Dachstein Glacier, AUSTRIA ML - With a sheer drop of 1,300ft visible beneath your feet, walking along this suspension bridge onto a glass platform jutting off the edge of a cliff is not for the fainthearted.
Opened to the public on Wednesday, the new bridge offers spectacular views of the Alps, but at such dizzying heights only the bravest are likely to test their mettle. The ‘stairway to nothingness’ at the Dachstein Glacier is only for visitors with ‘nerves of steel’, the resort’s website reads. The suspension bridge, situated near the town of Schladming, leads to fourteen descending steps off a cliff, ending on a glass platform with vertigo-inducing views of the mountains below.
Their reward, however, is the ‘pure freedom’ of hovering above a 400-meter (1,300-foot) drop while taking in the spectacular landscape of the Austrian Alps.
The 100-meter-long bridge, which took six months to build, is the highest in Austria.
Technical director Karl Höflehner, who oversaw this spectacular project, said: ‘I am absolutely delighted that we managed to reach agreement with the nature conservation authority, which means that all visitors to the Dachstein can now experience the breathtaking sensation of being suspended above the rock face as they gaze over the Alps.’
The work on the suspension bridge was at times carried out in exceptionally challenging conditions but Mr Höflehner said the most important thing was that the work was completed with none of the construction workers being injured.
The resort website claims that the end result is one of the most spectacular ways ‘of savouring the superb natural backdrop of the Dachstein glacier’.