19.07.2017

Last Saturday I had a go at a new mountain. I rode out of Frohnleiten towards Rothleiten, turned left in to the valley known as the Gams, and after a kilometre or two left again into the side valley called the Ratlosgraben. Ratlos is ‘desperate’, and Graben is the name that is reserved around here for minor valleys, instead of Tal; it’s maybe a bit disrespectful, because Graben also means ditch, trench, hole, gully. And of course many of the little valleys around here, where the hills are heavily wooded*, are rather steep-sided, dark and a little bit grim. So I climbed up the Ratlosgraben, and the road ascends with hardly a break for about 500 m of altitude, to a narrow saddle leading over into the valley of Übelbach, with the river and small town of that name. Another cheery one, since Bach means stream and übel means for example bad, mean, foul or nauseous. Maybe it’s not impossible that these are Germanicisations of even older names in another language, or maybe people living out here in olden times really did feel it was a remote and nasty place to live …

In any case it was a nice climb, mostly steady, sometimes fairly steep but not extremely so. Though the asphalt is quite heavily ‘distressed’ with a lot of alligator cracking (I just looked that up!). The weather was untypically cool, with a strong blustery wind. A little shower passed over when I was just about to start the climb; but this time of year I’ll take anything that isn’t thundery, and it wasn’t.

At the highest point of the road, the view is still over to the (north) east, to the Rote Wand and into the Almenland, with the Plankogel and other peaks. A little bit further on, but actually already a little bit over the hill, there is the Ebenwirt pub on one side of the road and the former Volksschule Schenkenberg on the other side. There’s also a path heading into the woods to the summit of the Haneggkogel. From this spot the views are into the Übelbach valley and across towards the Gleinalm to the west. In the sheltered bits the sun was hot enough to get me into a serious sweat; by the Ebenwirt I found myself out of the sun and in the wind, so added my Gore Phantom jacket minus sleeves.

View out along a steep wooded valley. In the background a hill with a long ridge cuts off the horizon.
View east towards Rote Wand, Almenland, prob. Plankogel in background
Me, sweaty, slightly wild looking trees and undergrowth behind.
Me near the top
A road in sunshine, leading to a large house or small castle, with cream-painted walls and black roofs, chimneys and a chapel with a spire behind.
Schloss Waldstein
Interior of a small church, plain white walls, a rather low arch cuts off the sanctuary. Statues and altar in baroque style.
Church in Übelbach
Ornate carved and painted wooden altar in baroque style, with pillars painted to look like marble; a large painting in the bottom half and a smaller one above.
Side altar to St Barbara (patron saint of miners) in Übelbach parish church
Ladybird larva

The descent was lovely; after a few little hairpins it settles down to a gentle straight run down towards Schloss Waldstein. There are more houses on this side, including one or two traditional wooden ones, and more gardens and little fields; it is, after all, the south-facing slope.

From Waldstein I headed up the few miles to Übelbach town, because I’d never been there and I know a couple of people who grew up there. It seems like a nice little place. I stopped for a drink and also had a peek into the little chapel in the old town and the bigger church a little way back out.

I returned to Frohnleiten by riding down the valley via Zitoll and Deutschfeistritz, then up the Mur to Adriach, past Rabenstein.

*They say that about 60% of the land area of Styria is forest.

PS Road(side) animal of the week is a seven-spot ladybird larva. It isn’t a product of this ride, though; I was out with the family riding from Mixnitz to Frohnleiten the next day. Had the smartphone for about a year and this is the first time I realised it could do close-ups like this 🤗