Description
Anyone riding the Kühtai Saddle should not miss this highlight and the additional approx. 370 meters in elevation, as the road climbs beautifully up in many hairpin bends in the high alpine landscape.
The road to the Finstertaler reservoir is a small service road that branches off shortly below the Kühtai pass road on the west side at an altitude of about 1970 m heading south. Since it was built without touristic considerations, no value was placed on moderate slopes, and thus some of the steeper Alpine roads were created. The highlight is a 360-degree loop, half of which goes through a small tunnel.
With the classic western approach to Kühtai, this results in a long climb with 1550 meters of elevation gain, but it is only the steep Haimingerberg (north ascent) as the first uphill section that offers the full experience. The effort is then rewarded by the approximately 20 km long descent to the town of Oetz.
For those interested, here are some data about the Tiwag reservoir: The dam is 149 m high and has a crest length of about 650 m, holding 4.4 million cubic meters.