Draw the Line #2: Conquering the peaks of Tyrol

The connected adventure where you're the hero!

In case you missed it the first time around, the Draw the Line concept involves our athletes heading for the mountains with a production team and community manager in tow. They post frequent questions and polls to the online community who, together, decide which line, direction or climbing route the athletes will take. For this second event, we chose to get out there and do it in the stunning Tyrol in western Austria, bristling with peaks nearly 4,000m high. But this wasn’t just a random pin in the map. Die-hard mountaineer, experienced trail runner and all-terrain photographer Philipp Reiter twisted a few arms, keen to get Caro North and David Göttler out (and up) into his backyard. Only time would tell if he would convert the two Tyrol newbies into unconditional converts! Here’s the lowdown on what happened during #DrawtheLine Part Zwei.

Under their own steam

Apart from the car journey to get over to the Tyrol region, our trio of athletes used no mechanised transport to get from Matreier Tauernhaus to the summit of Grossglockner. They were tasked with completing the route between the two Austrian valleys by mountain bike, on foot (at a pace!), mountaineering, paragliding and rock climbing. This was how it panned out, day by day:

• First course: Grossvenediger warm-up

Our team ‘warmed up’ with a 6km approach by bike, then a 10km climb with 2,000m of vertical ascent to the summit of Grossvenediger (3,666m). Then they turned around to head back exactly the way they had come – to get back to the guest house in time for supper!

• Second course: multisports route from one valley to another

10km mountain biking on road followed by 1,400m vertical ascent on foot (with a paraglider on their backs...) to the top of Cimaroos (2,421m). This second day of Draw the Line began as a sweaty affair, in a blanket of humid cloud. Then the clouds parted, enabling David, Caro and Philipp – in that order – to take to the skies, landing pretty much on the terrace of the restaurant at Kals-am-Grossglockner! After a quick carb loading session, our three mountaineers jumped back on their mountain bikes to pedal up to the Locknerhütte mountain hut (2,200m), stopping to loosen up their arms by climbing a crag on the way... A helluva day!

• The high point: the top of Austria

For the Draw the Line pièce de résistance, nothing less than an iconic summit would suffice! At 3,798m, Grossglockner was to be the high point – both literally and metaphorically. But the classic way up? Too easy! On the 600m vertical ascent of the magnificent Stüdlgrat arête, it was Caro’s turn to lead her rope team, showing off the full extent of her talent as climber and alpinist. What a way to finish!

Anecdotes

• Not sheepish about apple strudel: In Tyrol the sheep are BIG – with an appetite to match. When the trio stopped at the Neue Prager Hütte to refuel, they almost had to fight off their overly friendly (ovine) neighbours, who invaded the hut terrace trying to get their share of the apple strudel!
• Philipp Reiter just can’t shake off his trail runner origins: You don’t tire out Philipp Reiter that easily… Despite having an awful lot on his plate, Philipp never passes up the chance to run, and with only two bikes for three athletes, he shrugged and simply ran down Grossglockner in one go – 2,000m of vertical descent in an hour and a quarter. (He also biked up on leg power alone, while the other two used e-bikes!) And even an extended stay at the bar (and consequently only 2 hours’ sleep...) didn’t affect his form on the last day. Unstoppable.

How you in the Julbo community played your part

We have to admit it, at Julbo we’re not really used to organising trips in this part of the Alps. So we were a bit vague about how we would get a project like this – in which community involvement plays a decisive role – off the ground. In the end, you all played an incredible – and invaluable – part in the adventure! Each time we posted a question, a poll or a call to arms, your responses exceeded our expectations. On both serious matters like the choice of the next day’s route and for the more whacky challenges, you all seemed to love the concept, which kept you on tenterhooks for three and half days. So a big thank you for helping our athletes draw this particular line. We hope you liked it.