- Where
- Salzburg and Carinthia
Austria - Start / end
- Bruck (Fusch, Ferleiten) to Heiligenblut
- Length
- 48 km (GROHAG)
47.8 km (Wikipedia, German) - Highest point
- 2,504 m, Hochtor (road); 2,571 m, Edelweißspitze (branch)
- Season
- Start of May to start of November; opened 25 April 2026
- Hours
- From 1 September, 6:00–19:30, last entry 18:45; no night driving
- Toll
- Car day ticket €46.50; e-car €40.00; motorcycle €36.50 (GROHAG, 2026)
- Status
- Closed to motorbikes and bicycles until further notice; no closure listed for cars (GROHAG, evening of 13 Oct 2026); winter closure due early November
- Advisory
- Austria Level 1
Hairpin after numbered hairpin up out of a green valley of cowbells and wooden barns, to a pass where marmots sat up like tent pegs and the snow at the roadside stood taller than the car. At a viewpoint a long grey glacier lay below a white pointed summit, and everyone at the wall said the same word in a great many languages.
Route facts
- Route
- Bruck an der Großglocknerstraße (Ferleiten toll station) to Heiligenblut
- Length
- 48 km and 36 bends (German Wikipedia gives 47.8 km)Checked · GROHAG: History of the High Alpine Road
- Season window
- Start of May to start of November; opened 25 April 2026; from 1 September open 6:00 to 19:30, with night driving bannedChecked · GROHAG: prices and opening times
- Closures
- Partly closed as read On the evening of 13 October 2026 GROHAG’s notice said access was closed to motorcyclists and bicyclists until further notice (next update 14 October, 6:00 a.m.) and listed no closure for cars; the winter closure is due at the start of November, on a date GROHAG had not announced.Live alert: GROHAG: current road status
- Fees
- Car day ticket €46.50 (€36.50 after 6 p.m.); electric car €40.00; motorcycle €36.50 (2026)Checked · GROHAG: prices and opening times
- Cost to enter
- $35–$100
- Anchor point
- Hochtor
47.08° N, 12.84° E
The short answer
The Grossglockner High Alpine Road is a toll road over the Hohe Tauern in Austria, from Bruck in the state of Salzburg to Heiligenblut in Carinthia, by way of the Fuscher Törl at 2,428 metres and the Hochtor at 2,504 metres, Wikipedia records. Its operator, GROHAG, gives it as 48 kilometres with 36 bends; German Wikipedia gives 47.8 kilometres. It is open from the start of May to the start of November, GROHAG says, and in 2026 it opened on 25 April. A day ticket for a car cost €46.50 in 2026, €36.50 after 6 p.m., and €40.00 for an electric car. Outside opening hours, from 6:00 to 19:30 since 1 September, night driving is banned. On the afternoon of 13 October 2026 GROHAG’s status showed the road open to cars, buses, motorbikes and bicycles; GROHAG warns that in autumn motorbikes and bicycles can be stopped for short spells in the early morning when meltwater freezes. GROHAG had not announced the day it closes for the 2026 winter.
Why it's worth knowing
A road to put people to work. GROHAG’s history says the road was built for three reasons: to give the new Republic of Austria a project of its own after the Habsburg Empire broke up, to create jobs when unemployment was high, and to earn money from tolls and tourism. Wikipedia adds that unemployment had reached 26 percent and that the project was revived to create 3,200 jobs; GROHAG speaks of work for up to 4,000 men. The first blast went off at Ferleiten on 30 August 1930, and the road was opened on 3 August 1935 by President Wilhelm Miklas; the next day, GROHAG says, the first car race was held on it, its surface still covered in sand. A memorial on the Fuscher Törl is dedicated to the workers who lost their lives building it.
An old way over. The pass was in use long before the road. GROHAG says people crossed the Hochtor 3,500 years ago, and that Celts and Romans used it as the shortest route between the north and the south; its free exhibition beside the Hochtor tunnel’s south portal tells of offerings left for a safe journey.
Snow you have to dig through. For almost half the year the road is under snow, GROHAG says, with wind and avalanches piling it up to 20 metres deep. In the first winters after it opened, about 350 men with shovels and ice picks needed around 70 days to clear it. In 1953 the road’s engineer, Franz Wallack, brought in rotary snow ploughs of his own design, and the clearing came down to about 25 days. The same machines still do it: two teams of seven start from the north and the south in mid-April and meet at the Hochtor towards the end of the month.
The field notes
The view from the end of a branch
The Kaiser-Franz-Josefs-Höhe, at 2,369 metres on a side road above Heiligenblut, is named after a visit by Emperor Franz Joseph I and Empress Elisabeth in 1856, Wikipedia records. It looks over the Pasterze glacier to the Grossglockner massif. The Edelweißspitze, at the end of a 1.5-kilometre branch from the Fuscher Törl, is higher still, at 2,571 metres.
Five ploughs once, four now
GROHAG names its four working Wallack ploughs: Jörgen, Oskar, Ander and Eisbändiger. A fifth, Paul, built in 1953, retired in 2010 after 9,755 hours and is on long-term loan to the Salzburg open-air museum at Großgmain. Since 2022 the ploughs have run on synthetic fuel instead of diesel.
The Grossglockner and the Pasterze glacier from the Kaiser-Franz-Josefs-Höhe, August 2020.
Photograph: Dimitry Anikin · CC0 · cropped
An Alpine marmot looking out of its burrow beside the road’s granite kerbstones, June 2012.
