Crossing the alps

After finally getting everything ready to head off on my bicycle, and a "good bye" dinner with my parents on Friday night, I started cycling towards the mountains on Saturday afternoon. My first goal was to try and cross the St. Gotthard Pass, which was not going to be easy with all the luggage I had packed on my bike - kind of a test to see if I still manage to get uphill with all the weight (roughly 25km luggage including camping equipment etc., + the bike itself which weighs almost 15kg total). The goal was to go as far up as possible on the first day, and then continue to the top and back down on the other side on the second day. I also had an escape option to stop in Göschenen if it turned out to be too tough with all the weight, and take a train through the Gotthard tunnel. But of course I was hoping to be able to go all the way up and cycle over the alps, as a first achievement on my trip!

I left home only around 2pm on Saturday due to some things that I wanted to finish before leaving. It was an overcast day, but the forecast said it should clear up sometime in the afternoon or at least after getting above some altitude. The start was easy with a mostly flat route along the Zugersee (Lake of Zug), over to Schwyz, Brunnen and continuing on the "Axenstrasse" along the Vierwaldstättersee (Lake Lucerne) towards Altdorf and Erstfeld.

After about 55km there was a sign for cyclists saying "1560 meters altitude gain on the next 34 km" - from there it's only uphill to the top of the St. Gotthard Pass. At a reduced pace I slowly started climbing the windy roads. I made some good progress even though due to my late start it was already getting late in the afternoon. Just after 6pm, I finally got to an altitude where the sky cleared up - giving the view on some mountains just before sunset. Soon after, it started to get dark, and I cycled the last stretch in the dark (testing my lights..) until Göschenen at around 1100m where I spent the night in a hotel.

The next morning, I started around 9am to attack the steep climb through the "Schöllenen" gorge on a beautiful sunny morning. A short stop at the "Teufelsbrücke" ("Devil's Bridge"), and soon I reached Andermatt at 1450m. After a short flat stretch, it started going up again on the final uphill stretch towards the top of the pass - another 650m climb. Just before noon I reached the top of the Gotthard Pass at 2091m!! Of course it was quite cold at this altitude, but on a perfectly clear and sunny day it was still enjoyable. After 1000m uphill with all that weight I was quite tired, but from here it was mostly downhill, so I could still continue for a while. After having lunch in the restaurant on the top, I started the downhill in Ticino (the southern, Italian part of Switzerland) and towards Italy.

The old, windy, cobblestoned Tremola road with its 30 or so turns, was closed for road works, so had a good excuse to take the new road, which is good for a fast ride at 60-70 km/h without much effort Only on the lower part, the road turns back on the old road with cobblestone parts and many turns, which was quite tiring. But the entire downhill from the pass down to Airolo, at the same altitude as Göschenen at the start of the day, took only about 15 minutes. Some 1000m below the top, it was suddenly at least 10 degrees warmer, so it was time to adjust clothing.

I continued the road through the Leventina valley towards Biasca and Bellinzona, with some long flat stretches changing with some more fast downhill parts. Until Bellinzona I had made almost 100km distance, and although a good part of it was downhill, I was getting quite tired (after 1000m uphill at the start), but I continued for about 50km more because I wanted to reach the house of some friends of my parents in Oggebbio near Cannero at the Lago Maggiore. So after heading to Locarno, I crossed the border to Italy in Brissago and finally got to Oggebbio - cycling the last hour or so in the dark again, which was no big problem thanks to the good light system and lots of reflectors on all the panniers. Finally after almost 150km and 8 hours on the bike, I was rewarded with a good meal and got some long sleep until the next day.

More pictures on flickr.