Planes, trains, automobiles, funiculars, cog trains, gondolas...

[joetron]

...trams, chairlifts, hike-a-bikes and pedals.

There are many modes of conveyance when traveling to Switzerland to ride bikes.

After months of anticipation and efforts in keeping the rubber side down, we packed our bags.

Oversize bag weight limit is 70lbs. Bike, bag, shoes, helmets, tools, packs, food, spare parts and tire made for 69lb bags.


SLC to Paris to Geneva. I slept, watched Godzilla, Days of Future Past and read a bunch of GoT: nerd alert.

Upon arrival in Geneva we checked our big bags in storage and caught a train into old town to find our hotel and spend the afternoon wandering around. Train station in an airport? Those Swiss think of everything.
Full-on touron mode, taking pictures of cool old things.
Not sure who they were, but these guys look serious.

No wonder Calvin was so uptight, that chair looks really uncomfortable

Yep, cool old things.


The next day we were picked up by our guide for the week, grabbed our bags at the airport and headed for the hills. The drive along the lake and into the Rhone Valley was beautiful. Switzerland is doing something right....so many orchards and small farms everywhere. Even the industrial zones and factories look somewhat pleasant and properly scaled(but I grew up in Milwaukee in the 80s, so my bar is fairly low in that regard).

A theme of our trip was, "How can we move here?" As the week progressed we settled that my wife could practice chocolate law or watch law, and I would become a brake pad and rotor magnate. We can dream, can't we?

Bikes were assembled for a shakedown shuttle rip in the secret underground lair of the Hotel la Vallee in Lautier, our launch pad for the next couple of days.


Views from the top of the shuttle. I was pretty much vibrating at this point. First trail was ok, lots of electric cow ribbons to cross and lots of cow shit. But the vert was good, the views were spectacular and the trail had its moments.


Looking out the window towards Verbier. Jet lag was battled with the soothing sounds of a rushing river and the ethereal clang of massive, ornate cowbells....and beer....and a little local apricot schnapps.


First big ride was a bit of a let down, honestly. Tour de Mont Fort. Great views. Lots of forest roads. A few snips of singletrack. I can climb dirt roads all day if I know there will be singletrack payoff for the descent, but descending dirt roads hurts me deep down inside.
Gondy up Verbier. Lots of stoke at this point as we passed over good looking bike park trails....that we would not ride.

Good times, good times

The Mont Fort tram has a window in the floor



The group was getting restless, we were about ready to mutiny, but then we spied the beginnings of tasty looking trail descending from this classic hut. Caban du Mont Fort.


As the clouds moved around we caught glimpses of the Bec de Rosses face that the Verbier Freeride comp uses. I puckered a little.


Soon enough we were giggling, laughing and all smiles as we descended excellent, narrow grassy singletrack for a few thousand feet, right past amazing old summer chalets down into Lautier. Ahhh, the healing powers of singletrack.



Apologies for the shaky, clicky GoPro, its no Shimano Action Cam! Unfortunately I lost my SD card that had the first 1/2 of the week on it.
A little taste of the singletrack salvation, I was cackling the whole way down.

-to be continued

[smslavin]

nice. looking forward to more.

[Mr brownstone]

Subscribed

[grskier]

/chant/ we want more /end chant/

[::: :::]

enjoying this
and looking forward to the rest!

[kidwoo]

I still think Ely is better.

[raisingarizona13]

So good! Being buried in algebra and psychology classes right now I'm very envious!

[ghosthop]

I could've ripped that single track so much harder, bro

Looks like this is shaping up to be a fantastic trip

[springsproject]

Pressure drop!

[406]

looking forward to more

[Danno]

[joetron]

Ok, back to the programming.

The next day started with a shuttle up the road from Lautier, into a stunning canyon, and a drop off on top of a massive dam below Lac de Mauvoisin.

Damn.


It had been a cold, wet and windy night and although the wet weather was blowing out...it was blowing out. It was wet and frigid on top of the dam, but we were soon granted shelter in the form of a small tunnel through which we climbed for what I'd guess was the better part of a mile. It was fucking crazy. After a while, there were windows carved in the rock looking out onto to the lake, over which we were gaining a bit of altitude. Then there was a rumble. The unmistakable rumble of a shit load of water raging through a mountain. In this case, the melt off of a glacier on top of the mountains above us, blasting down a spillway under the tunnel path and out to a big drop down to the lake.

I was stoked.

