CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Ordered leg totals agree within rounding. Stop distances are approximate sums of rounded legs. 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.
Out of Andermatt and back again: 404 km, roughly 6 h 51 in the saddle. It goes by way of Airolo and Lago Maggiore evening. The climbs: Gotthard Tremola cobbled road, Lukmanier option, Furka glacier road and Grimsel reservoirs. It tops out at 2,429 m. Gotthard Pass, Lukmanier Pass, Furka Pass and Grimsel Pass are subject to seasonal closure - check it is open before you set off. The passes are the reason to go.
Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast. For 2 km this is Gotthard Pass, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
Check the pass is open before you commit to it.
The last of the trees go and the road runs out onto open ground. The summit sits at 2429 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.
94 km that neither climbs nor drops much. The road settles into the ground rather than fighting it. This is where a day makes up time without anyone trying. Third and fourth, and very little else.
A steady rhythm suits this better than bursts. The height arrives whether you hurry or not. The ground tilts up and stays tilted for 144 km. 753 m of it, taken steadily rather than in one wall.
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.
Read the complete Andermatt base reset write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Andermatt base check is where the day begins. Reckon on about 8 °C colder than the valley, and more in the wind. Next is Gotthard Tremola cobbled road, climbing 662 m.
Long before anyone dreamed of a tunnel, the Gotthard was a rumour of a route: a way through the central Alps that, once the Devil's Bridge was thrown across the gorge of the Schöllenen in the thirteenth century, turned a remote valley into the shortest link between northern Europe and Italy. Merchants, pilgrims, soldiers and mule trains all used it, and the hospice at the top gave them a bed. The Tremola, the cobbled stair on the southern side, is the nineteenth-century answer to the same problem.
Read the complete Gotthard Tremola cobbled road write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
You top out at 2106 m here. The road climbs 662 m on the way up to it, steadily. Reckon on about 12 °C colder than the valley, and more in the wind. At this height the road is a summer one: snow gates can stay shut into June and shut again in October. Next is Airolo fuel stop, mostly downhill.
Airolo sits at the southern mouth of the Gotthard, the point where northern and southern Europe seem to hand over to each other in a single valley. At 1,175 metres it is a small town of about fifteen hundred people, and the first sign of Italian Switzerland if you come from Andermatt: the roofs turn to stone, the stucco gets warmer, and the language changes to Italian. It has fuel, cafes, a couple of bakeries and a railway station, and it is a natural place to start or finish a day among the passes.
Read the complete Airolo write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Fill up here — 475 km left and no pump marked after this. You lose 931 m on the way down to it, steadily. Reckon on about 6 °C colder than the valley, and more in the wind. Next is Lago Maggiore evening base, mostly downhill.
Locarno sits at the northern tip of Lake Maggiore, at about two hundred metres above sea level, and the lake itself, at roughly a hundred and ninety metres, is the lowest point in Switzerland. The effect is that the air feels soft and mild, even in winter, and palm trees, camellias and magnolias grow along the promenade, a startling sight for anyone who has just ridden down from the snow of the Gotthard. Ticino is Swiss, but it is also Italian in its language, its food and its pace, and the evening here has a distinctly Mediterranean rhythm.
Read the complete Lago Maggiore evening base write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Lago Maggiore evening base, early in the day at 200 m. You lose 975 m on the way down to it, steadily. Next is Lukmanier return option, climbing 1715 m.
Lukmanier is the quiet sister of the great Gotthard, and for most of its history it was the more important of the two. At 1,915 metres it links Disentis in Graubünden with the Blenio valley in Ticino, and Romans, monks and emperors used it long before the Gotthard became practical. For a rider looking for an easy way back toward the north or south, it offers a long, calm descent without the cobbles and queues.
Read the complete Lukmanier return option write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Lukmanier return option tops the climb at 1915 m. The road climbs 1715 m on the way up to it, steadily. Reckon on about 11 °C colder than the valley, and more in the wind. High enough to hold ice in the shaded corners early and late in the year. Next is Back to Andermatt, mostly downhill.
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.
The route ends here after 404 km. You lose 471 m on the way down to it, steadily. Next is Andermatt overnight option.
Andermatt is a mountain village at about fourteen hundred metres, in the Urseren valley, a high, wide, treeless basin where several of the great alpine passes meet. The Gotthard heads south to Ticino, the Furka goes west to the Valais, and the Oberalp leads east to Graubünden, and the village sits at the crossing, like a small hub at the centre of a big wheel. The source of the Reuss river is just above, and the water flows north through the dramatic Schöllenen gorge, where the Teufelsbrücke, the Devil's Bridge, crosses the torrent in a spray of mist.
