Over the Alps

We had a wonderful ride across Switzerland and over the Alps. We had debated for weeks as to whether we would tackle this mountain chain. The biggest question was the weather… it’s not unusual for the passes to start closing because of snow in October. So here we were, right at the edge of the season, trying to decide if we should head to southern France and the Mediterranean coast, or if we should just embrace it and take the more direct route through Switzerland and over the mountains. For us, the biggest benefit of going through Switzerland would be meeting up with friends we have there. Didier and Barbara took a year and a half to travel the world by camper van. We met them in southern Chile on the Carretera Austral when we both found the same great free campsite.

What a great reunion with friends… nine months after we first met in Chile! Didier and Barbara were great hosts and showed us around their part of Switzerland.

So before we made it to the Alps, we spent some time near Bern, where Didier and Barbara live. They have only been home from their travels for six weeks, so it was interesting to hear about their post-journey life and adjustment. They took time out of their schedule to show us around their area and Bern.

A view of Bern from the top of the clock tower we toured… you can see the Alps in the background! A beautiful city indeed.

From Bern we set our course east toward the mountains. We were able to plan a detailed route with Didier and Barbara, which would take us over two passes. After spending months in the Andes while in South America, it was a bit of a relief to realize that we could cross these mountains with just two major climbs.

Beautiful scenery along the way… waterfalls were everywhere, cascading down the sides of the mountains.

The village of Innertkirsch was the beginning of our first climb up to Grimselpass. The weather was not exactly beautiful, but all the clouds gave the mountains a different feel.

We climbed some 30 kilometers up to Grimselpass. It was not miserably steep, so it only took us a one afternoon. The pass itself was around 2200 meters, which again, didn’t seem so bad after our time in the Andes. But it was spectacular!

Almost to the top! That “island” in the reservoir below had a hotel on it! We’d have loved to stay there, but pretty sure it wasn’t in the budget.

Up, up, up… the slow pace of climbing gave us plenty of time to check out the views along the way!

At the pass! We made it. We camped on Grimselpass shortly after this photo was taken, and experienced the wettest night we’ve had yet. Our tent couldn’t handle the wind and rain on top of the pass… the next morning was a cold one for sure!

After Grimselpass, we essentially took a day off to dry out our stuff and get ready for the next climb, Nufenenpass. We set out early in the morning the next day for our short but very steep 13 kilometers up to 2470 meters. The weather was not great, and by the time we got to the top, it was so foggy that we couldn’t see each other cycling if we were more than 10 meters apart. So needless to say, the view from the top was not particularly spectacular. In fact, we stopped for some hot tea at the pass, and as we came back outside to start our descent, the rain was turning to snow! It wasn’t sticking on the ground, but it was certainly cold and wet for cycling.

Foggy Alpine morning… it was beautiful in its own way.

Although the scenery on the other side of the Alps hasn’t been as stunning, we were glad to be over them and cycling toward Italy where we are meeting Dave’s parents for 10 days! We’re so excited about another family reunion… so we weren’t too sad to put the Alps behind us.