Glaubenberg and Glaubenbielen Route (78 km)

Lucerne to Giswil

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Why this ride

Out of Luzern, one way: 78 km, roughly 1 h 20 in the saddle. On the way it passes Glaubenberg Pass, Sorenberg and Glaubenbielen Pass. The highest point is about 1,850 m. Glaubenbuelen Pass is subject to seasonal closure - check it is open before you set off. A steady touring day rather than a sprint.

Roadbook

1. Lucerne start

   Lucerne is where central Switzerland likes to show off. The town sits at the end of its lake, with the Reuss river sliding out through the middle, old houses with painted gables along the quay, and mountains on every side, Pilatus to the south and the Rigi to the east. The best-known sight is the Kapellbrücke, the Chapel Bridge, a covered wooden footbridge from the fourteenth century with a stone water tower beside it, and painted panels under the roof. A fire in 1993 burned much of it, and the bridge was rebuilt, so the paintings you see are mostly reconstructions, but the shape is old. Nearby the Lion Monument, carved into a sandstone cliff in 1821, commemorates Swiss guards who died in Paris in 1792, and Mark Twain called it the saddest piece of stone in the world.

   For a motorcyclist, Lucerne is both a hub and a reward. From here the roads fan out toward the Brünig, the Susten, the Furka, the Grimsel and the Gotthard, and in the other direction toward the Entlebuch and the Emmental. The town itself is not for riding, with a dense one-way system, many bus lanes and fines that are issued without sympathy, so park in one of the garages and walk. Speed limits are strictly enforced across Switzerland, and cameras are plentiful.

   The best time is late spring or early autumn, when the light is soft and tour buses are fewer. In July and August the lakefront is full and the Alpine passes are open, with the highest ones usually closed from late autumn into early summer. Lake fog in winter can be thick, though the mountains above are often sunny. The air smells of water and woodsmoke when you arrive by the lake road in the evening.

   At a little over four hundred metres above sea level, the town has everything, with fuel stations on every approach, workshops, hotels and restaurants. Try a Luzerner Chügelipastete, the local pastry filled with veal and mushrooms, or just a coffee at the lakeside. Prices are high, and a vignette is needed on motorways, though you will rarely use them in the mountains. Walk the old town in the evening, cross both bridges, and leave the bike for a ferry ride across the lake.

2. Glaubenberg Pass scenic · 1543 m

   At 1,543 metres, the Glaubenberg is a modest pass, but it crosses one of the most unusual stretches of Central Switzerland: a high plateau of raised bogs and wet meadows that was protected as a moorland landscape of national importance. The road climbs from Sarnen on the Obwalden side, passes through spruce forest, and then emerges onto an open upland where the horizon is low, the grass is tussocky, and the wind has a free run. It feels more like Scotland than the Alps for a few kilometres, until Pilatus or the Schratten limestone ridges poke out of the clouds and remind you where you are.

   The riding is relaxed and slightly strange. The surface is generally decent but narrow, the bends are mostly gentle, and there are cattle grids and the occasional grazing animal standing in the road with total confidence. Part of the plateau on the Obwalden side serves as a military training ground, so firing days exist and the road can be closed for them. Check ahead before you plan a day around it, and expect a little of that sense of being in a place that belongs mostly to soldiers and sheep. The pass is also shut by snow in winter, usually from late autumn until spring.

   On the western side the road drops into the Entlebuch, a region declared a UNESCO biosphere reserve, where the land is rough and wild by Swiss standards: marshes, karst limestone, damp pastures and a culture of dairy farming and wood. The people here have a reputation for being direct and not easily impressed, and the local cheese, made on alpine farms, is among the better souvenirs in the country.

   Sarnen, about ten kilometres from the pass, is the nearest sizeable town, with supermarkets and petrol stations, and Schüpfheim and Flühli on the other side also have what you need. The moor can be cold and misty even when Lake Sarnen below is warm, so treat the top as a place for a layer and a flask rather than a picnic. Best light comes in the late afternoon, when the low sun rakes across the bogs and picks out every tuft of cotton grass.

3. Sorenberg scenic

   Sörenberg sits in a bowl of green slopes beneath the Brienzer Rothorn, a ski and hiking village that wakes up properly in two seasons and dozes in the gaps. It belongs to the municipality of Flühli in the Entlebuch, a district that the UNESCO biosphere programme recognised in the early 2000s, and the label suits it: damp meadows, lonely moorland, jagged limestone teeth on the horizon and almost no industry beyond cows, wood and tourism.