Read the complete Andermatt overnight option write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 244 km into the recorded legs you reach Andermatt overnight option. Next is Furka glacier road, climbing 985 m.
The Furka is the pass where you can ride up to a glacier and see the beginning of a river, and few roads in Europe offer that. At 2,429 metres it links Realp in Uri with Gletsch and Oberwald in the Valais, and on the Valais side the road passes right beside the Rhône glacier, whose grey ice tongue spills from the high snowfields above the Belvédère hotel. A trickle of milky meltwater at its foot is the source of the Rhône, which will travel through Lake Geneva and across France to the Mediterranean.
Read the complete Furka glacier road write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
2429 m, and the road stops climbing. The road climbs 985 m on the way up to it, steadily. Reckon on about 14 °C colder than the valley, and more in the wind. Nothing on this route is higher. Next is Gletsch historic junction, mostly downhill.
At Gletsch, the Rhône is still a young stream, trickling from the foot of a glacier that once filled the whole basin. The hamlet sits at about seventeen hundred and sixty metres, in a bleak, beautiful hollow where two of Switzerland's great passes diverge: the Furka heads east toward Andermatt, and the Grimsel runs north to Meiringen, while the Rhône valley falls away to the south-west. A grand old hotel from the nineteenth century stands at the junction, its pale façade looking oddly large against the bare mountains, and for a few months each year it is the only sign of human life for miles.
Read the complete Gletsch historic junction write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Gletsch historic junction sits at 423 km, late in the day. You lose 670 m on the way down to it, steadily. Reckon on about 10 °C colder than the valley, and more in the wind. Next is Grimsel reservoirs, climbing 405 m.
The Grimsel looks like a landscape that nature made, but most of what you see was made by engineers. The three big lakes around the pass, the Grimselsee, the Räterichsbodensee and the Oberaarsee, hold water that spins turbines in power stations deep inside the mountain, and the dams that hold them in place were built from the 1920s onward by men working at altitude through harsh winters. The Spitallamm, a curved wall of concrete, closes the Grimselsee, and the road runs along its crest.
Read the complete Grimsel reservoirs write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Grimsel reservoirs tops the climb at 2164 m. The road climbs 405 m on the way up to it, steadily. Reckon on about 13 °C colder than the valley, and more in the wind. Next is Brig food and fuel, mostly downhill.
Brig is a town that has always lived off other people's journeys. It sits in the upper Rhône valley in the Valais, at the northern foot of the Simplon, and for centuries merchants hauling goods over the pass to Italy needed somewhere to rest, change animals and pay their bills. One of them, a seventeenth-century trader named Kaspar Jodok von Stockalper, grew so rich on salt, mining and transport that he built the palace that still dominates the town, with three towers topped by gilded domes. It is among the grandest private houses in the Alps, and a short walk from the station.
Read the complete Brig food and fuel write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
A break here. You lose 1473 m on the way down to it, steadily. Reckon on about 3 °C colder than the valley, and more in the wind. Next is Back to Andermatt, climbing 753 m.
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.
Back to Andermatt closes the day. The road climbs 753 m over at least 59 km before it, steadily.
Andermatt base check → Gotthard Tremola cobbled road climbs about 662 m in 13 km. This is the part worth slowing down for - look through the bends and use the pull-offs.
Gotthard Tremola cobbled road → Airolo fuel stop drops about 931 m over 15 km. Brakes and eyes forward; the views are behind the corners, not in them.
Airolo fuel stop → Lago Maggiore evening base drops about 975 m over 80 km. Brakes and eyes forward; the views are behind the corners, not in them.
Lago Maggiore evening base → Lukmanier return option climbs about 1715 m in 84 km. This is the part worth slowing down for - look through the bends and use the pull-offs.
Lukmanier return option → Back to Andermatt drops about 471 m over 51 km. Brakes and eyes forward; the views are behind the corners, not in them.
Andermatt overnight option → Furka glacier road climbs about 985 m in 22 km. This is the part worth slowing down for - look through the bends and use the pull-offs.
Furka glacier road → Gletsch historic junction drops about 670 m over 11 km. Brakes and eyes forward; the views are behind the corners, not in them.
Grimsel reservoirs → Brig food and fuel drops about 1473 m over 54 km. Brakes and eyes forward; the views are behind the corners, not in them.
Brig food and fuel → Back to Andermatt climbs about 753 m in 69 km. This is the part worth slowing down for - look through the bends and use the pull-offs.