The scenery is stark: bare rock, screes, snow patches and a handful of small, dark lakes, with the Flüela Wisshorn and the Schwarzhorn rising on either side. Davos, the highest town of its size in the Alps, is ten and a half kilometres away, and Zernez about twelve.
For a rider, the pass is excellent. Coming from Davos, the road climbs through the Flüelatal in a series of well-engineered bends, with views opening out over the valley and then the dramatic, treeless upper section. The surface is generally good, the barriers are solid and the gradient is steady. The descent towards Susch is steeper and more exposed, with tighter hairpins, a few narrow places and an old hospice at the top, a plain stone building that has sheltered travellers for centuries.
The pass is closed in winter, normally from about November to May, because of heavy snow and avalanche risk, and a late spring or early autumn storm can shut it for a day or two. Weather at this height can change fast, with cold wind, low cloud and sudden sleet, even in July. Keep a warm layer and gloves in the top case, because the pass is a good fifteen degrees colder than the valleys.
Davos, in its high valley at over fifteen hundred metres, is known for the World Economic Forum, for the tuberculosis sanatoria that made it famous in the nineteenth century, and for winter sport. Thomas Mann set his novel The Magic Mountain in a Davos sanatorium, and the town still carries some of that air. Fuel and food are plentiful there and in Zernez or Susch on the far side. For the best ride, go early, when the light is raking and the tarmac is empty.