Lukmanier · Oberalp · Vorderrhein High Roads

Two passes, one river valley and a proper touring spine.

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Why this ride

Two passes, one river valley and a proper touring spine. Out of Chur and back again: 333 km, roughly 6 h 24 in the saddle. On the way it passes Andermatt and Disentis. The climbs: Lukmanier pass road and Oberalppass high road. It tops out at 2,044 m. Lukmanier Pass is subject to seasonal closure - check it is open before you set off. The passes are the reason to go.

Roadbook

1. Chur fuel gate fuel · 593 m

   At 593 metres, in a wide bend of the Rhine valley, Chur makes a strong claim to be the oldest town in Switzerland, with traces of settlement going back thousands of years and a Roman presence from the first century BC. It has been the seat of a bishop since late antiquity, and the bishop's court, with its cathedral, sits on a terrace above the old town. Down below, the narrow streets and squares of the Altstadt, with painted houses, fountains and arcades, are a pleasant place to wander after a morning in the saddle.

   For riders, Chur is the hub of Graubünden, the largest and most mountainous canton in Switzerland, and the starting point for some of the best roads in the Alps. South of the town, the road climbs over the Lenzerheide to the Albula and Julier passes and the Engadine; west, it runs past Flims and the Rhine gorge to the Oberalp pass; east, the dead-end road to Arosa climbs a famous sequence of hundreds of bends up a narrow valley. North, the Rhine valley runs down past the vineyards of the Bündner Herrschaft toward Liechtenstein and Lake Constance. Chur is on the Grand Tour of Switzerland, and you will see plenty of other riders.

   The town has all the services you could want: fuel stations on the main roads, motorcycle dealers and workshops, shops and restaurants. Fill up here before heading into the mountains, where stations are fewer and prices higher. The motorway, the A13, requires a Swiss vignette, but the main roads through the valleys do not. Speed limits are strictly enforced in Switzerland, with radar cameras and heavy fines, so ride within the limits.

   The Rhaetian Railway, Graubünden's narrow-gauge mountain railway, has its headquarters in Chur, and its trains climb into the mountains from here, including the line to Arosa and the routes over the Albula and Bernina to St. Moritz and Tirano. Watching a red train winding up a valley is part of the scenery of Graubünden.

   Graubünden's cuisine is hearty and distinctive. Try capuns, chard leaves wrapped around a dough of flour, egg and dried meat, cooked in milk and cheese, or pizzoccheri, buckwheat pasta with potatoes, cabbage and cheese. For dessert, the Bündner Nusstorte, a pastry filled with caramelised walnuts, keeps well and makes a good snack on the road. The Bündner Herrschaft produces excellent Pinot Noir, best enjoyed in the evening, once the bike is parked for the night.

2. Lukmanier pass road pass · 1915 m

   The Lukmanier Pass is the gentlest of the great crossings between the Rhine valley and Ticino, and at 1,915 metres it is also one of the lowest, which explains why it has been used for so long. Its lack of steepness made it a trade and pilgrim route well before the Gotthard became passable, and the monastery of Disentis on the north side owed much of its influence to the traffic.

   For a rider, the pass is a relief after the Gotthard. The road is wide and the surface good, with long, easy bends and a gradient that never gets sharp. On the northern side it follows the Medelser Rhine through the Medel gorge, a narrow canyon where the road clings to the rock and tunnels through short galleries. At the top it passes the reservoir of Santa Maria, a long blue lake held back by a big dam, with a small hospice and a chapel beside the water. On the southern side the road drops through the Val Blenio towards Biasca, with the vegetation turning from alpine to chestnut and fig as you lose height.

   It is a quiet road compared with its famous neighbours, which makes it good for a slow, thoughtful ride. Traffic can be thick in summer, but it tends to flow, and locals use the road all year round. The pass is normally closed in winter, usually from about November until May, because of heavy snow and avalanche risk. Check the road status if you are out in the shoulder seasons.

   Biasca, at the end of the Blenio valley, is the biggest town nearby. In late afternoon the light drops over the lake, and the mountains turn gold; it is a fine place to stop for ten minutes and listen to the quiet, broken only by cow bells.

3. Andermatt base reset food · 1444 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.

   In 1799, the Russian general Suvorov fought his way through the gorge here with an army, losing many men, an episode remembered in a monument carved into the rock. The Swiss army has a long presence in the valley, and the barracks and fortifications are part of the scene. More recently, Andermatt has been remade with new hotels and apartments and a golf course, which sits oddly with the plain old village centre. It is still a quiet place, with a population of just over a thousand, and a good base.

   For motorcyclists, this is an obvious starting point. In a single day you can do Furka at 2,429 metres, Grimsel at 2,164, Susten at 2,224 and Nufenen at 2,478, if the weather and the traffic allow, and all four are open only from about June until October, depending on snow. Starting early is important, because by ten the roads are busy and by noon the tour buses arrive. The old Tremola road, paved with cobbles, drops down the south side of the Gotthard and is a different experience, slower and bumpier.

   There is fuel in the village, along with bakeries and restaurants, though prices are higher than in the lowlands. Weather changes fast at this altitude, so a warm layer and a rain jacket belong in the luggage even in July.

