L1 - Wolayersee

Starting point of this mountain bike tour is the Lesach Valley settlement of Birnbaum, junction Nostra. Birnbaum, situated at about 950 meters in the Lesach Valley, is best reached by car, which can be parked in the center of the village and changed to a bike. If the road from Nostra is still asphalted, it soon turns into a gravel road. A short rest at the small Hubertus Chapel, built on a rock at 1,114 metres, should be taken on the further way to the Wolayersee Hut. The enchantingly situated building was erected in 1916 by Austrian soldiers in memory of those who fell and were buried by avalanches.

A few years ago, the mountain bike tour to Lake Wolay was reserved for experienced bikers, but now, thanks to the new construction of the road, it has become an easier tour to master, but with a route length of about 16 km and about 1,200 metres of altitude difference up to Lake Wolayersee it is still very challenging.

About 200 metres after the Hubertus Chapel, after crossing a small wooden bridge, you reach the road to the Wolayersee Hut after a road barrier. A little further on, after passing the old customs house and the wooden building of the Untere Wolayeralm, the actual mountain bike tour begins, with constant views of the Biegengebirge and the dominating Wolayer Kopf (2,472 m). Here the path is still lined by dense beech forests, which are quickly replaced by spruce and larch forests at an altitude of around 1,200 metres. The newly laid out forest road has taken much of the magic of the old path to the Wolayersee. However, the new alpine pasture access path blends more harmoniously into the landscape and makes the ascent easier. The trail continues past the idyllic Hildenfall at about 1,500 metres above sea level and then in several hairpin bends into the realm of the mountain pine forests and finally to the enchantingly situated high valley of the Upper Wolayeralm, with the two Wolayer huts at the end of the valley. High up in the Biegengebirge above the Wolayeralm huts, you can see the so-called "Donglloch", a hole in the rock face which, according to legend, reminds you of a farmer who "dengelte" his scythe on a church holiday (the dialect word used here for sharpening tools), which gave him a ride with the devil through the rock face.

A few hairpin bends after the upper alpine pasture you reach the "Angerl" at about 1,750 m, another flat high valley with only sparse vegetation and after further generously laid out hairpin bends you finally reach the Birnbaumer Törl and the Wolayerseehütte at 1,967 m above sea level, situated directly at the lake, below a mighty war memorial built in 1932.

Good to know: In principle, it is also possible to reach the Hubertus Chapel further in the Wolayertal by car. However, the road by car from the settlement of Nostra is mostly only gravelled and should only be driven on with an off-road vehicle, also because of the danger of "getting on". There is a larger parking lot about 200 meters after the Hubertuskapelle.