel - or east towards the Rofan, Brandenberg Alps and Blauberge. The three smaller mountain ranges are nowhere near as popular with bikers as the neighbouring Karwendel.
As the southern barrier of the Mangfallgebirge, the Blauberge form the natural border between Bavaria and Tyrol. The Brandenberg Alps reach their peak at the Guffertspitze (2195 m). To the south of the Steinberg high valley, the Rofan Mountains rise jaggedly into the Tyrolean sky.
The area is accessed by wide and perfectly inclined forest roads that are ideal for e-MTBs. Please note that the law applies in Tyrol: all paths and trails that are not specifically signposted for mountain bikers are officially prohibited.
This also applies to forest roads that can be used by cars. However, compared to other Austrian federal states, Tyrol has the largest network of tours open to bikers to date.
Bike shops
The nearest shops with workshop service and spare parts are in the Inn Valley: Veloce Cycles in Wiesing (Dorf 20), Tel. 0043/5244/20950, www.biketirol.at
Bergböcke Bikes & Outdoorsportartikel in Schwaz, Archengasse 10, Tel. 0043/664/5269570
General information
Welcome Centre Achensee in the Atoll in Maurach. Tel. 0043/5953000.
Achenkirch: Achenkirch Information Office, Untere Dorfstraße 387, Tel. 0043/59530050.
www.achensee.com
