CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Ordered leg totals agree within rounding. Stop distances are approximate sums of rounded legs. Stops, delays, approach and any separate return travel add time. Basis: producer-declared routed record.
Reading history stays on this device. My road watch requires a separate selection; opening it does not subscribe this ride.
Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
A one-way ride of 312 km, Altdorf to Andermatt - roughly 5 h 16 in the saddle. The climbs: Sustenpass west, Grimselpass reservoirs, Furkapass glacier road and Gotthard Tremola cobbles. It tops out at 2,478 m. Susten Pass, Grimsel Pass, Furka Pass and Gotthard Pass are subject to seasonal closure - check it is open before you set off. The passes are the reason to go.
The last of the trees go and the road runs out onto open ground. The summit sits at 2429 m, and what surrounds it is rock, weather and distance — cold comes early up here and stays late. Ride it with something in reserve: the summit is not the end of the work, only the middle of it.
Check the pass is open before you commit to it.
The ground tilts up and stays tilted for 71 km. 986 m of it, taken steadily rather than in one wall. A steady rhythm suits this better than bursts. The height arrives whether you hurry or not.
Altdorf is the capital of the canton of Uri, a small town at the head of Lake Lucerne's southern arm where the Reuss river leaves the mountains and the Gotthard route begins. It is a practical, low-key place, flat and sheltered, with a pretty centre and a roar of traffic nearby from the motorway, and it is the sort of town where riders refill the tank, buy a coffee and look up at the wall of peaks above.
Read the complete Altdorf fuel gate write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Altdorf is where the day begins. Next is Sustenpass west ramp, climbing 1766 m.
The west ramp of the Sustenpass starts in the Haslital near Innertkirchen and climbs through the Gadmertal, a deep, quiet, wooded valley that most day-trippers never see. Fuel is down in the valley at Innertkirchen or Meiringen, and the nearest big town is Altdorf, well over twenty kilometres away, so fill up before you go.
Read the complete Sustenpass west ramp write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
You top out at 2224 m here. The road climbs 1766 m on the way up to it, hard. Reckon on about 11 °C colder than the valley, and more in the wind. At this height the road is a summer one: snow gates can stay shut into June and shut again in October. Next is Innertkirchen, mostly downhill.
Innertkirchen sits at 625 metres where the Haslital opens out, and in practice it is a junction. Two famous passes start here, the Grimsel climbing southeast toward the Rhône glacier and the Susten rising east toward the Reuss valley, and the roads divide at the edge of the village. The Aare river runs through, fresh from the glaciers, and just downstream the Aare Gorge cuts a narrow slot of polished limestone that can be walked on timber galleries. The valley is also the heart of the Oberhasli hydropower scheme, with turbines and tunnels bored deep inside the mountains, which explains the large grey buildings you pass.
Read the complete Innertkirchen write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
A break here. You lose 1599 m on the way down to it, steadily. Next is Grimselpass reservoirs, climbing 1539 m.
The Grimsel is one of the great Alpine passes, and it is also one of the least wild. At 2,164 metres it joins the Bernese Oberland and the upper Valais, and the landscape it crosses is a bare, glaciated bowl of grey granite, scoured smooth by ice and then dammed by engineers. There are three reservoirs in the immediate area, and the water in them is a startling turquoise or slate depending on the sky.
Read the complete Grimselpass reservoirs write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The high point of this section, 2164 m up. The road climbs 1539 m on the way up to it, steadily. Next is Furkapass glacier road, climbing 265 m.
Furka is the pass everybody has seen without knowing it: the Goldfinger car chase of 1964 was filmed on these hairpins, and the hotel at the Rhône glacier still trades on the association. At 2,429 metres it is the highest pass of the classic Swiss trio, linking Uri to the canton of Valais through the Urseren valley and down to Gletsch.
Read the complete Furkapass glacier road write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Furkapass glacier road tops the climb at 2429 m. The road climbs 265 m on the way up to it, steadily. Reckon on about 13 °C colder than the valley, and more in the wind. Next is Realp descent, mostly downhill.
Realp is the last village on the Urseren valley road before the Furka, a hamlet at about fifteen hundred metres that most people ride through without stopping. That would be a mistake, because the railway station here is the starting point of the Furka cogwheel steam railway, a heritage line run by volunteers, which was rebuilt from abandoned track after the original was closed in 1981. Steam locomotives climb to Oberwald by way of the old mountain route in summer, and even if you do not ride the train, the sight and smell of the engines in the station yard make a decent coffee stop.
Read the complete Realp descent fuel check write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Realp descent is the fuel stop for this leg. You lose 891 m on the way down to it, steadily. Reckon on about 7 °C colder than the valley, and more in the wind. Next is Back to Altdorf, mostly downhill.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Altdorf fuel gate write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back to Altdorf closes the day. You lose 1080 m on the way down to it, steadily. Next is Andermatt base check, climbing 986 m.
