Swiss Alps in July

Sweet ride, particularly the Rhone valley in Wallis, liked St Moritz and
Livigno, splendid passes, nice to do the Stelvio via Umbria Pass. Just one
reservation, weather can be hell around Furka, sleet and snow on bad days,
even in July.
http://www.lowdin.nu/MTB/singletrack2000/SingleTrack2000.htm

Per

"gianni" <[email hidden]> skrev i meddelandet
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Will be riding from Geneva to Verona ( Italy ) starting on 14th of
July. The plan is riding to Chamonix, along the Rhone Valley up
Furkapass, Oberalppass, Fluelapass and sweet last italian's favourite
Stelvio pass ( sweet 2757m ).
Suggestions welcomed from anyone who has been riding parts of this
route or if you are going to be around there at the same time let me
know.
Gianni

Having just come back from biking vacation in switzerland I would give you
the following advice.
I would recommend taking the route over the albula pass instead of going
over the fluela pass. The albula pass is much quieter and nicer (and little
steeper) and you will also be closer to the st.moritz area when you get to
the engadina valley. If you like railway and spectacular sceneries you could
always take a rest-day (or even 1/2 day) in albula or engadina valley and
catch the train over to tirano over the bernina pass and marvel at the most
incredible railway in europe. (roundtrip takes perhaps 4 hours?)
Stelvio pass is nice over umbrail, however, the famous stelvio climb is from
prato on the eastern side which when coming from ofenpass I think you can
reach just by continuing down the valley instead of turning off for umbrail.

and yes the weather is extremely volatile in this area. I think this year
has been quite miserable up until now. During my vacation I had a lot of
rain and even snow. One advice I would give regarding the cold weather is
that make sure your legs (and especially your knees) are kept warm at all
times.

Torsten Amundsen

"gianni" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Will be riding from Geneva to Verona ( Italy ) starting on 14th of
July. The plan is riding to Chamonix, along the Rhone Valley up
Furkapass, Oberalppass, Fluelapass and sweet last italian's favourite
Stelvio pass ( sweet 2757m ).
Suggestions welcomed from anyone who has been riding parts of this
route or if you are going to be around there at the same time let me
know.
Gianni

gianni said:

Will be riding from Geneva to Verona ( Italy ) starting on 14th of
July. The plan is riding to Chamonix, along the Rhone Valley up
Furkapass, Oberalppass, Fluelapass and sweet last italian's favourite
Stelvio pass ( sweet 2757m ).
Suggestions welcomed from anyone who has been riding parts of this
route or if you are going to be around there at the same time let me
know.

I would suggest to follow this route:

Geneva to Aigle along the Lake Leman, flat and easy
Col de Mosses or Col du Pillon (nicer the second option): up and steep
Gstaad to Interlaken: small uphill, then all down or flat

In alternative, you could take via the Jura and cut via Bulle through the
Jaun pass and end up in Bottigen on the route to Interlaken. The Jaun
is quite steep and the route is not as spectacular as the first one, but
it is a bit shorter and easier.

Interlaken to Meiringen: via the lake or via the Gr.Scheidegg
(flat and nice the first, steep and wonderful the second - IMHO a must
in that region)

Geneva to Meiringen can be done in one day, but it is a bit limit (for me,
could be a piece of cake for more trained biker, e.g. Jobst ;-) )

Once in Meirigen, you can choose between the Susten or the Grimsel-Furka.
I have no experience here...

To get into the Engadin, I would recommend the Albula. A bit steep but
lovely and with little traffic.

Ciao,
--
Roberto Divia` Love at first sight is one of the greatest
============= labour-saving devices the world has ever seen.
Mailbox: C02110 CERN-European Organization for Nuclear Research
E-mail: [email hidden] CH-1211 GENEVE 23, Switzerland

In article <[email hidden]>,
[email hidden] says...

Quoted message said:

Will be riding from Geneva to Verona ( Italy ) starting on 14th of
July. The plan is riding to Chamonix, along the Rhone Valley up
Furkapass, Oberalppass, Fluelapass and sweet last italian's favourite
Stelvio pass ( sweet 2757m ).
Suggestions welcomed from anyone who has been riding parts of this
route or if you are going to be around there at the same time let me

Do a google search and read Jobst Brandt's reports on his riding in the
Alps. I think this is also the time of year he is riding there, so you
might run into him.
-------------
Alex

"Torsten Amundsen" <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:<[email hidden]>...

Quoted message said:

Stelvio pass is nice over umbrail, however, the famous stelvio climb is from
prato on the eastern side which when coming from ofenpass I think you can
reach just by continuing down the valley instead of turning off for umbrail.

Yes, definitely a more dramatic climb from the east side. And you can
get to Prato by the route you suggest; instead of turning up the
Umbrail he can head down to Maistra, cross into Italy and take SS41
and then SP50 to Prato. I think that direction (from Prato through
Trafoi and up) is the better ascending route, and the west side is the
better descending route; do not need to brake so much going down that
side, though it is good to have a light to see the road surface in the
tunnels.

Quoted message said:

and yes the weather is extremely volatile in this area. I think this year
has been quite miserable up until now. During my vacation I had a lot of
rain and even snow.

I second that. We had to hold up for a day because of heavy snow on
Stelvio the day we were going to climb over (June 20th). We went over
on June 21st and there was light rain at lower elevations and attempts
at light snow flurries at the top - then a good dusting of snow again
that night. Seems to keep repeating. High temp at the top today was
3.8C, low was -1.1 .... and there was some light rain. Seems to be a
persistent pattern, and the storms seem to keep coming.

- rick

Quoted message said:

I second that. We had to hold up for a day because of heavy snow on
Stelvio the day we were going to climb over (June 20th).

We had icy sleet
http://www.lowdin.nu/MTB/singletrack2000/It2000/Italy2000_files/CH20000035.JPG
were freezing, knees knocking and teeth clattering in late July or early
August.

Per
http://lowdin.nu

Thanks everybody for all the precious suggestions. I will take the tip
about the Albula pass instead of Fluela. As far as Stelvio I know the
classic ride goes from Prato Stelvio but I have done that before on a
racing bike and this time I happen to get there from the other side so
will experience that way instead. As anyone there riden the
Umbrailpass? How is the surface and grade?
Thank you again and will post my tour trip soon.

Gianni
----------------------------
http://cyclingtheworld.org
The website for bike touring

Quoted message said:

As anyone there riden the
Umbrailpass? How is the surface and grade?

We road it in 2000, it is a nice slow climb, no sweat with a MTB, surface
was a bit scruffy at the time.

Per
http://lowdin.nu

Thanks to everyone for the good suggestions you gave for my tour in
the Alps. It was magic and from what you all said I must have been
lucky with the weather getting 'only' 30 minutes of hail and 1
rainstorm in 10 days. The suggestion a few of you made about doing the
Albulapass instead of Fluela was spot on and the same was suggested to
me from local people when I asked. The Albula maybe was the nicest of
them all followed by Umbrail and Offenpass.

I posted my tour and some pictures here:

http://www.cyclingtheworld.org/tours/searchtours.php?continent=any&country=any&region=alps&Submit=search&submitted=TRUE

gianni