Grand Alps Tour - Winter in fall?
Stacy and Jason, David, Michael and Craig made it all the way to winterly Seefeld and were now listening excited to the things Markus had to tell. Looking out of the windows it probably would have been better an introduction for a week of skiing, but downstairs at the hotel garage there were some motorcycles waiting for us.
"if life gives you a lemon make lemonjuice out of it" That's what happened today! Because of the weatherforecast yesterday our tourguide decided to make it a late start and to do some rerouting to avoid the possibly snowcovered mountainroads and low temperatures an more than 6000 feet altitude. As a surprise we visited a local brewerey in Imst, which was founded in 1810. Touring the historical brewery, where some parts are still in use nowadays for brewing beer, was an absolute highlight. Specially Michael, coming from a brewery in Alaska, enjoyed it a lot. Latest, when we were finished with the tour, our lemon turned to good juice! Because being on motorcycles we could not do the beer tasting, but we got quite a few bootles of beer as a gift from the brewery to take with us. The highlight for the afternoon was the road up to and the view from "Gacher Blick", a platform sticking out into the nowhere, offering, even in not so good weather a great outlook way above the river Inn Valley. As a summery: not a lot of rain and some stretches of good riding - aperfect day for the circumstances
As winter was still sitting up there in the mountains, it was a challenge for the tourguides to find out, which passes were passable. First one, Flüelapass, was just cleared from snow, but temperatures on top were still just below 0° C. To be safe, Markus decided, that we take a different way: a train! After a one hour ride and crossing the border into Switzerland we boarded the train in Vereina and it took us in 18 minutes through the mountain to Klosters. The weather cleared mor and more, so that we finally rode in sunny conditions. After having some coffee in Liechtenstein we crossed back into Switzerland, passes by Lake Walensee and turned to Glarus, ready to climb Klausenpass. But what a surprise! Spite to informations in the web, that the pass should be open, we were faceing a closed sign! But the tourguide knew another road to Schwyz and Altdorf. Through the wonderful Klönvalley we climbed Pragelpass, partly the road was not wider than a paved goat trail. Dizzying high mountains are framing the valley, have way you will find Lake Köberlsee, mirroring the scenery. After getting back on the track in Altdorf we climbed the road to Andermatt, a lovely little Swiss town.
Bright sunshine and not a single cloud - we did not have that yet! time to collect some passes. To name them in the sequence we conquered them: Furkapass, Grimsel, Susten, Gotthard Nufenen, and for the final Furka one more time, but this time from the west side. It would be hard to choose a favorite, because on all of them the scenery is breath taking. And on all of them winter has left it's footprints in the form of snow. But the roads were clear, the sun was out, the riding was great - all in all a perfect day!
The pass collectors are on their way! After we have done a number of passes yesterday we added a few more today to our collection. Starting out in Andermatt we did Furka and Grimsel again. It was a safety issue, because we saw yesterday still a lot of snow on Susten and the low temperatures may have turned the melted snow into ice on the road as the temperatures were still around 0°C. after decending from Grimsel we travelled through the beautiful Berner Oberland, an area around the cities of Interlaken and Thun. At our lunchstop in Thun we figured out, that there is hotspot for surfers !? Just look at the pictures. Continueing our ride we headed to Gstaad and got to see the famous peaks of Mönch, Eiger and Jungfrau. Afterwards we added some following passes to our list before we passed by Chamonix: Col du Pillon, Col de la Croix, Col de la Forcla and Col de Montets. Allready in France we got an an almost clear view of Mount Blanc while passing by and heading to St. Gervais le Bains, our todays destination.
After 300 km/185 miles yesterday todays 210 km/130 miles seem to be a peace of cake. We took Col de Saisies for a warm-up and got to see Mount Blanc from the westside with almost no clouds. After rolling along the Savoy valley we headed for Col the Madleine, Partly not wider than a small driveway the road winds up the mountain tp top in a spot with an amazing view. Descending to La Chambre we followed the valley until the turn-off to Col du Galibier. You feel like on top of the world, looking at all the peaks around. Getting to our destination Briancon, Gerald was awaiting us with a surprise - called bootbeer! And to top a great day we got one of the best "bouillabaisse" (French fishsoup) evr - cooked grandma-style!
Well, it turned out to be a kind of restday! after sleeping in in the morning we met at 10:00 to take off for a small loop. Heading south we stopped at the Fort Mont Dauphin, one of 160 fortified places built or renewed by Sebastiane Vauban around 1700. David and Mike decided to go for an extended version of the restday ride and the rest of us walked the fortification and were impressed by the lay-out and the ideas behind. After getting back on the bikes we headed towards Col D'Izoard, where Gerald was waiting with a surprise for us. He had prepared an excellent picnic inside a postcard - that's what the surrounding looked like.
