Karwendel round on a mountain bike

"Karwendel" refers to an Austrian-German limestone mountain range. There are some good climbs (see MaMa-Kante which is the last entry) but for the largest part the rock is lose. Whilst there are only pockets of climbing, the mountain biking and walking is excellent. The Karwendel round on the mountain bike is arguably one of the best mountain bike tours in Germany. 

Here is the Suunto Moveslink map of my trip yesterday. At the Eastern End you can extend it into the Laliderertal which adds another 400 altimetres and 10 km of climbing. 

 Here is the height profile. The x-axis is in km. 

 It all starts in Mittenwald and I have downloaded the GPS track for the ride onto my Garmin GPS. There are some tricky bits of route finding from Mittenwald to the Karwendelbach, the main Glen that ascends to the Karwendelhaus, an Alpine hut. In the image below I follow another cyclist. The Karwendel house is on the right hand side of the bealach in the distance at 1771 metres of altitude.

 In the image below I am behind threee mountain bikers with the Karwendelhaus above. The climb to the Karwendelhaus is a pretty long climb on a mountain bike with roughly 500 m of ascent. After that a still tiring descent on a bumpy, rocky track to the Ahornboden. 

 Here some locals block the way at the Ahornboden.

 After that an easier and faster descent to the Rissbach and to Hinterriss. A good place for lunch but I was a bit too early. 

 After that look out for a forest track that branches off the main road. The second, bigger climb of the day but only 300 m up. After that an easy descent and you will soon see the Baernbachfurt. This is a stream that you will have to cross sans bridge. There are two cyclists in the picture below...

 ... and here is a biker following me. 

 The path then climbs to the Vereiner Alm followed by a large descent to the Isar and Mittenwald. 

Practicalities: If you visit from the UK then take the train to Mittenwald. In both Mittenwald and the nearby Garmisch-Partkenkirchen there are mountain bike rentals. You can buy food in the Karwendelhaus and Hinterriss. The summers are warm here but you are nearly reaching 2000 m so the temperatures will be almost 10 degrees less at altitude than in Mittenwald. So if it is below 20 degrees in Mittenwald then take warm clothes esp. if you want to have a beer (with or without alcohol) at the Karwendelhaus. 

HW