Andermatt sits in a high, flat valley called the Urseren, at 1,444 metres, where four of the great Swiss passes meet. The Gotthard heads south to Ticino, the Oberalp runs east toward Graubünden, the Furka climbs west to the Valais, and the road north follows the Reuss down through a gorge to Lake Lucerne. People have crossed here for at least eight hundred years, ever since the Devil's Bridge was thrown across the gorge to make the Gotthard route practical, and the village has served travellers and soldiers ever since.
Read the complete Andermatt base reset write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
You start here, at 1444 m. The road climbs 986 m on the way up to it, steadily. Reckon on about 6 °C colder than the valley, and more in the wind. Next is Gotthard Tremola cobbles, climbing 662 m.
The Tremola is the old road over the Gotthard, and riding it is a bit like walking into a museum that is still in use. It climbs from Airolo on the Ticino side up to the pass at 2,106 metres in a staircase of tight hairpins, all of them paved with granite cobbles, laid by hand in the nineteenth century and restored in recent decades. The tarmac road runs alongside for those who prefer it, but the cobbles are the point.
Read the complete Gotthard Tremola cobbles write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The high point of this section, 2106 m up. The road climbs 662 m on the way up to it, steadily. Next is Airolo fuel and water, mostly downhill.
Airolo is a small town with a big job. It sits at 1,175 metres at the southern end of the Gotthard, where the Leventina valley begins, and for centuries anyone coming south from the pass has funnelled through it. Today much of that traffic disappears underground: the railway tunnel, opened in 1882, and the road tunnel, opened in 1980, both come out near here, and the village is the place where the north-south corridor changes from German to Italian speech, from larch to chestnut.
Read the complete Airolo fuel and water write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Airolo fuel and water is the fuel stop for this leg. You lose 931 m on the way down to it, steadily. Reckon on about 5 °C colder than the valley, and more in the wind. Next is Nufenenpass high point, climbing 1303 m.
The Nufenen is the highest pass entirely within Switzerland, at 2,478 metres, and it earns the superlative with a bleak, windswept summit that feels more like the moon than the Alps. There is no pretty village at the top, no hotel, only a small car park, a few marker stones and a wide view of bare rock and snow patches. The pass links the Goms in the Valais with the Val Bedretto in Ticino, joining Ulrichen and Airolo, and it was built only in the 1960s, which makes it one of the youngest major roads in the Alps.
Read the complete Nufenenpass high point write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Nufenenpass high point is the summit of this stretch at 2478 m. The road climbs 1303 m on the way up to it, steadily. Nothing on this route is higher. Next is Furka west ramp.
The western approach to the Furka starts in the Goms and ends on the shoulder of one of the most famous glaciers in the Alps. At 2,429 metres the pass joins the Valais and Uri, and on this side the road climbs from the hamlet of Gletsch, where the Rhône begins its journey, through a staircase of hairpins that give increasingly grand views of the ice behind.
Read the complete Furka west ramp write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
You top out at 2429 m here. Next is Realp descent check, mostly downhill.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Realp descent fuel check write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Realp descent check sits at 450 km, late in the day. Next is back to Andermatt base check.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Andermatt base reset write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Finish at back to Andermatt base check. That is the ride.
Altdorf fuel gate → Sustenpass west ramp climbs about 1766 m in 43 km. This is the part worth slowing down for - look through the bends and use the pull-offs.
Sustenpass west ramp → Innertkirchen food reset drops about 1599 m over 29 km. Brakes and eyes forward; the views are behind the corners, not in them.
Innertkirchen food reset → Grimselpass reservoirs climbs about 1539 m in 26 km. This is the part worth slowing down for - look through the bends and use the pull-offs.
Grimselpass reservoirs → Furkapass glacier road is 16 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Furkapass glacier road → Realp descent fuel check drops about 891 m over 12 km. Brakes and eyes forward; the views are behind the corners, not in them.
Realp descent fuel check → Back to Altdorf drops about 1080 m over 42 km. Brakes and eyes forward; the views are behind the corners, not in them.
Back to Altdorf → Andermatt base check climbs about 986 m in 34 km. This is the part worth slowing down for - look through the bends and use the pull-offs.
Andermatt base check → Gotthard Tremola cobbles climbs about 662 m in 13 km. This is the part worth slowing down for - look through the bends and use the pull-offs.
Gotthard Tremola cobbles → Airolo fuel and water drops about 931 m over 15 km. Brakes and eyes forward; the views are behind the corners, not in them.
Airolo fuel and water → Nufenenpass high point climbs about 1303 m in 24 km. This is the part worth slowing down for - look through the bends and use the pull-offs.
Nufenenpass high point → Furka west ramp is 36 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Furka west ramp → Realp descent check drops about 891 m over 12 km. Brakes and eyes forward; the views are behind the corners, not in them.
Realp descent check → back to Andermatt base check is 10 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.