Eventually the tunnel ended and we were out on a service road that wound along the glacial blue lake. With the dark, wet rock and the billowing foggy clouds, it felt more like Scotland as we followed the lake due south towards Italy.

Now and then the clouds would part long enough to reveal some of the most badass mountains I'd ever seen...but the clouds were moving so fast the view would be gone before I could get the words out to my friends. ''Holy shit, check that ouuuutttt.....daaaamn, its gone."

As we reached the end of the lake, the service road turned upwards and we started to climb for real, eventually turning onto some steep singletrack that would carry us to the Fenetre de Durand pass and into Italy.
In short measure, the steep entrenched singletrack became unrideable and the most glorious hikeabike of our lives ensued. I generally hate pushing my bike, but with the dramatic weather, location and views we all happily trudged along.






As we got higher, we encountered a few inches of snow and rime.

During one quick break, I looked down and noticed a wine cork hidden in a crack of well placed outcrop. I imagined that on a calm, clear summer day it would be one hell of a spot for some vino and a picnic.

As we regrouped at the top, the chill caught up with us and hands in the pants was the move of the moment.


Mt Gele was leaving me slack jawed.


From this frozen perch, the green valley of Italy was looking amazing, as was the trail rolling out in front of us...even if it was covered in a weird slurry of snow and ice.

The snow and ice was soon behind us and a few miles of some fine flowy singletrack interspersed with fun steep techy moves presented itself.



Then there was lunch, and the best goddamn ham sandwich I've ever eaten.



We made our way over to an old aqueduct and followed it for a while over a mix of singletrack and grassy road until our final rally down a wooded ridge line into Etroubles, Italia.



On the way there were some interesting features...fortunately we are all elitist Alta skiing pricks and this traverse was cake compared to Eddy's.


Then the trail disappeared into a crack in the rock and turned to a metal bridge over the rushing water of the aqueduct. 770mm bars were a toight squeeze.


Before the final drop, looking back towards the pass where we came through.


Beer and coffee in Etroubles before 17k of coasting down to Aosta where we killed some time relaxing in the plaza before dinner.



Post dinner ride through town to the van and a trip under the Alps in the St Bernard tunnel back to Lautier.


All in all, this day probably resides in my top 3 days on a bicycle....it might be on the very top.

[pogs4ever]

this thread is amazing... more to come?

[Ripzalot]

Welcome to the neighborhood. Beautiful time of year, innit?

[Danno]

holy shit.

[jm2e]

Fan-Fucking-Tastic!

Hey, what airline did you use? And what did they hit you with for baggage fees per bike?
We flew United to Milan and weren't charged anything on the way there, but were charged $200/bike (x2 bikes!!) on the return flight. Full rape-age.

Good to see the Warden shredding Euro-style. Now you gotta get your lady on a Knolly!

[joetron]

The next day consisted of some shuttles down the valley a bit. The first one was a bit of a clusterfuck with the search for a little more vert and singletrack turning into some monster trucking through the woods, exploratory hiking and backtracking. After emerging in the backyard of an occupied chalet, the old woman who started out yelling at us to stay off her grass gave us directions to the rest of the trail....nice lady.
That next section of trail set the scene for the rest of the day...steeeep woods. I soon realized how the Euro-Enduro guys get so good at those wacky nose-wheelie switchback moves. Also, if canwilf ever wanted a laboratory to continue his brake rotor research, the trails of the Swiss/French Alps are the place. This is when and where my thoughts of future Ex-Pat Brake Pad Magnate were fertilized.
We reloaded the shuttle rig and rallied up the Col des Planches, a classic climb that has been included in the Giro, TDF and Tour de Suisse. From the top we dropped trails down to the Rhone Valley and the outskirts of Martigny....and a very disappointing St Bernard museum that had no St Bernards.
No pics of the trails, cuz we just kept moving and I was kind of gripped trying to make moves. But this does an ok job of demonstrating the steepness. We drop right to the bottom, not a lot of traversing, many steep switchback turns. Not Kidwoo approved.

At one point we popped out of the woods onto a spiny outcrop and were eye level with that turbine. Cool moment, should have grabbed a pic, but was too busy riding and trying not to roll down into a vineyard.



We then returned to Lautier for our final dinner there. Hotel de Vallee proprietor, chef, world class shuttle driver and all-around badass Jean Marc prepared an amazing traditional Swiss meal of hanging, flaming meats and an assortment of things to dip them in, lots of mayoili...as this is Europe. I'm pretty sure he tackled and broke the neck of the deer whose venison we ate.

