The Brandnertal is located on the map near Bludenz in Vorarlberg. The road here turns off towards the Brandnertal in the direction of the cable car to the Lünersee at the end of the Brandnertal. The best way to start the climb is from Bürs (570 meters), to really tackle the first meters. It’s a very varied climb, next to the Gamperdonatal, which is however not comparable at all. It’s a dead-end valley; At the end, there is a cable car that provides access to the beautiful Lünersee. Unfortunately, you can’t cycle up here.
The first approximately 4 kilometers go uphill with gradients around and above 10%, towards Burserberg. A beautiful part of the climb, mostly through the forest. The forest is quite dense, if it has rained the previous day, you’ll still find wet road surfaces here due to all the shade. Here you’ll find the first hairpin bends right away.
After the forest, you reach the village of Burserberg, where the road flattens out and you get a freer view. The next place is Brand, located another four kilometers away. Before reaching there, the road is open and wide and not too steep. You pass two tunnels, at the first tunnel, you can turn left just before it onto a small road that bypasses it. However, the tunnel is not long, about 250 meters, and illuminated. The second tunnel is half-open and therefore unlit. Here too, you can potentially ride along the left side, but there are those annoying gutters where stones are flushed down from above the tunnel. Be careful not to get hit on your head/helmet 😉 By the way, pay attention to the beautiful view of the Brandner Glacier, which you can see best here.
Brand is the next, larger village, halfway up the climb, at 1000 meters altitude. There, the gradients will increase, and after Brand, we still have about 6 kilometers ahead of us. Those are the most beautiful kilometers of the climb, where it becomes steeper again and the hairpin bends are close together. You climb to just over 1600 meters altitude; the endpoint is the ‘valley station’ of the Lunerseebahn. I cycled the climb one evening, and what also struck me is that I had headwind the whole way. Usually, it’s quite calm in Austria, but here the wind persists all the way to the valley station, where a high rock wall closes off the valley. Where does that wind come from?
It’s a beautiful climb if you’re in the region, highly recommended. What you need to watch out for in the part of the climb after Brand is the width of the road; in many places, not enough for 2 cars to pass each other. This can lead to unexpected surprises in the descent, as you suddenly encounter several stationary cars after a blind corner. So caution is advised here!
