Get It Over Wth Early: Day 1 - Andermatt to Fiesch - Hey Buddy, You're Going the Rhone Way - Rhone Source to Sea 2018 - CycleBlaze

October 4, 2018

Get It Over Wth Early: Day 1 - Andermatt to Fiesch

Most people probably think that jumping on a loaded touring bike for the first time in a year and then taking off to ride over a major alpine pass isn’t a very good idea.

We are not most people. That is exactly what we did.

It was a glorious sunny morning in Andermatt, but a bit chilly, like 4 c! On with the tights and the cold weather gloves! 

We got off to a very good start (for us) at 8:30. The grocery store in town didn’t open until 9 and we didn’t want to wait around so we set off west assuming that we’d be able to stop at a store in one of the small villages between us and Furka pass to pick up some ‘road food’. Not sure why we didn’t do this yesterday afternoon when we got into Andermatt and had several hours to kill, but we didn’t.

The first 10 km of the ride was gentle up and downs, cows and sheep lining the road and very quiet traffic. And the two or three small villages we rode through???… locked tight. Oh well, keep pedaling.

The early morning light was beautiful on the mountains and was really outlining the winding road and switchbacks straight in front of us. Yeah! At the 10 km mark we saw a small red sign with an exclamation mark and the numbers … 13 km, 890 m. That’s our next goal, the top of Furka pass.

Even though a 13 km uphill is never fun, the Swiss do an amazing job of building their roads and the grade was never more than 8%, a good work out, but manageable, and the road surface was great.

We were doing very well until after about 10 km of climbing both of us were feeling like we really needed a refuel … except we had nothing to refuel with! The last 3 km to the pass summit was pretty slow but there was a small restaurant at the top, with an even smaller menu. A bowl of soup, some cheese and dried salami (for a small fortune!) and we were good to go for the downhill into the Rhone valley!

The Rhone side of Furka pass was even more scenic, and steeper, than the Andermatt side. Newton’s law of an equal and opposite reaction gave us the payback for the long climb … a really, really fun ride down swooping switchbacks on perfect pavement until we rolled into the main Rhone valley at Oberwald. 

The day had really warmed up to the low 20’s and we had a bit of a tailwind as we road a few more km’s into Fiesch. We grabbed a nice and reasonably priced hotel, the Derby, a very good dinner at Des Alps (owned by a Swiss Alpine ski racer and former world champion Daniel Albrecht… aren’t they all!) and then an early night. 

Still shaking off the jet lag and today was a good way to do that. There will be more hills in this trip, but none like today!

Had some Garmin issues with satellite connections and didn't record some of the ride. The daily distance of 68 km is from Kirsten's Strava
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SOTD

Miles From Nowhere - Cat Stevens

An old classic and the line "Look up at the mountain I have to climb, oh yeah, to reach there" just fit this morning

Starting out in Andermatt - clear blue sky and 4 c temps!
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looking back at Andermatt and Oberalp pass. That's where the Rhine River starts. We did that ride in 2013
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Another look back to the east - Andermatt and Oberalp pass
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Looking west to Furka pass and today's challenge. Just under 1000 m of climbing over 13 km's. We can see about half the climb in this picture
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Kirsten starting the grind. It was still pretty cool but after about 20 minutes the cold weather gear was stripped off
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Looking back east - beautiful valley
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Golden rays on a switchback!
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-still more climbing
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This road is spectacular enough to make it into a James Bond movie - famous car chase in Goldfinger was filmed here
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K still grinding up
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Switchbacks were over, now just a steady grind up
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Nearing the top, and the end of our energy reserves. Dumb move this morning ... rather than wait 20 minutes for a grocery store to open, we took off thinking we would find and open one in one of the small villages on the way. No such luck and therefore no supplemental fuel for the ride up!
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Finally at the top. Looking east towards Andermatt
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The model framed ... looking west towards the Rhone valley and off in the distance, the southern side of the Eiger and Jungfrau
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This is what we get to ride down!
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Patrick Parnowow! Just reading your blog again, Lyle, as I am planning our Rhone trip for next fall.
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1 year ago
Lyle McLeodThat was, and still is, an impressive sight! I'd encourage you to grind it out and make it to the top of the pass, at worst it will be Type II fun, at best high grade Type I
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1 year ago
starting the decent - looking back to the summit of Furka pass, 2429 m
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Another view to the east, without the model
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the headwaters of the Rhone river, and another nasty set of switchbacks in the distance heading towards Interlaken - we did not have to take this!
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These guys were making much better time going up than we did
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Another view of the Rhone river and the amazing ride down
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Very impressive civil engineering - the road surface was impeccable too
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K nearing the bottom of the switchbacks
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another close up of the switchbacks
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the whole ride down! tons of fun and good payback for the up we did on the other side
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cool water tap in Oberwald. Every village had one of these
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Another model shot in Goms - the barn in the back is the thing being framed - built in the 1600's and still going strong
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Here's the barn and some other lovely timber houses in Goms
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Lovely mid day light on the timbers
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Very long pedestrian suspension bridge across the Rhone!
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... and at last .. post ride Weisse Beer at the lovely and friendly hotel Derby in Fiesch
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Today's ride: 68 km (42 miles)
Total: 68 km (42 miles)

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