The Furka Pass tops out at 2,429 metres, and the summit is a bare, windy saddle where the road passes between the Urseren valley and the upper Valais. The point lies right on that ridge, and the experience is as dramatic as the number suggests. On the south side the road drops in long, open switchbacks toward Realp and Andermatt, and on the north-west it falls toward Gletsch and the Rhône valley. Snow banks beside the road well into July are normal.
Many people know this pass as the one in the James Bond film Goldfinger, where Bond's Aston Martin chases an Alfa Romeo along the hairpins in the 1964 film. The scene was filmed on the pass, and the old Hotel Belvédère, just below the summit, was a landmark of it, though it was closed for years and its fortunes have been mixed. The pass is still the same: wide, bare and exposed, with the glacier-carved landscape stretching far in every direction.
The road is narrow in places and has no guardrail at some of the outer edges, so respect the drops. The surface is generally good, but frost damage leaves patches of rough asphalt, and cattle sometimes wander across the road. It is steep and tight enough that you want to be in a low gear on the descent, and the brakes get hot. A good rule is to ride it in the morning, when the road is quiet, rather than at midday, when traffic and heat combine. Weather changes fast: a clear start can end in cloud, rain or even snow within an hour, and the temperature at the top is often ten degrees colder than in the valley.
The Rhône Glacier lies near the western side, and the river that begins from its melt flows all the way to the Mediterranean. Stop, turn off the engine and listen. At this altitude the quiet is broken only by wind and water.