The Stubnerkogel suspension bridge

The Stubnerkogel is the mountain directly above Bad Gastein, a 2,246-metre summit in the Goldberg group, and the gondola to it starts a few minutes from the waterfall — one of the few places in the Alps where you go from a spa town to a high ridge without driving anywhere. The ride takes about ten minutes.

The suspension bridge is the reason most people come. It is roughly 140 metres long, strung between the summit ridge and the neighbouring crest with the ground falling away below the middle of the span, and it moves under your feet, which is worth knowing before you plan a shot on it. Because it is narrow and symmetrical it composes almost by itself: two people on it, the cables converging, and nothing behind them but sky and rock. There is a viewing platform on the summit as well, cantilevered out towards the south.

That south view is the other half of the place. Past the Gastein valley the Hohe Tauern stand in a line, with the glaciers of the Goldberg group and the Ankogel behind them, at their cleanest on a cold clear morning. In winter the whole ridge is snow and the bridge deck is cleared; in summer it is dry rock, alpine grass and marmots.

The gondola runs in the winter season and again in summer, with closed weeks between them, and both bridge and platform shut in strong wind or thunderstorms with no notice. Check the lift status and the mountain forecast the same morning, and take a windproof layer — it is normally much colder and windier up here than in the gorge.