TransAlpine Run 2016 - Stage 5 – Brie like the cheese

This is part 8 of a series detailing my experiences travelling to Europe and completing the Gore-tex TransAlpine Run. The TransAlpine Run is a 7-day stage race from southern Germany across Austria and into northern Italy boasting a distance of 250 km and elevation gain of 15000 m. Eight of us traveled there together as Team Ultra Crazy to attempt this huge goal.

I participated in the race in September 2016 but am just finished up the last few posts finally in June 2018. Accuracy is not guaranteed.

Solden to St. Leonhard in Passeier

33.3 km | 1453 m ascent | 2111 m descent | 8 hour cut off

It’s a year and a half since this amazing event and I am embarrassed to say I never finished my series of blog posts. I had basically accepted that I might never complete this task until I was recently contacted by Team RunRun. One of their coaches had been reading my first-hand experiences to provide information to their runners. Their interest renewed my drive to finish this series in the hopes that it can help those already registered for the race or spark an interest in those looking for an epic event to do.

My memory is terrible so these last few posts will be short and sweet. And hopefully accurate, but no promises!

I remember this route was just what we needed after a really tough couple days. It was such a relief. The trails were more runnable, the views were great, and the cutoffs were more obtainable. It felt like a really, really long (let’s face it, it was still 33 km) recovery day.

At some point we crossed the border into northern Italy. The towns had a little different style to them but German was still the popular language. Along the trails were little shrines, especially closer to towns but also in more remote locations.

The downhill near the end as we travelled closer and closer to the finish was simply breathtaking. Towns and houses sat up high on the mountainsides. As I GoPro’d a section through a little town descending rapidly on the windy road, we missed a turn. We were SO lucky that someone behind us saw and called out. Otherwise we would have had an epic hike ahead of us back up the road when we eventually realized.

There was a neat section running on metal structures built into canyon cliffs.

We finished in just over 6 hours.

After probably the most terrifying drive of my life (apparently the lines mean nothing on their super windy, narrow roads), we arrived at our hotel, Gasthof Platterwirt. We were back up in one of the mountain towns and the views were incredible. The food and beer was not bad either!