4. Oberalppass high road pass · 2044 m

   The Oberalp is the pass that links Andermatt in the Urseren valley with Disentis in the Surselva, and at 2,044 metres it is the road's high point and a historic watershed. Just above the summit, the little Lake Toma is regarded as the source of the Rhine, the river that eventually runs through Germany and the Netherlands and into the North Sea. A short walk up from the car park gets you to the lakeshore, where a plaque marks the spot.

   The riding is smooth and enjoyable, with the road swinging up from Andermatt in wide hairpins, then crossing a high plateau where the wind can be fierce. The red trains of the Matterhorn Gotthard Railway run alongside the road for much of the way, part of the Glacier Express line, and the sight of a train snaking through snow sheds or across a stone bridge is a fine bonus. On the Graubünden side the road drops towards Sedrun and Disentis in graceful sweeps, with views of the Vorderrhein valley opening below.

   The area is an important one for the history of the Alps. Andermatt was a garrison town with a military past, and the fortifications still hide in the mountain. The valley was settled by the Walser people and others in the Middle Ages, and the Oberalp route was in use long before the road was paved. The weather can change fast, and a cheerful morning can turn into rain and low cloud by lunchtime, with snow possible even in summer at this altitude.

   The road closes in winter, and the railway takes over, running all year, so the pass is usually shut from late autumn until late spring. In early summer there can still be walls of snow beside the road. Late summer, when the air is clear and the days are still long, is a particularly good time.

5. Disentis food stop food · 1130 m

   Disentis is the monastery town of the upper Rhine valley, and the Benedictine abbey that dominates it is one of the oldest in Switzerland, founded, according to tradition, around the year 700 by a wandering monk called Sigisbert with help from a local landowner. The current buildings are mostly baroque, with a huge church and an extensive cloister, and the monks still teach at the school attached to it. The village sits at 1,130 metres where the Medelser Rhine meets the Vorderrhein, and it has the compact feel of a place that was important long before the tourist trade arrived.

   For a rider, Disentis is a natural lunch stop between the Oberalp and Lukmanier passes. There are cafes and restaurants along the main street, serving Graubünden dishes such as barley soup, Capuns and dried meats, and a little bakery will usually have a Nusstorte. Fuel is available in the village, and it is a good place to stop for a break before heading up either pass or down the valley to Ilanz. The road from the west follows the Rhine through forests and fields, with long straight stretches and occasional gentle bends.

   The language here is Romansh, the fourth national language of Switzerland, spoken by only a small fraction of the population, and you will see it on street signs and shop fronts. Disentis, or Mustér in Romansh, is one of the strongholds of the language, and the abbey played a part in keeping it alive. The valley is also known for its cheese, its snow in winter and its quiet in summer.

   Behind the village the mountains rise to glaciers and peaks over three thousand metres, and in winter the area is a popular ski resort. In summer the slopes are covered in meadow flowers and dotted with cows. A visit to the abbey church is worth fifteen minutes, with its white interior and rich decoration, and visitors are generally welcome outside the services. Walk a little further, and you might hear the monks sing the evening office in the half-light.

6. Vorderrhein valley flow scenic · 650 m

   Ilanz calls itself the first town on the Rhine, and in a river that runs a thousand kilometres to the North Sea that is a neat claim to hold. It sits in the Surselva at 650 metres, a small, practical place of about two thousand people, where the Vorderrhein valley widens and the Lugnez valley comes in from the south. Fuel, bakeries and a supermarket are all here. Laax, the ski resort village, is a few kilometres up the slope, and Flims lies beyond it.

   The riding along the Vorderrhein is relaxed, a flowing run of moderate bends beside a green river, with the Rhaetian Railway's little red trains tracing the opposite bank. Traffic is local, not touristic, and the road is wide enough to be taken at a sensible pace. The valley is a mix of villages and farms, with church towers that have the onion-dome look of the Catholic Alps, and the Romansh language is still heard in shops and on street signs.

   Below Ilanz begins the Ruinaulta, the Rhine Gorge, sometimes called the Swiss Grand Canyon. It was carved through the debris of the Flims rockslide, one of the biggest landslides in the Alps, which tumbled off the mountain after the last Ice Age and dammed the river. The river has since cut a gorge of pale limestone cliffs, forested terraces and green water, and rafters and walkers explore it in summer. The main road keeps above the gorge, with viewpoints near Flims where you can look down into the canyon. It is worth the detour even if you only manage a quick look.

   Ilanz was an important town of the Grey League, one of the Three Leagues that governed Graubünden before it joined Switzerland, and the old town has a few narrow streets and a fine church. The surrounding hills are rich with legends and small chapels, and there are good walks up to the high villages. A coffee on the main square is a good way to watch the day pass.

   The river is the chief character here, and if you stop at a bridge, you can hear the water run, glacial and cold. In spring, melt makes the Rhine brown and high, while by late summer it settles to a gentler green. Early morning light is best on the cliffs.

7. Back to Chur finish · 593 m

   Back to Chur closes the day.

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