Hohe Tauern/High Alpine Road in October

What are the chances there will be measurable snow up there by the end of October this year?
Who knows?

I'd suggest you just plan out an alternative and watch the weather closer to your trip.

Hi,

I would have an alternative, but plan on doing your plan. We drove the Grossglockner in late October and stayed in Heiligenblut and visited Zell am See. Actually, we visited Zell am See on Nov. 1 and it was acyrstal clear, beautiful, warm day. You just never know. We also drove all over the Dolomite Passes with a small, 1.4 liter manual transmission car. No problems at all.

If interested:

http://www.pension-alpenrose.at/en/welcome/
https://www.flickr.com/photos/pjbassplyr/albums/72157646987030586
Nov. 1 Zell am See pics are near the bottom of this page:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/pjbassplyr/albums/72157646958077741

http://www.ederhof-heiligenblut.at/de/
https://www.flickr.com/photos/pjbassplyr/albums/72157646805064622

Paul

I don't know the specifics of the High Alpine Road, but I do know the weather patterns in the Alps quite well. September and early October are usually the best times of the year for hiking because the temperatures are usually mild and dry. The changeover, however, starts to occur in mid to late October. Damp weather moves in, and the snowpack starts to accumulate above the Alpine level. You can certainly do some hiking at lower altitudes, but it will likely be touch and go above the tree line

Thanks Paul and Tom, much appreciated. Looks like it may have been wiser to do more thorough research earlier, but never mind. At best I can only pull that part of the trip forward three days, and it'll end up becoming a royal pain to do so. I might cut it down by one day at the end and spend an extra day up in Zell am See or Hallstatt instead.

I think you'll be fine at the end of October.

We just returned from a 17 day trip to Austria. Part of that trip included 3 days in Heiligenblut. We arrived on May 30, departing on June 1st. We had hoped that on day one we could take the chairlift up for a good look, but it doesn't open until mid-July. The second day we had light rain but not a bad day. We had a nice drive to the top on what was about 9 miles on the Alpine road. We planned to drive the rest of the highway the following day to our next destination in Bad Aussee, but bad weather that morning required us to have chains, which we did not have, so we were disappointed that we could not complete the Alpine Highway. So, as you can see the weather in that area is very unpredictable, even in June.