CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
The recorded total and the leg detail need reconciliation. Inspect the leg notes before using this record for timing or navigation. 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.
304 km from Luzern to Altdorf, about 5 h 40 of riding. The stops in between: Sarnen, Pilatus view road and Lucerne exit. The climbs: Glaubenberg pass road, Sustenpass west, Grimselpass and Furkapass glacier road. It tops out at about 2,450 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.
The last of the trees go and the road runs out onto open ground. The summit sits at 1543 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 23 km. 527 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.
Brakes early, eyes far ahead. A descent this long asks more of concentration than of pace. 564 m come off over 23 km at around 5.0%. The road gives back what the climb took, faster than it took it.
For 56 km this is Klausen Pass, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it — expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast.
Water arrives beside the road and stays for 16 km. The line follows the shore because there is nowhere else for it to go. Slow enough to look. The surface follows the shoreline, so the corners arrive where the water decided, not where an engineer did.
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.
Read the complete Lucerne write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Lucerne exit is where the day begins. Next is Glaubenberg pass road, climbing 1107 m.
The Glaubenberg is one of those passes that rewards you for taking the less obvious option. At 1,543 metres, it crosses the ridge between Sarnen in Obwalden and the Entlebuch valley in the canton of Lucerne, through a landscape of open moor and scattered spruce that feels remote even though it lies in the middle of Switzerland. Much of the high ground is a military training area, and the road can be closed on days when firing is scheduled, so it is wise to check before you plan around it.
Read the complete Glaubenberg pass road write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
You top out at 1543 m here. The road climbs 1107 m on the way up to it, steadily. Nothing on this route is higher. High enough to hold ice in the shaded corners early and late in the year. Next is Sarnen food stop, mostly downhill.
Sarnen is the capital of Obwalden, and it wears the title lightly. The town sits at the northern end of Lake Sarnen, a long blue lake in the middle of Switzerland, with the Pilatus above and a line of wooded hills on the other side. About nine thousand people live here, and the main street has the usual arrangement of bakeries, banks and cafes, with a large parish church that stands on a rise above the old centre.
Read the complete Near Sarnen write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
A break here. You lose 1070 m on the way down to it, steadily. Next is Pilatus view road, climbing 527 m.
Pilatus is a mountain with a legend, and the road that skirts its flank gives you a different view of it than the one from Lucerne. The peak, 2,128 metres at its highest, is a jagged limestone ridge with a long, flat top that looks, from the north, like a sleeping dragon. Medieval stories said that the spirit of Pontius Pilate haunted the mountain's lake, and the authorities of Lucerne banned climbing it for centuries, in case the disturbance brought a storm. The name may in fact come from an old word for a cloud-covered mountain, but the legend is better.
Read the complete Pilatus view road write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Pilatus view road, early in the day at 1000 m. The road climbs 527 m on the way up to it, steadily. Next is back to Lucerne, mostly downhill.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Lucerne write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Finish at back to Lucerne. That is the ride. You lose 564 m on the way down to it, steadily. Next is Altdorf, mostly downhill.
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 the fuel stop for this leg. Next is Sustenpass west ramp.
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 here; the road stops climbing. Next is Innertkirchen.
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.
Somewhere to get off the bike, 297 km in. Next is Grimselpass high point.
At the top of the Grimsel the world feels stripped to essentials: grey granite, a patch of black water, a pale sky and the wind. The pass reaches 2,164 metres on the border between the cantons of Bern and Valais, and the high point itself is a modest saddle with a small lake, the Totesee, and a handful of buildings. The bigger picture, with its glaciers and peaks, is spread out around you in every direction.
Read the complete Grimselpass high point write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The high point of this section. Next is Furkapass glacier road.
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. Next is Realp fuel and descent check.
Realp is a village that most people drive through on the way to somewhere more famous, and that is reason enough to stop. It lies at about 1,540 metres in the Urseren valley, a high, treeless trough between the Furka and the Oberalp passes, with the Reuss river wandering through meadows. The surrounding mountains are bare and wide, and the valley has the open, windswept feeling of high Alpine country.
Read the complete Realp fuel and descent check write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Fill up here — 42 km left and no pump marked after this. Next is Back to Altdorf.
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.
The route ends here after 467 km.
Lucerne exit gate → Glaubenberg pass road climbs about 1107 m in 51 km. This is the part worth slowing down for - look through the bends and use the pull-offs.
Glaubenberg pass road → Sarnen food stop drops about 1070 m over 22 km. Brakes and eyes forward; the views are behind the corners, not in them.
Sarnen food stop → Pilatus view road climbs about 527 m in 21 km. This is the part worth slowing down for - look through the bends and use the pull-offs.
Pilatus view road → back to Lucerne exit drops about 564 m over 21 km. Brakes and eyes forward; the views are behind the corners, not in them.
back to Lucerne exit → Altdorf fuel gate drops about 436 m over 72 km. Brakes and eyes forward; the views are behind the corners, not in them.
Altdorf fuel gate → Sustenpass west ramp is 51 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Sustenpass west ramp → Innertkirchen reset is 39 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Innertkirchen reset → Grimselpass high point is 42 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Grimselpass high point → Furkapass glacier road is 14 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Furkapass glacier road → Realp fuel and descent check is 17 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Realp fuel and descent check → Back to Altdorf is 76 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.