The Finstertaler Stausee is a very nice short climb. It’s actually a turn-off from the Kühtai Pass, so if you want to ride it, you have some preparation to do. The climb starts just before the top of the Kühtai at an altitude of 1960 meters. At a small building, you can turn right downhill. The dam of the Finstertaler Stausee towers high above the valley, and yes, that’s where you need to go. The climb is 3.2 kilometers long, and you climb to an altitude of 2335 meters. Good for an average of 11.3%. The road is closed to cars, although some taxi vans can drive up to bring hikers from Kühtai. And no matter how ugly the latter place is, this strip of asphalt is of a different order. The road is narrow but good. The view of the surrounding mountain world is beautiful.
The photo above with a backward view of the road nicely shows the climb and the landscape. You’ve been on the road for about 2.5 kilometers here. What’s nice is that you’re really riding right next to the natural stone dam. In the photo, it seems quite flat, but the opposite is true. The percentage fluctuates between 12 and 15% here. Although I’ve already ridden the Stilzer Sattel and the additional part of the Kühtai Pass before this, the legs feel good, and it’s enjoying nature. I always find climbing above the tree line beautiful; the vegetation changes, the rocks.
Immediately after the dam above, a short tunnel appears. I stop there for a moment to take the photo above when, to my surprise, a taxi van comes up. Apparently, that’s possible too. So I wait a moment until it passes and then ride into the dark tunnel. In the wet tunnel, you cycle in a left turn. It’s quite dark here, a lamp is handy to be seen. What’s fun is that this is actually a 360-degree turn, much of which runs through the tunnel. Above the tunnel, the last ramps come, and you arrive at the reservoir. A wonderful place to relax, so I walk with the bike through the gravel to find a place to sit. The reservoir itself is much larger than the Speicher Langental you pass on the climb to the Kühtai. Incidentally, the Austrian energy giant TIWAG is still building another reservoir; directly above the Speicher Langental. This Speicher Kühtai must annually generate about 531 million kWh of electricity through a hydroelectric power plant. In Tyrol, over 95% of the electricity is generated by hydropower. This mega project is expected to be completed by the end of 2026. It may once again provide a nice bike climb to this dam. The construction, however, is not without criticism; on the road in Oetz, I found slogans sprayed like ‘TIWAG Stop.’
And below is another backward view from the dam. You can see the climb here almost in its entirety. The red spot in the middle of the photo is a small athletics track where the road runs alongside to the right. Handy for altitude training? In the background is the town of Kühtai, where you descend left to Oetz and right to Kematen (Sellrain). When you’re cycling the Kühtai, you really shouldn’t miss this beautiful turn-off. You could actually see this as the real goal of that climb.
