Furka · Grimsel · Susten Big Three Dawn

3 passes in 223 km, topping out at 2429 m

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Why this ride

Three alpine legends, best before the traffic wakes up. 223 km round from Altdorf - plan on about 4 h 17 of riding. The climbs: Sustenpass west, Grimselpass reservoirs and Furkapass glacier road. It tops out at 2,429 m. Susten Pass, Grimsel Pass and Furka Pass are subject to seasonal closure - check it is open before you set off. The passes are the reason to go.

Roadbook

1. Altdorf fuel gate fuel · 458 m

   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.

   The centre of attention is Wilhelm Tell. The legend says that Tell, a crossbowman from Uri, was forced by the tyrannical Austrian bailiff Gessler to shoot an apple from his son's head, and that he later killed Gessler and helped spark the Swiss rebellion. In the main square stands a statue of Tell and his son, put up in the 1890s, and the story is told with pride. Historians doubt that Tell ever existed, but locals tend to treat that as irrelevant.

   The roads from here are some of the best in Switzerland. South, the Gotthard route climbs through the Reuss valley, with its old stone bridges and the Devil's Bridge legend. East, the Klausen pass links to Glarus, and the Susten pass heads west toward Meiringen, with its sweeping bends and glacier views, closed in winter. Altdorf is also the gateway to the Axenstrasse, a lake-side road cut through rock, with tunnels, balconies and glimpses of the water far below. These are famous riding routes, and they get busy on sunny weekends.

   Fuel is straightforward here, with several stations, and the town has plenty of cafes and bakeries. Altdorf lies at only 458 metres, so it warms up early, though the mountain passes above are still snowed up in spring. Give yourself time for breakfast before the big climbs. Note that the Gotthard road tunnel can have long queues, so plan around the holiday traffic.

2. Sustenpass west ramp pass · 2224 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.

   The Susten is one of the finest-engineered mountain roads in Switzerland. Built in the late 1930s and early 1940s, partly as a defence project during the war and partly to link the Bernese Oberland with Uri, it climbs steadily on a constant gradient, with wide, flowing bends that are easy to read and a surface that is generally in very good shape. Rock walls rise on one side, and on the other the valley drops away in a drift of glacier-polished slabs and thin waterfalls. Tunnels and galleries protect the road from avalanches, and they can be dark and damp, so lift your visor and let your eyes adjust.

   On the way up you pass the Stein glacier, a tongue of ice that once reached almost to the road and has been retreating for decades. A lake of milky meltwater has formed below the ice, and there is a hotel and a car park at the foot of the walk. Sustenhorn and Gwächtenhorn raise their white heads above the pass, and in early summer the snow banks beside the road can stand taller than a rider. The pass closes in winter, usually from late autumn until late spring, so check the opening notices before planning a trip.

   Combine it with its neighbours, Grimsel and Furka, and you have the classic Swiss triple, a tour of high passes that one day can barely hold. The best time is early in the morning, when the air is cold and clean and the tourist coaches have not yet begun. At the summit, the thin air makes tea taste better than it has any right to. Watch for cattle on the road, and for cyclists on the long climb.

3. Innertkirchen food reset food · 625 m

   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.

   Four kilometres down the valley is Meiringen, the bigger place and the one with more services. The town says it invented the meringue, a claim that is hard to prove but cheerfully repeated in every bakery window. It also has a more literary link. Arthur Conan Doyle sent Sherlock Holmes and Professor Moriarty over the nearby Reichenbach Falls in 1893, and there is a small Holmes museum in town and a funicular to the falls. For fuel, groceries and a proper meal, Meiringen is the answer, and a stop here before the passes is sound planning.

   The riding from Innertkirchen is as good as Swiss riding gets. Susten has long, perfectly graded curves up to a summit near 2,224 metres, with views of glaciers, while Grimsel goes up to around 2,164 metres past big reservoirs and rock walls before reaching the Furka and Nufenen roads beyond. Surfaces are good, but traffic can be heavy on summer weekends, and weather turns quickly, with cold rain or fog at the top while the valley basks. The passes close in winter, typically from around late October or November until late spring or early June, with dates depending on snow, so check before you plan a trip.

   Morning is the best time to leave, when the air is cold and the tarmac empty. Pack a warm layer, because even in July the summits can be close to freezing, and keep a hand on the fuel gauge, since there are no stations on the passes themselves.

4. Grimselpass reservoirs pass · 2164 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.

   The lakes are the key to the place. They belong to a huge hydropower system, built mostly in the twentieth century, which uses the water from glaciers and snowmelt to run turbines far below in the Haslital. The Grimsel lake sits right beside the road, held by a long curved dam, and a smaller lake at the summit, the Totesee, lies in a hollow where the mountain seems to have given up.

   The ride is excellent from either side. From the north the road climbs out of Innertkirchen past the roaring gorge at Handegg, then through a series of long galleries and bends carved into the rock. From the south the climb out of Gletsch is a set of tight hairpins that give you views back toward the Rhône glacier, which is retreating year after year. At the top the air is thin and cold, even in August, and the wind can take your breath.

   Fill the tank at Meiringen or Innertkirchen on the north side, or at Brig and Naters in the south. The pass is open from about June to October, depending on snow, and the closing dates vary by the year. Mornings are best: the road is quiet, the light is sharp, and the reservoirs are glassy before the wind comes up.

5. Furkapass glacier road pass · 2429 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.

   The road itself is a joy. On the Uri side it runs up from Realp in a sequence of tight bends and long straights, with views back along the Urseren valley, while the Valais side drops away in generous hairpins towards Gletsch. The gradients are steady, the surface decent and the barriers sturdy, though a stretch or two is patched and rough after the winter. At the summit, the old Hotel Belvédère sits above the Rhône glacier, whose ice grotto has been cut into the glacier each summer for visitors. A century ago the ice nearly reached the hotel terrace, and a line of photographs shows how far it has retreated. Visitors now see a tongue covered by protective blankets in summer to slow the melting.

   The Furka also has a famous railway. The old Furka mountain line, a cogwheel steam railway, used to cross under the pass in a high tunnel before a long base tunnel was opened in the early 1980s and left the summit section unused. Volunteers restored it, and in summer steam trains again climb the route between Realp and Oberwald, a nostalgic sight you may catch from the road. The Swiss love a good railway, and the Furka line is a firm favourite.

   The pass closes in the snow season, typically from about late October to early June, and it can close temporarily after a summer storm. It is also exposed to wind and cloud, so even on a fine day, bring a windproof layer. Go early, and you will have the hairpins almost to yourself.

6. Realp descent fuel check fuel · 1538 m

   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.

   The valley itself is wide, flat and treeless, with the Reuss river wandering through meadows between Andermatt and Realp, and long winters that bring serious snow. Andermatt, a couple of villages down the valley with about thirteen hundred inhabitants and the nearest place with fuel, has long been a garrison and holiday town, and has seen big new hotel developments. Airolo, on the south side of the Gotthard, is the next town with services in the other direction. If your tank is low, fill it before you commit to the high roads, because the passes have no stations.

   Ahead, the Furka Pass road climbs in a series of hairpins to 2,429 metres, with the Rhone glacier waiting on the far side, and the whole run to Gletsch and onwards to Grimsel or the Nufenen is among the great motorcycle roads of the Alps. This pairing with the Nufenen, the highest fully paved pass in Switzerland at 2,478 metres, has made the area a favourite. Surfaces are generally good, but the road can be rough at the edges and has tight corners with drops on the outside.

   Snow closes the passes from about late October until May or June, depending on the year, and the opening dates are announced locally, so check them before you go. In summer, mornings are cold at this height and can be frosty even in August, and afternoon storms build quickly. Early starts give you empty roads, which is what makes a dawn run here so memorable.

7. Back to Altdorf finish · 458 m

   Back to Altdorf closes the day. You lose 1080 m on the way down to it, steeply.

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