Day 8: Thur 6th July 2006
Ride: Andermatt to Chamonix - 302 miles
Today we were heading back to Chamonix but before we left Andermatt the plan was to introduce Chris B, Kyle and Chris P to the delights of the Oberalp, Lukmanier and St. Gotthard pass roads. These passes form part of a scenic 97 mile loop that conveniently starts and finishes in Andermatt. Phil and Gaz rode the loop yesterday while the others retired to the bar. This morning we were all up and about nice and early, however, from the moment we got up the weather looked decidedly unpredictable. Nevertheless we checked out of the hotel, loaded up the bikes, and headed up the St. Gotthard Pass. Unfortunately the weather turned very quickly this morning and as you can see from the photos below the top of the St. Gotthard was shrouded in mist.
Here's a couple of views taken from the top by the museum.
The weather looked like it was set in for the day so we had a coffee and left heading for the Susten Pass which runs east to west from Wassen, north of Andermatt, to Innertkirchen. This was a great road, especially going up from Wassen.
Below are a series of photos that we took on the way up.
And a couple more photos. One looking back down the valley (left), and one taken at the top looking down over the cloud towards Innertkirchen (right).
The pass down was much more difficult and quite technical but still fun. We stopped by the glacier on the way down for a break.
Below are a couple of spectacular views of the glacier with a shot of Kyle and Chris on the right.
Steingletscher Glacier
From Innertkirchen we had planned on riding back through Gstaad - playground of the rich and famous - to Bex but near Interlaken it decided to throw it down with rain so we retreated via the autoroute to the base of the Col de la Forclaz.
Below are two views that were taken after we'd parked the bikes up by the roundabout at the very base of the Forclaz. You can just about make out the pass running up to the first hairpin, a fantastic biking road.
From the base of the Forclaz we rode up to the bar at the top and made our now regular end of ride stop-off before heading down the valley over the Col des Montets and back into Chamonix and the chalet.
