Timmelsjoch

Infobox Mountain Pass
Name = Timmelsjoch
Photo = Timmelsjoch_view_south.jpg
Caption =View from Timmelsjoch to the South
Elevation = 8232 ft./2509 m.
Location = AUT / ITA
Range = Alps
Coordinates = coord|46|54|19|N|11|5|48|E|type:pass
Topographic

Traversed by =

Timmelsjoch, Italian: Passo del Rombo, (el. 8232 ft./2509 m.) is a high mountain pass that creates a link through the Ötztal Alps along the current border between Austria and Italy.

The Timmelsjoch connects the Ötztal valley in the Austrian state of Tyrol to the Passer valley, later Adige Valley, in the Italian province of Bolzano-Bozen, as it bridges the saddle point between the Jochköpfl (10,305 ft./3,141 m.) and Wurmkogl (10,112 ft/3,082 m) peaks to its northeast and southwest, respectively. The pass is sometimes called the "secret passage" because it is little-used compared to the much easier and lower Brenner Pass some 15 miles/25 km to its east, and Resia Pass some 40 miles/60 km to its west.

By 3,000 BC, the glaciers of the last Ice Age were retreating, but the Alps remained grim and forbidding. Solitary hunters, fugitives, and scattered tribes were the only people who ventured this high. The lure of treasure, however, brought adventurers from the early Bronze Age to extract the copper. Later in the Middle Ages, mining influenced the development of a road network. Marble quarries, semiprecious stones, and oil shales were all exploited.

Travelers, peddlers, and those with pack-animals all sought the shortest route across the main Alpine ridge. The Timmelsjoch was always one of the most important of these routes, due to the political development of the region throughout the centuries. The road leads from Merano, the old capital, to the Passer valley. At Saint Leonhard the roads forks, one crossing the Timmelsjoch saddle and continuing on through the Ötz valley to the Inn valley, while the other leads to the Jaufen Pass and down to Sterzing, then joining the great Brenner Pass road. Saint Leonhard is the patron saint of carters and was also venerated by peddlers.

The Timmelsjoch is the deepest non-glaciated indentation in the main Alpine ridge between the Reschen and Brenner Passes. Its name is older than that of the Brenner, first documented in 1241 as “Thymelsjoch” in a letter written by the Bavarian Counts of Eschenlohe. For centuries, the spelling “Thimmeljoch” prevailed, only changing to “Timmelsjoch” during the construction of the paved road in the twentieth century, when modern surveying techniques were applied to earlier cartographic ideas to determine the best route.

On July 7, 1959, after four years of construction, the 12-kilometer road was finally opened to the public. The road was well-engineered and perfectly integrated into the landscape.

While the road up from the Ötz valley was built for tourism purposes, the situation in the Passer valley (south side) was very different: as in many other parts of the Italian Alps, Mussolini, the ruler from 1922 to 1945, had numerous military roads built up towards Italy's international borders. Construction of the road from Moos in Passeier (Passer valley, 1000m, 22km from the pass) commenced in the 1930's. With the infamous meeting between Mussolini and Hitler on the Brenner in 1939, construction work ceased. The road was narrow and rough, but had almost been completed (the last, 700m-long tunnel had been dug through - just the remaining 2 km stretch from its end to the pass had not been built; the tunnel partly collapsed in the following years of disuse).During the period 1939 to the mid 1960's, the unfinished, grassed-over road was only used for forestry purposes. Construction work resumed in the mid 1960's and the road was completed to the pass and opened to through traffic in 1967.

The road on the Ötz valley side is called the Timmelsjoch Hochalpenstrasse.

The pass is now popular with car and motorbike tourists. Due to its elevation, steepness, and narrow road, the pass is closed to lorries and vehicles with trailers. The pass road is open to traffic from app. the first half of June to the second half of October (the exact dates depending on snow conditions) daily from 7:00 AM to 8:00 PM. The Ötz valley side is subject to toll charges.

The road has, on account of the dramatic scenery particularly on the south side, become popular with cyclists too. On the last Sunday in August, several thousand cyclists taking part in the Ötz Valley Cycling Marathon (Ötztaler Radmarathon) crawl up the 29 kilometre-long section from St. Leonhard in Passeier (672m) to the pass, gaining 1800m (6000ft) - this is the fourth and final pass included in the gruelling 238 kilometre marathon.

External links

* [http://www.climbbybike.com/climb.asp?Col=Timmelsjoch%20&qryMountainID=1286 Profile on climbbybike.com]
* [http://www.timmelsjoch-hochalpenstrasse.at Timmelsjoch Hochalpenstrasse homepage]