Obergurgl sits at the head of the Ötztal in Tyrol, at about 1,900 metres, and it is often described as the highest church village in Austria. A cluster of timber-trimmed hotels and a modest church are wedged into a bowl of snowfields and peaks, with the Gurgler Ferner glacier and a ring of three-thousand-metre summits behind. It is the kind of place where the road simply runs out of valley, except that in summer it does not: the Timmelsjoch High Alpine Road continues up and over into South Tyrol.
There is a pleasing bit of scientific history here. In 1931, the Swiss physicist Auguste Piccard and his assistant landed their pressurised balloon on the Gurgler glacier after the first manned flight into the stratosphere, having started from Augsburg. A small monument in the village recalls the landing. In the decades since, Obergurgl has turned from a poor mountain farming settlement into a polished ski resort, but the old chapel and farmhouses give it more soul than many of its neighbours.
The riding is the main draw. The road up the Ötztal from the valley bottom climbs steadily through Sölden and on to Obergurgl and Hochgurgl in long, flowing bends, then the Timmelsjoch road tightens into hairpins above the treeline. The pass, at around 2,500 metres, is reached through open, rocky landscape, and the surface is excellent. The high road is closed by snow in winter, and typically opens in early summer and shuts again in autumn, with a toll for the privilege. On sunny weekends the road is busy with bikes and sports cars, so a weekday morning is a delight.
For services, the village has cafes and hotels and a good choice of restaurants, so lunch is easy: Tyrolean classics such as Kaspressknödel soup or Tiroler Gröstl come with a view. Fuel is less certain at this altitude, and the safe plan is to fill up in Sölden, about eleven kilometres down the valley, or Merano on the Italian side. Temperatures can drop sharply in the shade and with altitude, so pack warm layers. After the descent into the Passeier valley, the climate changes entirely, to vines, apples and Italian coffee.