The awesome Stelvio Pass in autumn

Autumn is giving way, inexorably. The green disappears, the cold takes over, my dream roads become impassable. A few days before the winter closure, I take the Road King out on the Queen of Roads again. A picture gallery, and some thoughts.

Before you read, please note: this post was translated with the help of Deepl.
If you find any errors – please have fun first and then give me a hint.

My horse of steel,
Take me up the mountain, up to the new ice.
I want to see the last colours,
and be alone in the silence of winter.

On shiny chrome
through a fading landscape

Autumn in the mountains
Snow, cold, colours, smells

Will the cold road
be good to me?

Big mountains, small people.
Big nature, small worries.

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The Stelvio: 48 hairpin bends, 2000 metres in altitude. Raw technology, pure nature, challenge and playground, a place of respect, joy, relief and drama. And of commerce.

I froze my fingers blue here and dropped my camera over the cliffs. The sun burnt my face waiting for the bearded vulture. I fled down into the valley through snowfall and drove towards the sunrise in the middle of the night. I negotiated the bends half blind due to an extreme headache and one-handed because of an arm injury. I picked up dozens of fallen motorbikes and made deep friendships.

No route I know better than the Stelvio Pass. Neither by bicycle nor by car. I learnt to ride a motorcycle here, the Stelvio is the essence of what I do. There is no road I associate with so many thoughts, no place I long for more. There is no other pass that I have more photos of, no other pass that tempts me to ride it. Every time.

The last ride.
Winter break – until May.

Perfectly matching: