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A Tribute to the Alpine Passes of Switzerland

By Marco Buffa mr_bu@it.ibm.com, March 1997

Off-line pictures are 28K to 47K jpeg images

This short set of pictures can not exhaust all the passes in Switzerland because I've never been to some of them (Grosse Scheidegg, maybe in 1997 ?) or the camera went out of order at the moment of taking the picture (Susten Pass - July 1995) and also because of their number. Most of the passes are not so far each other and looking at a map is not so difficult to project a "one day" tour including the crossing of at least two passes. I think my personnel record is this tour including three crossings and a back and forward stretch to reach a fourth pass: that day, september 23 in 1995 I started cycling from Airolo, crossed Saint Gotthard Pass and when in Hospental I turn left to Furkapass. Here' s the view you achieve after a few hundreds of meters from the pass:

it's Rhone valley and you can see both the descent route to Gletsch and also (on the right) the harpin bends to Grimselpass. The highest mountain you see in the picture is Finsterhaarhorn; it's the highest of Switzwerland (4278 mt.),

When in Gletsch, I turned right to reach Grimselpass on the route you've just seen and came back to Gletsch: then I turned right to Ulrichen and here left to get back Airolo crossing NufenenPass. I had read that Nufenen Pass from Ulrichen is one of the most demanding climbs: here you can see some of the harpin bends around five kms. from the top.

Yes it's very demanding (maybe my decision to climb also Grimselpass was not so wise) but look at the view from the top (westside) :

also in this picture you see Finsterhaarhorn, Descent to Airolo is very fast (total: 110 km. and 3500 mt. devilement, 3100 mt. 97 km. and 3100 mt if you exclude Grimselpass). Pictures of Nufenen Pass and route were taken in summer 96 (august 4th) that day I took a train to get form Biasca to Airolo then I crossed Nufenenpass , Furkapass , Oberalppass and Lukmanierpass. Here's me

at Lucomagno Hospiz: do I look tired ? Yes I am but from here to Biasca there's a long descent except for the last 7 kms. up and down facing the wind opposite (Total cycling: 178 km. devilement: 3800 mt.). Also in Engadina you can develop many tours including the main passes of this region: Julier , Albula , Fluela and Bernina. If I look at a map the passes and related routes seem to draw a large pitchfork where Bernina is on the shaft and the others are on the prongs. Here's Bernina Glacier and White lake from the parking opposite to Bernina Hospiz.

I came here from Tirano reached by train on september 8th. I went on till Pontresina then turned left to Sankt Moritz and Silvaplana: I had the time to to turn right and reach also Julierpass and here you see the route I've just ridden.

I came back to Silvaplana on the same way, turned right to Maloja, Chiavenna and Colico where I took the train to get home (total: 133 km. and 2000 mt. of devilement without taking into account the branch off for Julierpass). In october 1995 I performed Graubunden Tour ( read the related report): that day the only thing that was wrong was I didn't take my camera with me, so I had to come back and retrieve such a sunny and clear day. I decided to go on october 24th two days after the end of snowfalls that got Albula and Fluela routes be closed to cars: it was announced a beautiful day and routes free of snow ... and it was true although it was not so hot as forecasts say exspecially in the morning. I started from La Punt at 9:00 in the morning (it's stiil summer time: summer time in 1996 ended october 26th) and here's Albulapass (looking towards North).

When in Alvaneu I made a diversion to reach Lenzherheide (a bit disappointing) and came back to Alvaneu in order to get to Davos through Schmitten, Wiesen and the cool descent to landwasser tunnel (length: 2800 mt.). In Davos I turned right to Fluelapass and here's the start point of the descent to Susch.

To end, if you think of a tour including Albula and Fluelapass do it according to anti-clockwise direction: it's definitively more rewarding.