Attractive rural Swiss hipster with cat-wearing-glasses shirt as server was bonus. She seemed to have a few giant cat face shirts.

Next day we packed up and left Lautier, heading towards Zermatt. Our ride along the way began with a cable car lift from Chalais to a gondola in Vecorin which dropped us on Cret du Midi. What might make more sense is that we left the Rhone Valley and rode some uplifts to a place across the Anniviers Valley from St Luc - the spot LeeL was riding out of at the start of his currently featured trip. Highlights here involved getting our Euro on and elbowing and Carl Barkley-ing some pushy French folks who were trying to get in front of us in the cable car line, as the next gondola had very limited run times at this point in the season.
We then dropped, climbed, traversed and dropped some more to Grimentz, one of the most gaggingly scenic places I've been....and apparently the home of Heidi.
We enjoyed some coffee


LeeL rides way over there across the valley. I want to come back and go over there


We then traversed on a beautifully lush trail up the valley to where we crossed the river and pedaled up the road to St Luc.


The Swiss love pizza, or perhaps its for all the tourists, but regardless...there is pizza everywhere. Anyhow, I love pizza and was quite happy here in St Luc eating pizza and drinking a panache - beer and Sprite - that shit was delicious.


We then got on our first funicular of the trip in St Luc. From the top we pointed it down valley with a fun trail over to Chandolin.


There was a fun looking little bike park scene in St Luc. They had some crazy rentals.


From Chandolin we rode a lot of trail and a little road all the way down to Chippe. The rocky, overgrown townie trails right above Chippe had some of my favorite moments.


There was one crazy bridge we had to cross. It didn't seem so bad until it started to shimmy when you were about halfway across. Good times.


Next stop, Zermatt....well, really Tesch, because you can't drive into Zermatt.

[joetron]

Fan-Fucking-Tastic!

Hey, what airline did you use? And what did they hit you with for baggage fees per bike?
We flew United to Milan and weren't charged anything on the way there, but were charged $200/bike (x2 bikes!!) on the return flight. Full rape-age.

Good to see the Warden shredding Euro-style. Now you gotta get your lady on a Knolly!

We got charged $150ea for oversized bags that were under 70lbs on Delta on the way there. When checking for our return that started with Air France in Geneva the little fucker at the desk tried every-which-way to charge us more than that. At one point he casually said, "That will be 600euro". After explaining to him there was no way in fucking hell we would be paying that and some calls to his manager to clarify some things, we got back to the original number.
It certainly hurts, but I see it as just a cost of traveling with a giant fucking bike bag with a bunch of stuff in it, including my dialed-in steed, so I don't have to rent one of those weird bikes in St Luc. NTTAWT

Ehhhhh, she has been offered many Knolly's, but digs SC bikes. Maybe when there is some carbon in the Knolly line...possibly late next summer?

[joetron]

Quickie video of a fun section of trail above Zermatt.

[joetron]

Moar POV, but hey at least the views are sweet!

This is off of the Gornergrat cog rail that goes up the Riffel-zone of Zermatt. Decades of hordes of hikers disembarking, wandering around down to a little lake and back to the train have created a bunch of trail braids...its not sublime singletrack, but it sure is fun. Lots of rock and a million choose-your-own-adventure lines. I definitely lose my way a few times and notice things I should have recklessly jumped off, but I was trying to keep bike and body in one piece....and I'm turning into an old wuss.

[babybear]

I had not seen all the new photo/video added. That looked like an amazing trip.

[HansJob]

Must start saving up now. Fantastic voyage.

[jm2e]

I'm not usually a big fan of POV, but I really enjoyed that. Made me "homesick" for Europe.
That was fantastically sustained. I see what you mean about the clusterfuck of hiker bypasses. Seems like it could make for a fun impromptu Chinese downhill since everyone would end up in different lines!!

How does your lady handle the Uber technical euro trails? My wife went from being scared shitless to crushing it and sometimes out riding me. Crazy immersion training.

[LeeLau]

Grimentz is very nice. So is St Luc Chandolin. Really its hard to top Valais for trails imo in Switzerland. Of course Aletsch is also amazing. So glad you have good weather. And yes Achtung Chue Flade merde de vache.

fwiw i had no run ins with snotty people except at Crans which is a tourist town and where the muslim guests we were with were made to feel like a pain in the ass for asking for mushrooms with pasta carbonara instead of jambon

A video from Zermatt since that is a cool place

[buttahflake]

next time save some money and time, ride VT!
it's way better than that, guy.
like, way better!