At 2,042 metres, the Eisentalhöhe is the highest point on the Nockalm Road, and it earns the title in a gentle way. There are no needle peaks here, no glaciers hanging on a cliff. The Nockberge are rounded, grassy mountains, the sort that look like sleeping animals under a blanket, and the road crosses them in a succession of curves that feels almost private, as if the mountains had been designed for riding.
The route is a toll road, opened in 1981 after years of argument between those who wanted a tourist highway and those who wanted the high pastures left alone. Today the Nockberge is a biosphere park, and the road is the compromise: a ribbon with fifty-two hairpins that gives access to alpine meadows without cutting them to pieces. Cattle graze on the slopes through summer, sometimes wandering across the tarmac, so a bit of attention in the bends is sensible. In late June the grass is green and full of wildflowers, in September it turns a golden brown, and by October the road may already be closed.
The Zirbe, the Swiss stone pine, is the tree of these mountains. Its wood has a sweet, resinous smell that locals prize for furniture and for bedrooms, and its twisted shapes in the high pasture mark the treeline. If you stop and breathe, the air up here has a faint pine scent mixed with cut grass and sun-warmed stone.
From the summit, the view is a long, slow roll of ridges extending in every direction, with the Hohe Tauern further away to the west and the Carinthian lakes somewhere beyond the haze to the south. On a clear day it is wonderful, and in cloud it is a lonely place, so go when the forecast is kind.
Petrol is not sold on the summit, and the nearest service stations are in the valleys: Radenthein, about fourteen kilometres away, is a modest town, and Spittal an der Drau is the bigger one on the Drau river. Top the tank in the valley first, since this is a ride that takes longer than the map suggests. The huts along the road serve food and coffee, and some do a very good Kaiserschmarrn, the shredded pancake that Austrians believe is a complete meal.