Great St Bernard Pass Road (75 km)

Martigny to Aosta · back a different way, via Geneva · Chamonix and Grand St Bernard Doorway

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Why this ride

Out of Martigny-Ville, one way: 75 km, roughly 1 h 14 in the saddle. The stops in between: Orsieres and Great St Bernard Pass. The highest point is about 2,450 m. Great St Bernard Pass is subject to seasonal closure - check it is open before you set off. It crosses from Switzerland into Italy - carry ID and check vignette or toll rules. It suits an unhurried touring pace.

Roadbook

1. Martigny start

   Martigny stands at the elbow of the Rhône, the place where the river turns from a westward run through the Valais to a northward one toward Lake Geneva, and it has been a crossroads since the Romans. They called it Octodurum, built a town, a temple and an amphitheatre here, and the road over the Great St Bernard, which starts at the edge of town, was one of the main routes over the Alps. You can still visit the amphitheatre, and a museum on the Roman site has a collection that is unusual for a town this size.

   Today it is a bustling small city of about fifteen thousand people, with all the services of a larger place. There are fuel stations, bike shops, supermarkets, and a good choice of cafes and restaurants, plus a proper old town with wine bars where you can taste the local Valais wines. The Valais is Switzerland's largest wine region, and its white Fendant and red Dôle are often on the menu, along with raclette, the melted cheese scraped onto potatoes, which is the proper food of the region.

   From here, a number of great roads begin. The road to the Great St Bernard climbs south to the Italian border at 2,469 metres, with the old hospice, famous for its dogs, at the top, and the road tunnel below it spares the winter traffic. To the west, the Col de la Forclaz leads to Chamonix and the Mont Blanc massif. Eastward, the Rhône valley road leads to Sion, Sierre and the vineyards of the Valais.

   Martigny is warm in summer, protected by the mountains, and the valley can be hot and still, so start early. The Great St Bernard pass is open from about June to October. Fill up here, since the climb has few services, and check conditions before you go. The St Bernard dog kennel in town is an easy visit for a short break.

2. Orsieres scenic

   Orsières is where the Valais valleys split apart. Here the road from Martigny forks: one branch climbs into the Val Ferret toward Champex and the Mont Blanc massif, the other follows the Val d'Entremont up toward the Great St Bernard. The town has a little under three thousand inhabitants, the Dranse river rushing through it, and a small narrow-gauge railway that comes up from Martigny and ends at the station. It is the last real place of any size before the pass, and so everyone who rides the road stops at some point.

   That makes it the right place to fill up. Fuel is here, along with supermarkets, bakeries and cafés, and there is no reliable supply for a long way after. The next pumps higher up are scarce, so take the opportunity. The valley road runs from here through Liddes and Bourg-Saint-Pierre, with the climb steadily increasing, and the last section above the tree line is a lot less forgiving than the lower valley.

   The road itself has been an artery for two thousand years. The Romans used the pass, calling it the Summus Poeninus, and built a temple on the summit. Charlemagne's armies came this way, as did countless pilgrims heading to Rome, and Napoleon marched his army across in 1800 on his way to Italy, an event so famous that the hospice at the top still sells postcards of it. The hospice, run by Augustinian canons, has looked after travellers for nearly a millennium, and its dogs became world famous.

   Today a long tunnel under the mountain carries the heavy traffic, which leaves the pass road quiet in good weather and gloriously empty in the shoulder seasons. Keep in mind that the pass is closed by snow for much of the year, normally from autumn until early summer, while the tunnel stays open for a toll. In good weather the climb from Orsières is a joy: smooth, broad curves in the valley, then a sequence of hairpins above Bourg-Saint-Pierre, with the Combin glaciers visible away to the east.

   If you arrive in the evening, linger a while over a meal. The Valais kitchen offers dried meat, raclette made with local cheese and the white wines of the lower valley, and it all tastes better after a long day in the saddle. Mountain weather turns fast, so check conditions before the climb.