Photograph: Zairon · Großglockner-Hochalpenstraße Murmeltier 1 · CC BY-SA 3.0 · cropped
Hairpins of the road laid out across the mountainside, August 2018.
Photograph: PantheraLeo1359531 · CC BY-SA 4.0
- Go through the toll gate early, while the marmots are up and the coaches are not.
- Stop at the memorial at the first pass and read it properly before you go on.
- Come down in a low gear and give the brakes a rest at every lay-by.
- Keep to the paths above the road. The flowers up there have a very short summer and need all of it.
- Item four was going to be about the view. I crossed it out until the page went thin.
A Wallack rotary snow plough. One of the big blue snow cutters, on crawler tracks with milling wheels, that clear the Grossglockner High Alpine Road every spring. GROHAG says its engineer, Franz Wallack, designed them himself when nothing on the market could cope with the road’s gradients, bends and snow, and first tried them in the winter of 1953; they cut the clearing time to an average of 25 days. Four still work: Jörgen, Oskar, Ander and Eisbändiger. A fifth, Paul, retired in 2010 after 9,755 hours. Since 2022 they have run on synthetic fuel. Because snow can fall up there even in summer, GROHAG says, the ploughs stay parked along the route through the season, waiting.
Tally, in the marginA big blue machine parked in a lay-by in high summer, doing nothing at all. It was only at the next bend, where the snow wall began, that I understood it was waiting.
Getting there
How to drive it. From the north, leave the Pinzgau road at Bruck an der Großglocknerstraße and drive through Fusch to the toll station at Ferleiten; from the south, start at Heiligenblut. Allow time for the two branch roads, to the Edelweißspitze and to the Kaiser-Franz-Josefs-Höhe. GROHAG says the exhibitions along the road, including the one at the Hochtor, are free of charge.
When to go. From the start of May to the start of November. In 2026 the road opened on 25 April and was open from 6:00 to 20:00 until 31 May, 5:30 to 21:00 in June, July and August, and 6:00 to 19:30 from 1 September, with last entry 45 minutes before closing. GROHAG warns of short early-morning closures in autumn when meltwater freezes, and of times when only vehicles with winter tyres or chains may drive; all-weather tyres count only if they carry the snowflake symbol.
What to arrange ahead. A toll ticket, bought online or at the toll stations. GROHAG’s 2026 prices: car day ticket €46.50 (€36.50 after 6 p.m.), electric car €40.00, motorcycle €36.50, €17.50 extra for a second day; a five-day Autumn Ticket for €65.00 a car (€58.00 for an electric car or a motorbike), sold at the toll stations from 15 September to the end of the season. Its car tariff excludes “all vehicles for commercial passenger transport”, naming taxis, rental cars and hotel buses, and its season and three-week tickets are not sold for rental cars; ask at the toll station if you are driving a hire car.
Safety. The State Department has Austria at Level 1, exercise normal precautions, its lowest level; it calls Austria generally a safe destination (advisory dated 21 August 2026 in its feed, read 13 October 2026). The hazards here are altitude, snow and ice in any month, long descents that are hard on brakes, and cyclists and motorcyclists on the bends.
Mark this place
Common questions
When is the Grossglockner High Alpine Road open?
GROHAG, which runs the Grossglockner High Alpine Road in Austria, says it is open from the start of May to the start of November. In 2026 it opened on 25 April; from 1 September the hours were 6:00 to 19:30, with no driving allowed at night.
How much is the Grossglockner toll?
In 2026 a day ticket for a car on the Grossglockner High Alpine Road cost €46.50, or €36.50 after 6 p.m.; an electric car €40.00; a motorcycle €36.50; and a second day €17.50 extra, according to the operator, GROHAG.
How long is the Grossglockner High Alpine Road?
GROHAG gives the Grossglockner High Alpine Road as 48 kilometres with 36 bends, from Bruck in Salzburg to Heiligenblut in Carinthia; German Wikipedia gives 47.8 kilometres.
How high does the Grossglockner road go?
The Grossglockner High Alpine Road crosses the Hochtor at 2,504 metres, its highest point, Wikipedia records. A 1.5-kilometre branch from the Fuscher Törl climbs to the Edelweißspitze at 2,571 metres.
When was the Grossglockner High Alpine Road built?
Work on the Grossglockner High Alpine Road in Austria began with the first blast on 30 August 1930, and the road was opened on 3 August 1935 by President Wilhelm Miklas, according to GROHAG; the next day the first car race was held on it.
Can you see the Grossglockner from the road?
Yes. From the Kaiser-Franz-Josefs-Höhe, at 2,369 metres on a branch of the Grossglockner High Alpine Road, the view is of the Pasterze glacier and the Grossglockner massif, Wikipedia records. The viewpoint is named after an imperial visit in 1856.
Can you drive a rental car on the Grossglockner road?
GROHAG’s 2026 price list says the car tariff excludes vehicles for commercial passenger transport, naming taxis, rental cars and hotel buses, and that season and three-week tickets are not sold for rental cars. It does not state a separate rental-car rate, so ask at the toll station.
How is the snow cleared on the Grossglockner road?
GROHAG clears the Grossglockner High Alpine Road each spring with rotary snow ploughs designed by its engineer Franz Wallack and in use since 1953. Two teams of seven start in mid-April from the north and south and meet at the Hochtor towards the end of April.