The Zillertal Trail – three passes and a howling dog

Welcome to the Zillertal Trail Collection: a new 170+ kilometer circular bikepacking route through the Italian and Austrian Alps.

Here you find the full, fine-tuned route (check out the ‘Do It Yourself’-section below) but you also get to follow our 2021 route-scouting journey with a 6-day itinerary in full detail.

The Zillertal Trail, which we think looks a lot like a howling dog with a big nose (just turn the map 90 degrees clockwise), guides those brave enough to ride it over three spectacular passes in the Zillertal Alps. It's a loop that starts and finishes in Brunico, right by the train station to allow for an easy connection in and out. You'll find that it stitches a lot of well- and lesser-known cycling sections together into a single route that can usually be completed in 4-5 days. The natural environment along this track is alpine at higher elevations, with colorful flowers, glacial lakes and perhaps even snow-capped peaks. The lower elevations are lush and green, with good infrastructure available to offer accommodation or a taste of local cuisine.

While the route profile might look relatively easy (despite the three big passes to cross), don't be deceived: it's the riding surfaces and short seasonal window that make this ride a particularly challenging one. You should be able to cross every pass between June and September, and you should probably bring a light setup on a hardtail mountain bike. The paths and tracks range from perfect asphalt to steep dirt trenches and stairs made out of thick slabs of rock, with everything else in between. Weather could significantly impact the quality of the ride, so you should keep an eye out for the report and count in an extra day, should things turn against your planning.

Our daily stage breakdown presented in this Collection was based mainly on us wanting to explore and document the route we had created. So they're to be taken as a mere example of what you can expect if you take things more slowly.

For the optimal 'take-it-all-in' experience, we recommend the following itinerary...

Day 1: Start in Brunico, climb over Pfunderer Joch pass and stay in the valley around Sankt Jakob or anywhere official you can find on the descent - it makes for a very long first day but accommodation is limited around the pass
Day 2: continue on to climb to Pfitscherjoch pass, sleeping at ‘Pfitscherjoch Haus’ (komoot.de/highlight/158505) – a shorter day to recover
Day 3: Start at Pfitscherjoch Haus and make your way down into Austria, with a potential grocery stop in Mayrhofen. Then continue towards the start of the Hundskehljoch valley, sleeping at ‘Bärenbad Alm’. (komoot.com/highlight/479514)
Day 4: Start at Bärenbad Alm and try to scale the entire Hundskehljoch pass (remember this will entail a 3km up and 3km down hike-a-bike-section). Aim to reach the valley on the other side for accommodation (we can recommend Baumannhof), potentially even Brunico.
Day 5: if you didn’t reach Brunico on Day 4, simply descend the valley and finish your ride!


Those being our recommendations, it's now time for you to enjoy this Alpine route that shows you the very best natural scenery of the Zillertal Alps! We wish you lots of fun while conquering the Zillertal Trail.