Forty four kilometers of some of the most amazing cycling ever.
Where do I start?
For as long as K and Ihave known each other, and that’s over 40 years now, she’s been regaled (or annoyed, bored, irritated?) with my tales of Splugen pass.
I graduated from university in May of 1982, and before joining the chain gang for the next thirty three years, I took a four month ‘Right of Passage’ trip to Europe (and a shout out to my first, and only employer, BP Canada, for being completely supportive of this).
Prior to this I’d been on a plane a few times, I could probably count them on my hands, and had been to the States a few times as well. So, for this yokel from Calgary, heading off to Europe for four months on my own was a ‘deer in the headlights’ experience.
My plan was to buy a bike when I got to the UK and then set off to …. well, wherever. And that’s pretty much how things played out.
By mid June I got word that one of my very good friends who’d been travelling in SE Asia and India, was planning on heading to Europe and through a few collect phone calls through our respective families in Calgary, we ‘made a plan’ that Dave would meet me in Frankfurt in a ‘four day window’ in late June, where he’d pick up a bike and we’d cycle along together …. once again, wherever the wind or our notions decided on the day.
After spending some time in the Black Forest region in Germany and biking and hiking many passes in Switzerland and taking in the Montreux Jazz Festival, we decided that we should head to Italy, maybe Milan to start? The Michelin map we had showed that the nearest pass to us, and the most direct route to Milan, plus one that looked like it had the ‘smallest’ and therefore least busy road, was Splugen pass.
With that research out of the way, off we went.
We’d been in Switzerland for a few weeks so we were well acquainted with how orderly things were. The pavement was perfect, the roads were swept (literally) and things.were.just.so … maybe a little bit too much so, and we were looking forward to getting into a new country, Italy!
As we worked our way up the Swiss side of Splugen / Spluga through the high alpine country on the very nice wide open switchbacks, neither one of us was really ready for what was about to hit us. The pass topped out at just over 2100 m, there were a few cars and trailers in front of us at the Border Control (this was well before Schengen was even thought of) and we were waived through the border pretty quickly (just another couple of long haired backpacker / biker types). We were now in Italy.
Initially it seemed pretty similar. We were still in the broad high Alpine meadows like on the Swiss side of the pass , the road was a little rougher but still OK. We started to descend to Lago di Montesplugga, the lake formed by the dam across the VERY narrow Spluga valley.
Once past the dam the world changed. I’ve remembered the next hour or so so vividly for the last 43 years.
It was a clear day on a warm August afternoon. The high alpine meadows gave way to a narrow canyon that looked like it was less than 500 m wide and just dropped away ….. forever (actually it drops about 1800 m in about 15 km’s, most of it in the first 7 km’s). The perfect Swiss pavement was no longer, replaced instead by rough potholes and cobblestone pavers on the very narrow often single lane road that was carved into the almost shear walls of the canyon; numerous small tunnels … no lights … tunnels not sealed and therefore dripping water from above; impossible to believe hairpin turns and tunnels all stacked, literally, on top of each other. To add to this physical chaos we were in Italy, real Italy not South Tyrol, so we were now surrounded by Italian farmers and their 3 wheeled Piaggios going up and down this crazy road in what seemed like an endless buzz of activity (like the Brownian motion of little single cell organisms in a petrie dish). I spent a large portion of the ride behind Piaggios, their two stroke engines whining and spewing that classic oily two stroke exhaust, the back beds filled with tomatoes, potatoes, leeks … you name it.
This was not Switzerland.
This was a whole new amazingly chaotic world. This was my Splugen Pass.
Forty three years later it delivered again. Sure some things have changed, but the essential essence was still there.
Halfway down the ride, in the craziest switchback section, K looked at me wide eyed and slack jawed and said “Now I know!”
I guess that’s a good segue from my ancient past to today, and it really was a fantastic day. Sure we had rain, we had fog, we had a 700 m climb, but we also met some great people, experienced the incredible physical and cultural change from one side of the pass to the other and finished the day in the beautiful town of Chiavenna.
The day started as usual with a good hearty Swiss breakfast. We were given warm, but reserved, best wishes from Sophie who ran the Seeblick hotel and then we loaded the bikes and set off … but only after meeting Kurt , a German gentleman about our age who was on his way over Splugen as well, but he had an e-bike, so we didn’t see him again!