   The road to get here from Schüpfheim is a pleasure. It follows the Waldemme river up through a valley that narrows by degrees, past Flühli with its old glassworks heritage, a reminder that this forested corner of Lucerne once melted sand into bottles, and then climbs more steeply to Sörenberg at around 1,100 metres. The bends are open and rhythmic rather than technical, the surface is good, and there are enough long views over the pastures to slow you down without any help from the speed limit. Roadside signs mention walkers and cows with equal weight.

   Behind the village, a cable car lifts hikers toward the Rothorn, which has a long ridge walk and a steam rack railway on the Brienz side that climbs from the lake with an almost comic sense of nostalgia. The summit is far above you, but the shape of the mountain sets the mood: heavy, grey limestone with cloud wrapped around the top.

   For practical matters, Sörenberg has restaurants, bakeries and a couple of hotels that cater to skiers and walkers, but for fuel you are better off in Flühli, a few kilometres down the valley, or in Schüpfheim. Do not rely on an unmanned pump up here. The village is a good place for a long lunch, with local cheese and something sweet and creamy afterwards, and the table outside is better than any museum.

   From here the road continues over the Glaubenbielen toward Giswil, which means the next section gets tighter and steeper. Check the weather and whether the pass is open before you leave the village, because snow arrives early and leaves late, and a closed gate on top is a long detour back.

4. Glaubenbielen Pass scenic · 1611 m

   The Glaubenbielen is the wilder sibling in the family. Reaching 1,611 metres between Sörenberg in the Entlebuch and Giswil in Obwalden, it climbs through open alpine pasture, then drops toward the Sarneraatal in a descent that is steeper and narrower than almost anything you will meet on the more famous passes. This is a road where you want a full tank of patience and a rider who is awake.

   On the Sörenberg side the approach is gentle, with big views across rolling grassland and the limestone teeth of the Schrattenfluh away to the west. Then the road lifts to the top, a bare saddle where cloud can descend in seconds, and tips over. The Obwalden side is where the gradient arrives: tight bends, a surface that has seen many winters, and a sense of the valley floor opening far below, with Lungerersee glinting to the south on a clear day and Giswil spread beneath. Use low gears and do not try to be fast. Cows and walkers occupy the verges, and the road is narrow enough that oncoming cars will make you stop.

   The pass is closed in winter, normally from late autumn into late spring, depending on snow. If you are early or late in the season, you may find the barrier shut with no particular warning. Locals will tell you it is a matter of weather, not of dates, and they are right.

   Giswil, with about three and a half thousand people, is the nearest place to fill the tank on the Obwalden side, and Sarnen is the larger town beyond. In Giswil you can also find a bakery or café, which is welcome after the descent. The Brünig road runs to Lungern and on to Meiringen and the Bernese Oberland, so the valley is a natural link between different routes.

   The geology is limestone and flysch, meaning the hills are green and soft in places and savagely steep in others, which is why the road is so twisted. Aim for a dry, clear morning in summer, when the light is soft and the bogs smell of damp earth and wild thyme.

5. Giswil finish

   Giswil sits at the bottom of the Brünig road, and so it is a place where riders gather. The village, with about three and a half thousand people, lies in the valley of the Sarner Aa, at 485 metres, south of Lake Sarnen, between wooded hills and steep slopes. It is a quiet farming community in the canton of Obwalden, the heart of central Switzerland, and the main road runs through it on the way up to Lungern and the Brünig pass.

   For the practical rider, Giswil is a gift. There are fuel stations, a bakery, small shops and a couple of inns, and it is the last easy place to fill up before the road climbs. Sarnen, the cantonal capital, is the nearest larger town, about eight kilometres north, with about nine thousand people and more choice. The lake at Sarnen is a good place to rest, with a lakeside walk and a shady park.

   The riding begins at once. The road to Lungern climbs in a series of smooth bends beside the Lungerersee, a long, narrow lake with water of a deep green, then crosses the Brünig pass at around a thousand metres and drops into the Haslital near Meiringen. It is a gentle pass, wide and easy, but its corners are lovely, and in the early morning, with mist on the lake, it is one of the most pleasant rides in the Alps. The railway, a narrow-gauge line that climbs the pass with a cog section, runs alongside, and sometimes the trains and bikes share the same ridge.

   Further afield, the Glaubenbielen road, the other half of the route, climbs west from Giswil through steep forest to a high pass, with narrow lanes, tight bends and a strong sense of being alone in the mountains. It closes in winter and can be icy until late spring. Giswil itself is a good base, and the evening light on the surrounding peaks is excellent.

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