Hirschbichl from Ramsau bei Berchtesgaden

It is a beautiful, quiet climb with horrifically steep sections.

On our way from Salzburg to Zell am See, the Hirschbichl seemed like a nice border col to tackle. And it did. Through the Berchtesgarten national park, the road rises. You pass a picturesque little lake where all cars'll have to park. The valley is full of popular hiking trails so it is very busy with hikers. The pass road itself is closed to motorised traffic, only a scheduled bus and cyclists are allowed over it. The road surface is excellent, brand new even on the German side. Strava's route planner indicates that it is unpaved. But it is neatly paved. Just like the Tauern radweg at the bottom in Austria.

But pay close attention! There are 2 stretches of several hundred metres long where the gradients do not go below 20％! The profile picture on this website does not make good sense of this. Really bellowing and bellowing steep! Since we are travelling with a bob yak, I had to walk a bit. Fortunately, the steep sections were interspersed with almost flat sections. The descent on the Austrian side is even much steeper. There are stretches of 30％ marked! Keep this in mind if you want to ride up here.

We encountered the line bus on the flat approach. But note that this can of course happen on the steep sections too! So beware of this!