Gargellen - St. Anton Pass

Start: Gargellen Cable Car Schafbergbahn Valley Station
Target group: Gargellen

The Gargellen has a rich history shaped by smuggling routes that lead through the area.
Where, in earlier centuries, smugglers and hawkers used to frolic and try to escape from customs officers, today well-marked mountain paths lead through the unique alpine landscape.
Even before World War I, from the beginning of the 19th century to well into the 20th century, smuggling due to poverty and need was an important source of income for the population, especially in Montafon.
Up to 40 kilograms of taxes were carried over the mountains during night marches, mainly filled with coffee beans, the "green gold", which were not roasted so that their smell did not reach the customs officials. Furthermore, salt, flour, sugar, and saccharin were smuggled into Austria, as well as luxury goods such as tobacco, coffee, and chewing gum, as well as soap, laundry powder, and toilet paper.
From Austria, cattle, about 400 head per year, and their products were smuggled into Switzerland over these passes and yokes. But clothing, shoes, watches, tobacco pipes, binoculars, porcelain, and cowbells were also popular.
It was not a safe business; if the smugglers were caught, the goods they carried would be confiscated, and fines or prison sentences often followed.
The smugglers were clever and cunning; to mislead their pursuers, they nailed the soles of their shoes backwards. In this way, their traces pointed exactly in the opposite direction. If a customs officer followed the fresh tracks in the snow, he would be running away from the smuggler, not after him.
All over, secret storage places were also established to hide the smuggled goods, the so-called coffee holes can still be seen in the landscape, just like the stone customs houses.

On the way to the St. Antönier Joch (2,379 m), the border between Austria and Switzerland, we follow a path through alpine meadows and stones that was once used by smugglers. Here at the border is a former customs office, which is now used as a shelter.
From here, you can continue hiking to the Riedkopf or, like us, over a long ridge, the Täscher, back towards Gargellen.

Tip:
If you continue hiking to the Riedkopf, sure-footedness and a head for heights are required.