The Silvretta High Alpine Road is one of the most spectacular roads in the Alps. Even for the mountain professionals at the bus companies mbs Bus GmbH and Paznauntaler who drive this route several times a day, the 34 hairpin bends on the 22.3-kilometre-long private road present a challenge every time.

Bend 10 is the most difficult one for buses. The other 24 hairpins are just as tight, but none are as steep as bend 10. Martin Schlepp knows what he is talking about. The 55-year-old dispatcher at the transport company mbs Bus GmbH from Schruns in Austria’s state of Vorarlberg was a bus driver himself for many years and knows the Silvretta High Alpine Road like the back of his hand. We accompany him on Line 85 up to Silvretta Lake in a Mercedes-Benz Citaro Ü.

“What is so treacherous about the bends on this special road is not so much that they are tight but that they drop off sharply towards the middle,” says Schlepp. That carries the danger, especially for buses with a low floor or long overhang, that they will run aground on the skids of the front or rear overhang – and will be unable to drive any further.

“It is not so long ago that a coach coming down ran aground at the front and back simultaneously on bend 10. The wheels hung in the air and that was that,” recounts Schlepp. The fire service had to lift the coach up and support it with joists to set it free. The fact that such stories are not mere folklore is clearly apparent from the centimetre deep marks that the skids of numerous buses have scored in the tarred surface of every single hairpin bend. To all bus drivers who have not yet been on the Silvretta, Martin Schlepp advises: “You must really drive every bend right on the outside. Use every millimetre of road; otherwise, you will get stuck.” He then circles the Mercedes-Benz Citaro Ü majestically through the next bend, whereby at the front no hand would fit between the bumper and the stone edge of the bend.

With every bend that our bus twists its way uphill, more and more spectacular views of the valley are revealed. Far below us, the village of Partenen can just be made out with the toll station, which we passed barely 10 minutes ago. Between bends 22 and 23, you would love to make the driver stop so as to be able to enjoy the view of the tightly twisting strip of the steep road below us for a little bit longer. Yet there is a timetable to keep to. The drive from the toll station uphill to the Bielerhöhe Pass and Silvretta Lake takes 18 minutes.

Silvretta Lake, on the border between the Austrian states of Vorarlberg and Tyrol, is the actual reason why the Silvretta High Alpine Road exists at all. Silvretta Lake is a reservoir that enables electricity to be generated when needed irrespective of the weather and time of year. Although Illwerke started constructing the dam back in 1938, they only widened the cattle tracks in the Tyrolean Paznaun valley to make a passable construction road in 1947; however, there was no link to the village of Partenen in the west for a long time. Only in 1951 did huge diggers work downwards metre by metre from the dam wall and dig out the spectacular route through the steep rock slope using their enormous scoops. Three years later, on 23 June 1954, the through road from Partenen to Galtür was opened to traffic. To this day, the Silvretta High Alpine Road is still a private toll road owned by Illwerke and only open in the summer months from the end of May to the end of October, depending on the weather.

Having arrived at the highest point of the route, the Bielerhöhe Pass at Silvretta Lake, all the passengers are able to get out. Not all the bends have been overcome yet: around half of the 22.3-kilometre route still stretches ahead of us. But for Martin Schlepp and his Citaro Ü, this is the tour’s turning point. His line only goes as far as the Tyrolean state border, which runs along the bank of Silvretta Lake. Anyone wanting to travel on to Galtür and Ischgl from here needs to change, although not in terms of bus type. The service bus operated by the Tyrolean bus company Paznauntaler, which runs the line from here, is also a Mercedes-Benz Citaro Ü.

Stefan Siegele is quite right that there are not quite as many slopes and only a few hairpins to overcome on “his” side of the Silvretta High Alpine Road. The 28-year-old company successor, who – whenever time allows – helps out in the company’s garage, knows what it means to drive on the most demanding routes every day. “Mountain routes like the Silvretta High Alpine Road take it out of the material,” he confirms. Starting with higher tyre wear through to the chassis, engine and brakes, which always have to perform to extraordinary levels in these mountain regions. However, just like his Montafon colleague from mbs Bus GmbH, Siegele is unable to observe more accidental damage on the mountain trips. “Good drivers,” he explains concisely but aptly, and includes himself with a wink.

How well the drivers from mbs Bus GmbH and Paznauntaler overcome the challenges every day on one of the most beautiful roads in the Alps can be witnessed by anyone – in the summer months, Line 85 from Schruns and Line 260 from Landeck both go up to the Bielerhöhe Pass. Spectacular views included.