From the village of Splugen to the pass it’s about a 700 m climb on very well laid out roads, never more than an 8% grade, that make their way through the local ski resort. As you do when your legs are on ‘auto climb’ mode, my mind did wander into the place where I though it odd that we were climbing ‘uphill’ through a ‘down hill’ ski resort. I’m sure that’s what all the folks in the cars that past us were thinking too.
About halfway up the climb it started to drizzle so the rain jackets came out but we didn’t need anymore than that. As I noted earlier, the climb up the Swiss side is pretty straightforward and quite pretty …. Even with cloud and fog swirling around … in a classic high alpine valley way.
About 500 m and 60 m elevation wise from the summit on the Swiss side there was a small hotel and restaurant. We had a few Swiss Francs that needed to be used up so we went in for a little warm up and a hot drink. This is where we met Fritz, another gent about our age from The Netherlands. His nice Santos touring bike was parked out front by our’s. We exchanged stories and tales of past adventures for quite a while and then set out together for the last short section of the pass, unfortunately it as still drizzling.
Within a few minutes we were at the pass, the old border control station long locked up and abandoned and were joined a few minutes later by two guys on fast road bikes. They’d ridden up from Chur and were headed back (BIG ride - over 1600 m and about 70 km one way!).
With the obligatory pass pictures out of the way we set off down into Italy once again, this time into a pretty good fog. It was only a few km’s and about 150 m of elevation drop to get to the small village of Montesplugga and that’s where we thought we’d grab some lunch and ‘gear up with full goretex’ for the long ride down. While riding this short section we saw several classic cars (a beautiful ‘50’s Porsche 356 and an ‘old’ Morgan, that is almost indistinguishable from a ‘new’ Morgan, to name a few). We pulled into Montesplugga and found the Albergo Della Posta open for business so in we went. Our timing was perfect. There were quite a few open tables and we grabbed one by the front window as it had a bench where we could lay out our wet jackets and our front bags that had all of our wet weather gear in them. Coffee, fizzy water and great hot onion soup with cheesy croutons were ordered, dry shirts put on and life was great. More so because within 10 minutes the place was packed! The classic cars we saw a few minutes ago were the thin edge of a large wedge of cars taking part in some sort of rally and the Albergo Della Posta seemed to be a staging point. It was standing room only for the Ferrari crowd (yes, most cars seemed to be Ferraris) so it was also quite a bit of a people watching experience. There was one other group of bikers …. Fit young roadies from Ticino (from their matchy matchy cycling kit)… at an adjacent table, a young family with a baby beside us, us .. the old drowned rats, and then the Louis Vuitton outfitted Ferrari folks. Quite the mix but it all worked and was quite lively. Only 20 km’s away from Splugen in Switzerland …. But a completely different world!
Soup done, Gortex on, time to move out.
This is where I got my flashbacks and K got the amazing first time experience of Spluga. I’ll back track a little and point out that Spluga has 51 tornante’s - 3 more that Stelvio! When you look at the map they really don’t show up unless you really zoom in. That’s because they are stacked so close together, one on top of each other!
I’ll let the pictures (try) to show what it was like, but you really have to be there to truly appreciate and understand it. There is really nothing else like it that I’ve seen… and now K feels the same!
One little vignette from our ride that will help explain some of the pictures. As we were coming to the first section of ‘stacked’ switchbacks, K took off through them and I pulled off against the guardrail to get some pic’s of her. This was right in front of one of the original short tunnels (a few more have been added or expanded from what I could see) and the signs on the tunnels indicated a max vehicle height of 2.3 m.
As I’m waiting for K to emerge from a tunnel below me, a Mercedes Sprinter camper comes from behind me and stops right at the tunnel. He’s pretty tight to me and I’m wondering what he’s doing. About this time K emerges from the tunnel below me and I snap a pic. Then I noticed that Sprinter guy is starting to back up … I guess that his van is over 2.3 m high and he missed getting the memo at the top of the pass. By now there are probably 5 cars backed up around the previous hairpin as Sprinter guy starts the execution of his 93 point turn to get his large van pointed in the other direction to go back up the pass! Oh, K’s now emerged from the next layer of tunnels and I grab another pic and set off after her.
I have no idea how or how long it took the sprinter guy to get turned around, but there was very little traffic coming from behind us for the next 20 minutes of so! Even so, although there was a reasonable amount of traffic, and unfortunately only one of them was a Piaggio! We were moving pretty much the same speed as all the cars, and perhaps faster than some, so it wasn’t an issue at all for us.
Once we were through this first crazy section, K had pulled over to wait for me. This is when she exclaimed, wide eyed ‘Now I see what you’ve been talking about for all these years! I got dripped on in the tunnels! These turns and tunnels are INSANE! The other side of the valley IS RIGHT THERE!’