3. Great St Bernard Pass scenic · 2469 m

   The Great St Bernard is one of the oldest crossings of the Alps, and standing at 2,469 metres, with the Swiss and Italian borders running through the lake and the hospice, it feels like a place where history has been piled up in layers. A small, cold lake sits in the saddle, bare rock rises around it, and the snow lingers here far into summer. The air is thin, the light is hard and bright, and on a clear day you can see for a long way in both directions.

   People have been crossing here since the Bronze Age. The Romans built a road and a temple dedicated to Jupiter, and travellers passed over the centuries as merchants, pilgrims and armies. The hospice was founded in the Middle Ages, traditionally in the eleventh century, by Bernard of Menthon, and the canons have sheltered stranded walkers ever since. The famous St Bernard dogs were bred here, and a kennel and museum let you meet them in summer. Napoleon led an army over in 1800, with cannons dragged across the pass on hollowed logs, and the crossing is part of the legend of that campaign.

   The ride itself is memorable. From the Swiss side the road climbs from Bourg-Saint-Pierre in a series of broad curves and tight hairpins, and the vegetation gives way to rock and grass. The summit has a modest cluster of buildings, with cafés and souvenir shops, which are very welcome after the cold. On the Italian side, the road drops through the Valle del Gran San Bernardo, past Saint-Rhémy and Etroubles, on a surface that can be rougher, with tight bends and patches of damage from frost.

   On the Swiss side the last good pumps are in Orsières and Martigny, and on the Italian side you will find them in Aosta, about nineteen kilometres from the Etroubles area. The pass is closed in winter, usually from October to June, though a tunnel runs beneath it year round. Check the status before you go, and bring your documents because the border is still a border.

   Etroubles, a small village on the Italian side, is known for cured ham from the nearby Bosses valley and for the Fontina cheese of the Aosta region. A plate of either, with a coffee, is the right reward for a day on the mountain.

4. Aosta finish

   Aosta is a Roman town with the Alps standing around it like a stage set. The Romans founded it in 25 BC as Augusta Praetoria, after subduing the local Salassi tribe, and they laid it out on a neat grid that still shapes the old centre. The Arch of Augustus, the Porta Praetoria gate, and the remains of a theatre with a surviving wall nearly twenty metres high stand among cafes and shops, and snow-capped peaks rise at the end of every street. It has been called the Rome of the Alps.

   The reason for all this is the pass. The Great St Bernard, at about 2,470 metres, is one of the oldest crossings of the Alps, used by Celts, Romans, medieval pilgrims and, famously, by Napoleon's army in 1800. At the top, on the Swiss border, the hospice founded in the eleventh century by Bernard of Menthon has sheltered travellers ever since, and its monks kept the large rescue dogs that took the saint's name. The road from Aosta climbs the valley past old stone villages and the new tunnel entrance, then leaves the tunnel traffic to wind up through hairpins to the pass, with stone avalanche galleries and steep meadows. The old road is only open in summer, usually from June to October, and weather can bring snow even in July, so check conditions. Surface quality is generally good but narrow, with tight corners and occasional rough patches.

   Valle d'Aosta is a small, autonomous region where French is an official language alongside Italian, and the food reflects the double heritage. Fontina, a soft, nutty cheese made from the milk of cows grazed on high pastures, is the signature, and it appears melted in fonduta, baked in soups and stuffed into cutlets. Local rye bread, cured lard from Arnad and sturdy red wines from steep terraced vineyards fill out the table. Castles crown many of the nearby hills, and those at Fénis and Aymavilles are especially fine.

   Aosta is a town of thirty thousand with fuel, restaurants and hotels, and plenty of parking near the centre. Fill up here before heading into the mountains, because the stations get sparser the higher you go, and prices in Switzerland are higher. Carry your passport for the border and check whether you need a Swiss motorway vignette if you plan to continue on motorways. Warm clothes are a must for the pass, even on a sunny day.

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