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Before the cities

The summit first

This is Grossglockner, Austria’s highest mountain, 3,798 metres above the Adriatic. The journey does not begin on a capital street. It begins high up, then drops to the river and the cities, then climbs again when the road is ready. The summit is a twin pyramid: the main peak and the Kleinglockner at 3,770 metres, with a notch between them. On the eastern flank runs the Pasterze, the country’s longest glacier.