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.
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Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
A 122 km loop that starts and ends near Andermatt, about 2 h 09 of riding. The stops in between: Furka Pass, Grimsel Pass, Innertkirchen and Susten Pass. The highest point is about 2,450 m. Furka Pass, Grimsel Pass and Susten Pass are subject to seasonal closure - check it is open before you set off.
A alpine pass loop based around Andermatt, Switzerland, via Furka Pass. Key character: glaciers; hairpins; high passes. Surface: paved.
Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast. For 19 km this is Furka Pass, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
Check the pass is open before you commit to it.
Andermatt sits at 1,444 metres in the Urseren valley, a high, wide, treeless hollow in the heart of the Swiss Alps, and it has been a crossroads for centuries. Three great passes meet here: the Gotthard, which runs south to Italy and Ticino at 2,106 metres, the Furka, which climbs west over 2,429 metres toward the Valais, and the Oberalp, which leads east at 2,044 metres into Graubünden. For a motorcyclist it is a kind of Mecca, since the three roads are among the most famous in the Alps, and the town fills with bikes on any fine summer weekend.
Read the complete Andermatt write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Andermatt is where the day begins. Next is Furka Pass.
Furka is one of the Alps' great stage roads: 2,429 metres of switchbacks linking Uri and Valais, with the Rhône Glacier at the western foot. From Andermatt the road climbs through the high Urseren valley, past Realp, up a series of hairpins to a pass where the air is thin and cold, and the views unfold across rock, snow and sky. The mountains here are bare and grand, and the sense of altitude is real.
Read the complete Furka Pass write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Furka Pass comes up 16 km in. Next is Grimsel Pass.
The Grimsel is a road made of granite. At 2,164 metres, the pass sits at the junction of the Bernese Alps and the Valais, in a bare, polished landscape of rounded boulders, tiny lakes and big reservoirs, where the ice of the last glaciation scraped the rock smooth. There is almost nothing growing at the top, and the sky seems close enough to touch.
Read the complete Grimsel Pass write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
32 km in you reach Grimsel Pass. 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.
Innertkirchen, about halfway. Next is Susten Pass.
Susten is a pass built for driving, and that is rare. Where most Alpine crossings follow old mule tracks or trade routes, this one was planned in the 1930s and finished in the 1940s as a modern road, with smooth gradients, wide curves and sturdy retaining walls, and the result is a ride that flows in a way few others do. It connects Wassen in Uri with Innertkirchen in the Bernese Oberland, crossing the ridge at 2,224 metres through a short tunnel.
Read the complete Susten Pass write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Susten Pass sits at 63 km, about halfway. Next is Wassen.
Wassen is a village you have probably seen without knowing it, because it is the star of one of the most photographed railway curiosities in Europe. The Gotthard line climbs the narrow Reuss valley in a series of spiral tunnels, and the little church of Wassen, perched on a mound, appears three times from the train window at three different heights and angles. Riders get the same trick on the road, where the old Gotthard route zigzags up the valley and the church tower comes round again and again.
Read the complete Wassen write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Wassen comes up 79 km in. Next is Andermatt.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Andermatt write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Andermatt closes the day.