The Haimingerberg, or actually the Silzer Sattel, is an impressive climb that starts from the town of Haiming. Coming from the Bundesstrasse B171 from the direction of Ötztal / Imst, the climb begins immediately after the roundabout on the right side at Haiming. Tip: just after taking the first exit at the roundabout, you’ll find a small parking lot on the left side of the road with space for about 6 cars. If you’re early like I was, this is a nice place to start. Although… there’s no warm-up period because it gets straight to the point! Right from the start of the climb, the tone is set; the gradients immediately reach double digits and they’ll stay that way for a while.
I’m immediately into a good rhythm, and the altitude meters add up quickly. The road is nice and quiet but steep. Soon, we approach the first place; Höpperg. Anyone looking for a small flat section to recover from the initial efforts will be disappointed; it actually gets steeper. But it’s beautiful. Directly after Höpperg, we race into the forest, although ‘race’ might not be the best word – progress is slow!
In a few turns, you climb out of the forest again and ride between the meadows uphill. Beautiful! The next place, actually just a few houses, is called Hausegg. So far, it’s been a pleasantly varied climb in terms of landscape. Only the gradients remain consistently high. Because I have a 40 x 28 as the smallest gear, it’s difficult to maintain a good cadence. But it’s enjoyable, it remains very quiet here, and I quickly gain altitude. After Hausegg, the next forest passage comes, and this one lasts much longer.
On the left, you often get beautiful views into the Inn Valley, like the one above towards Silz. The road then turns back up from the valley into the forest. The traces of a storm the week before I arrived in early July 2023 are clearly visible. A local resident told me they had never experienced anything like it. Indeed, entire stretches of forest have been swept away. It’s somewhat fortunate for me that there was a week in between because much of the damage has now been cleared. These roads were closed immediately after the storm and are now open again. The road continues to climb steeply, but when the road makes a left turn, it noticeably starts to flatten out slightly. That feels good on the legs. Decreasing gradients already mark the end of the climb. The start in Haiming is at 675 meters altitude, and the Silzer Sattel is at 1685 meters. The climb is just under 10 kilometers. In that distance, you conquer an altitude of 1010 meters, resulting in an average gradient of 10.2%. That makes this a tough climb over this distance!
The Silzer Sattel is a climb that is definitely worth doing. Even better is continuing from there. This means you get a small descent of about two kilometers to Ochsengarten, where you arrive at the Kühtai road. You turn left, and from there, it’s another good 7.5 kilometers to the start of the climb to the Finstertaler Stausee. That’s the route I chose this day, and it’s more than worth it.
