[Uzzi]

Some weeks ago we did a Trans Alp bike trip from Lake Geneva to Lago Maggiore. On one of the days the weather was so bad we decided not to ride. The day we missed seemed really nice so we planned to ride that stretch another time. Last weekend the weather finally cleared enough to ride the higher passes/cols. To make it a little more interesting we added two extra days.

From Visp to Gspon
1. The climb up to Eischmatte. Easy road climb and hardly any traffic.
2. From Eischmatte to Törbel. Nice and fast descent.
3. From Törbel to Stalden. A long time ago this trail was used to bring the cows up the mountain in spring and down again in fall.
4. From Törbel to Stalden. Almost in Stalden where the Visper valley splits into the valley to Zermatt or Saas Fee.
5. At the hotel in Gspon.

 

[Uzzi]

From Gspon to Rosswald
1. Up to the Gibidumpass along the Saaser hohenweg.
2. Schafalp trail on our way to the Bistine pass.
3. Schafalp trail. This trail runs along a canal made to transport water from the higher regions to the dry slopes of the Rhone valley
4. From the Bistine pass down to the Simplon Pass.
5. The Stockalper weg. This is the old trail crossing the Simplon Pass from Switzerland to Italy.

 

[Uzzi]

From Rosswald to Brig
1. Leaving Rosswald.
2. Up to the Saflischpass.
3. Saflischpass, this pass is flat and very open so you can ride all the way to the top (something that does not happen to often in the Alps).
4. Last climb of our three day trip up to the Furggerschäller.
5. From the Furggerschäller down to the Rohne valley. The first bit is on a service road but we did manage to find some trail sections here and there

 

[CDtofer]

Nice!

Was in several spots on Lac Leman just after this years TDF but for the most part was riding road, wish I would have had the chance to ride some trails like these. Even the fireroads are no big deal with views like those. Do you have a link to the tour company?

Thanks for sharing,
C

 

[Rainman]

Beautiful...beautiful.. :thumbsup:


R.

 

[Uzzi]

Do you have a link to the tour company? C

We planned the three day tour ourselves the Trans Alp we did was planned by a good friend of ours. We are working on a website to post all our rides including the map, hotel and possible GPS info. If you want I can give you the info about the route, what maps to get, where to stay etc.

The three day tour was about 1.5 hours drive from Lac Léman were we are living. Indeed a very nice area for cycling road or mountain

 

[LeeL]

Small packs? Were these loops or point to point - it sounds like point to point from your description I'd like to see how to this self-supported but the logistics are a bit daunting looking at this from Canada. how did you get your overnight gear from place to place?

 

[collideous]

Damn, makes me truly miss home! Switzerland is just mountain biking paradise. I used to guide mountain bike tours in the Jura crossing the country east to west and jumping the border to France a few times along the way. Your photos are spectacular. When I'm back in the country I need to explore the Alps more. I know the Jura like the back of my hand, but can't say that about the Alps.

 

[SHIVER ME TIMBERS]

frickin beautiful............fricken beautiful


I can believe the drop height

 

[notrelatedtoted]

Fantastic!

This one makes me dizzy....

 

[JackFromNC]

^^^
Yeah, that gives me vertigo.

 

[bajamtnbkr]

That's a great shot!!

 

[545cu4ch]

Wow.....riding with that amount of exposure most be a completely different experience.....:eekster:

 

[NetWarrior]

TAKE ME TO SWITZERLAND !!!

Amazing :|:|:|

Maybe onde day i go there great landscapes.. and nice climbings... I BET

 

[Low_Rider]

It’s truly a fantastic part of the world, those photos describe what words can’t. Just magical.

Dave.

 

[Uzzi]

Small packs? Were these loops or point to point - it sounds like point to point from your description I'd like to see how to this self-supported but the logistics are a bit daunting looking at this from Canada. how did you get your overnight gear from place to place?

We went from hotel to hotel, so yes it was a point to point tour. Switzerland has a lot of hotels, hostels and alpine huts so you do not need to carry that much gear. My better half has a small pack that weighs around 5 kilo's without water, mine is about 6 kilo's without water. With the stuff I carry for a tour like this one I could also ride 8 day's or more…you would like to have laundry service at the hotel then…

I prefer the self supported tours over the guided tours with a support vehicle. If we are with a bigger group we tend to organize our own support vehicle making the logistics of it much easier.

See picture for an idea of the pack size...

 

[LeeL]

Thanks Uzzi - i appreciate the update. We don't have so many huts in Canada so I have to do all the trips like that self-supported. I personally like being self-reliant and having control over the trip.

The guided trips look fantastic but my concern is what happens if it snows or rains? Then you are stuck riding in a whiteout or hiking over a snowy pass. I don't mind that if Im close to home in Canada but its an issue if I travel halfway around the world - i don't particularly want to ride in a snowstorm in Europe; for that much money I can do that at home

Here's a trip I did self-supported - https://www.leelau.net/2006/taseko0706/tasekolorna280706/tasekolorna.htm

Just three days but sleeping with no tent to stay light and no nice huts or hotels so all the food. clothes etc on the back.

 

[Uzzi]

That looks like a great trip you guys have done! We don’t have wilderness like that over here and most of our wildlife we wiped out a couple of hundred years ago, we see some marmots or chamois now and then. Respect for carrying all the stuff yourselves…with a glass of wine at the hotel fire place every night our trips are rather luxurious…

Personally I would not book a guided trip in Europe. There is so much information to be found on the internet about all possible Trans Alp crossings that it would be fairly easy to plan/control it yourself. The weather bien sur is always going to be the unpredictable factor…this years August was a disaster for instance… Now the weather is great, in fact we just decided to do a two day tour this weekend.

I understand your concern it is the same concern that makes us reluctant to plan a trip to Canada or the US, although there might be some area’s that hardly get any rain/snow.

 

[Jisch]

LeeL: Amazing trip...

Man do I envy you being able to do that trip! Amazing. Some day I gotta get out of surburbia here and do some adventure riding like that (seems to be about equal parts pushing/riding!). I've tried to put stuff like that together here out in CT, it just becomes so much less of an adventure when you're crossing roads every couple of miles...

John

 

[collideous]

The guided trips look fantastic but my concern is what happens if it snows or rains? Then you are stuck riding in a whiteout or hiking over a snowy pass. I don't mind that if Im close to home in Canada but its an issue if I travel halfway around the world - i don't particularly want to ride in a snowstorm in Europe; for that much money I can do that at home.

Unfortunately the weather in Switzerland and the countries bordering it is pretty unpredictable. When I guided MTB tours I've had tours where it rained the whole week. You'd hop on the bike in the morning and you'd be soaking wet within just a short time. I can pride myself though, that no one ever quit my tours, despite many cold, wet days. I think rides in rough weather are just as much fun as under sunny skies. You just won't be taking home pictures of spectacular views since you'll be riding through "graui suppe" (Swiss German for gray soup) all day.