Yes, it is truly amazing, fortunately, or maybe unfortunately, she didn’t get to experience the potholes, cobblestones and oil belching Piaggios, but she got enough to see how truly special this place is. I’ll shut up and let the pics (try to) show what it was like.
After the insane portion of the ride, it was just another great alpine pass descent through beautiful forests and ever increasing temperatures and humidity as we dropped into the Chiavenna valley. Soon we were going through beautiful old towns, still dropping considerable elevation, and as we were passing through Cimaganda we heard a guy call out ‘Hey, I saw you on Stelvio!’
Hearing that, we braked to a stop and turned around to see Julian, with his family in tow. Indeed, we met Julian a few days a go at the summit of Stelvio. He was with a group of roadies who had ridden up from Bormio and we’d had a brief chat before we all took off as the rain approached. He was now touring around with his family and we had another chance to catch up. It’s a small world sometimes!
Before we knew it we were in Chiavenna, a beautiful small Italian city. Debrief and celebratory bevies in the town square, a quick check in and clean up in the exceptional Villa Giade B&B, then a wander town around with the obligatory gelato stop … how perfect can it get! Oh yeah, a truly fantastic, elegant and relaxed dinner at Villa Giade (it’s mainly a restaurant - more for locals - no English menus! With six very very nice rooms)
That’s enough writing for now. I don’t know if I’ve got another 43 years left to be able to experience another Spluga day, but two is more than enough for one lifetime, no need to be greedy.
Had a nice chat with Kurt from Germany (near Stuttgart). He was going over Splugen as well , but on a e-bike. He mentioned that he met a Dutch couple the previous day who were headed there too. More later…
Most of the traffic on the busy autoroute was continuing on to the San Bernardino tunnel and then down into Ticino. It was mainly light ‘tourist traffic’ and NO trucks on Splugen
Past most of the ski resort infrastructure and into the high alpine meadows. The pass is coming into view but about to be obscured by clouds and rain …. Note the shiny road.
Grabbed one of the last tables in Albergo Della Posta and spread out our stuff. The Ferrari crowd was just starting to show up … number 101 out the window . A late model black one … don’t know the model, not a Ferrari nerd as I’ll never own one.
The first ‘old tunnel. Note the ‘new’ max height sign. K snapped this pic, and the next one, before she took off through the start of this maze called Splugen pass.
I pull up to the same spot and see this sprinter van stopped in front of me, then it starts to back up. There’s not a lot of room to do that buddy! I get my pic of K in red leaving the first tunnel.
Meanwhile, Sprinter van guy has now backed up past me and is attempting a multi-multi point turn to get going back uphill. The traffic is just starting to back up behind him. I feel absolutely no urgency to get going and take a few more leisurely pictures. I’m not interfering with anybody!
Same spot as the last photo, just not zoomed in. The next two photos are from the exact same spot, I’ve just turned 90° and pointed my camera straight down over the guard-rail
A fantastic amuse …. Corn foam with a bit of paprika and a ‘cod ball’ with lemon gel (cod ball sounds much better when spoken in Italian). We had a similar corn foam in Montreal last summer when we were there to get my knee done …. Not something you’d normally think of but it is really really good!
We celebrated with a bottle of Rose Franciacorta. Note the glasses … they have six small ‘dot’ depressions in the bottom that act as nucleation sights for the bubbles. So cool (to a nerdy engineer type)
Salmerino, latticello, cavola rapa - Local char (done two ways - fillet and a mousse in a ball) buttermilk sauce and kohlrabi. English does not a bad job on this one!
Torta Fioretto, caffé e confettura di Albicocche - essentially a very high class doughnut with apricot filling and coffee ice cream. Who wouldn’t love that!
‘Cause today showed that just sometimes, you can get a do-over, and I got to share it with K.
In August ‘82 I also bore a slight resemblance to Glenn Cornick, the bass player in the video. Shoulder length hair and a scruffy moustache will do that for just about anyone.
Good night from Chiavenna, and one of our best days …. ever
Scott AndersonTerrific write-up, Lyle. I'd never heard of this pass but it looks like a phenomenal experience, both times. I don't doubt that the memory of that first time hasn't faded over all this time. And you're right, Northern Italy is much changed. Reading this brings back my own memory of dropping down into Domodossola from Simplon Pass in '93 - it was a shock to drop into such a foreign land. Reply to this comment 1 week ago