Checking the weatherforecast winter is glimpsing over the mountains again, extra on the day were we would climb the highest pass of the tour! But it came better then exspected. It was kind of cold as we stopped for coffee in Susa and as we started to climb Col de L'Echelle. The whole pass was covered in fog and it is told, that there is a beautiful lake up. We didn't see it. Descending to the valley we visited Bonneval-sur -Arc, a typical mounatain village, stonebuilt houses with slatecovered roofs. After reloading the coffeintank we were ready to climb the highest pass of the tour - Col de L'Iseran - 2764 m above sea level. It was cold, but not windy - so we could spend some time on the pass without freezing! After a lunch stop in Val d'Isere we rolled towards Col du Petit San Bernard, crossed from France into Italy for the second time today and headed to Aosta, today's destination.
Yesterday winter was looking around tghe corner, today he sent a lot of water. Pretty soon after we headed out it started to rain - and it did not stop almost all day long. The twisty roads along the foothills of the Alps were partly allready covered with fallen leaves, water was everywhere, but everybody seemed to like the challenge. we kept going and going and going. Somewhen we reached the ferry across Lago Maggiore. As we got off the boat on the other side rain had stopped and Markus took us over a tiny little pass direction Switzerland. After crossing the border we hit Lugano, a bussy hotspot at lake Lugano.
You could call it the day of the border crossings! A few kilometers out of Lugano we crossed from Switzerland into Italy. Cruising along Lake Como, stopping for a coffee in Menaggio, trying to see Cloony's villa across the lake and enjoying the warmth after yesterday's cold and wet ride, we got closer to the mountains again. Climbing a road, that was chiseled into the face of a steep wall with switchbacks as tight as possible, we reached Passo Spluga and crossed the border back to Switzerland. Passo Julia was the next one, after Albula showed some snow on top. After a realy quick look at St. Moritz we hurried across Passo Bernina towards Livigno - only +3° C and rain kept us off another coffee and picture stopp.
A crisp, but most of the time sunny day! It looked like winter is giving fall a chance. Crossing the tunnel to Switzertland, Markus took us over Umbrail Pass up to Stelvio, as the road on the North ramp was closed for construction reasons. For sure not as challenging as 49 switchbacks, but another masterpeace of road engeneering. Enjoying Bruno's sussage as a morning snack, we headed for Bormio. There a decission was to take, Gavia Pass or not - as the pictures of the webcam showed heavy fog and snow. But a short call at the refugio cleared all doubts and we climbed the pass. +2°C but now ice in the road. Descending on the south ramp some got caught by surprise about the narrowness of the single lane road - in some sections barely enough room for two bikes. On top of Passo Tonale Gerald awaitet us with our second picknic. Even it was cold, it was delicious. And then we rolled towards Bozen / Bolzano with one more pass, Mendelpass, to do.
The weathergod is treating us with warm and cold. The weatherforecast was a lousy one, rain from about noon on. So Jason, Stacy, Craig and David took the cablecar into the city to explore the town, while Mike and Markus adjusted a loop to the actual weather. They enjoyed the ride on small roads with almost no traffic and got at least a glimps of the cloud and fog covered Dolomites.
According to the book a long ride through the Dolomites and riding across the Großglockner High Alpine Road. The weatherforecast was like all the other days: rain with some sunny windows. So we started out of Colbalbo cruising along the hillside on a road that is in some sections smaller than somebody's driveway. At the lowest point we crossed the mainvalley and started to climb Val Gardena. Rain hit in and it looked like its gonna be the same for the rest of the day. In La villa we were hit by the surprise of the day: Passo Valparolo ciuso. So Markus turned the way with less clouds and getting across Passo Campolonga and climbing up Passo Falzarego from the other side was abviously the right thing to do. Also Passo Tre Crocci, Lago di Misurina and finally Lienz presented themselves from their best side. Not really wearm, but without rain. The tourguide did again research on the Großglockner Road, but too heavy wind kept it closed for motorcycles and bycicles. So we head to go aroun and take the Felbertauern Road, which got us with a little rain right before and after the long tunnel. All in all it was a good day, topped finaly by an outstanding museum of classic vehicles at Hotel Vötter
Rain, rain and rain! Pictures on the websites and the TV showed snow up in the mountains! Zillertaler High Alpine Road - closed because of snow, Gerlospass - closed for motorcycles because of snow, Pass Thurn probably ok, but high enough to have snow on the road. So we waited and at about ten we left the hotel heading towards Saalfelden. Pretty soon the rain stopped and going towards Hochfilzen the road started to dry up and we switched from the main road onto small and empty countryside roads. Sometimes we had to get back on mainroads, but Markus showed us his backyard, also stopping at the city of Hall in Tirol, which was an important place in medivial times. And then we headed to Mieming, the clouds promised worse. But in spit e of it everything tried up by the time we got to the Edelweiss base.
Well, showed Winter, that even in cold and sometimes wet weather, there is good riding. Unfortunatelly we could not conquere some of the passes we were supossed to, but take that just as an excuse to come back agin. Thanks to all of you being such an outstanding great group, you made it easy for us to be your guides. Have a pleasant journey back home, safe all the memories and one day we might meet again - you never know. All the best, Markus and Gerald