The Bielerhöhe is the high point of the Silvretta High Alpine Road, a broad saddle at 2,032 metres where Vorarlberg meets Tyrol and where the water changes its mind about where it wants to go. Rain that falls on the western side runs into the Ill and the Rhine, eventually reaching the North Sea; rain on the eastern side drains into the Trisanna, the Inn and the Danube, and finally the Black Sea. Standing at the top, with a lake beside you, it is satisfying to know you are on a European watershed.
The lake is the Silvretta reservoir, held back by a rockfill dam, and its still surface mirrors the peaks on a calm morning. The big mountain across the water is Piz Buin, at 3,312 metres the highest in Vorarlberg, and around it the Silvretta glaciers are shrinking each year, though from here they still look convincingly white against the grey rock. A footpath runs along the dam and down towards the Wiesbadener Hütte, and you can see walkers setting off on routes that continue into Switzerland.
The road was opened in the 1950s, built primarily to serve the hydroelectric project, and it still feels like a utility road with ambitions. There are around thirty hairpins on the Montafon side, laid out with a clear logic, and the east side drops more gently toward Galtür and the Paznaun valley. Tolls are collected, traffic is light by Alpine standards, and the surface has the slightly polished feel of a road that is well looked after. It closes with the first serious snow and reopens when the plough has done its work, normally from late spring to autumn.
Weather here is not to be trusted. The altitude means that a warm day in the valley can be five or six degrees colder at the summit, the wind blows hard off the water, and clouds can arrive from nowhere. Dress for a mountain top even if the morning looked mild.
There is a hotel-restaurant at the top, which is useful for a coffee and a hot meal while you warm your hands. Galtür is the closest village with services, and the larger choices, Gaschurn and Landeck, are further away than you might think when the tank is low. Davos lies to the south-west on the Swiss side, across several mountain ranges and a border that is not a short detour.