Alter-Almweg Trail

Wolfgang Krainer is the sports pioneer of the NOCKBIKE region. With his sports school, he brought surfing to Carinthia in the 70s, which is still at the centre of his sports school today. But then the sportsman Krainer discovered mountain biking for himself. And fell in love, helmet over head. Since then, the Carinthian has been working to make nature trails in the region usable for bikers and to legalise them as MTB trails. The combination of the Rossalmhütten and Alter-Almweg trails was his first success. Today, his son Adrian - now responsible for the NOCKBIKE guides- accompanies us on this very single trail.

We start in Feld am See with a leisurely 400-metre uphill to Bad Kleinkirchheim to the cable car. Here we do a warm-up lap on the practice area and a few more on the pump track, right next to the cable car. We are grateful for the ascent aid for the next 1,100 metres - after all, according to Adrian, we will still need our strength on the technically demanding single trail.

The Nockberge mountains have a few surprises up their sleeve, as they are much more alpine than Carinthia is generally imagined to be. The panorama at the Kaiserburg mountain station is almost overwhelming:

• Karawanken,
• Julian Alps and Carnic Alps on one side,
• the Hohe Tauern on the other.

We ride through a rock arch into the 16-kilometre flow trail. Curve after curve, wave after wave, it winds its way downwards. It feels like we hardly lose any metres in altitude and only have to use the brakes sporadically. A pretty good feeling and a great flow experience, especially for beginners. We follow the MTB single trail to the Rossalmhütte and now immerse ourselves in 100% natural biking terrain.

From here, the route follows the slope in a relaxed and scenic manner - always with a slight incline and surrounded by a marvellous sparse larch forest. After just a few metres, there are hardly any traces of people to be seen and so we roll on, working our way further and further down.

The trail now leads across an alpine meadow and an alpine landscape with old wooden houses and the wayside hut opens up before us. Time for a break. The menu at the rustic hut is only pro-forma, as the current dishes are presented in the friendly Carinthian dialect. If you don't understand anything, trust the recommendations or your gut feeling. You can hardly go wrong with the food here.

After this refreshment, we leave the Rossalmhüttentrail, because now the technically demanding Carinthian delicacy begins: the Alter-Almweg trail down to Feld am See. We disappear into a green tunnel - a hollow path opens up in front of us and sucks us in. The forest around us is characterised by the bright green moss that grows everywhere. The light mist makes the ground glow even more brightly. But now we have to devote all our attention to the path, because it is ...

• peppered with rocks and roots
• high steps
• technically very demanding

Just the thing to wake us up! Challenging, varied and beautiful, the trail winds its way down to the lake. We finally roll out the last few metres on the road to the shore, leave the bikes in the green grass and get the refreshment we've been waiting for. Cooled down, we sit on the lakeshore with Adrian over a beer and can now fully understand the appeal of this combination of mountain and water in the NOCKBIKE region. It is this satisfaction and relaxation that the summit experience and the subsequent trail fireworks bring, but also the tranquillity of the lake.