Brig to Simplon

August 19, 2016

What a great day! Especially after yesterday's tiring ride. Yesterday, when I arrived, I took a two-hour nap to make up for the prior night's bad sleep. We then had dinner, and I rested very well, waking up this morning feeling ready to climb Simplon. While the hotel's breakfast was not the best, I made sure to get a good filling. That, and a new pair of gloves purchased around the corner from the hotel, and I was ready to go.

Departing Brig in good spirits . . . thanks to the sunshine, which stayed with us all day.

The night before, Mark had pointed out a very high-level highway bridge wrapping around the mountain leading towards Simplon. He asked, "Is that our route?" I said, "Naw, too high up too soon." Boy, was I wrong!

Today's ride to Simplon.

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But we conquered it and the rest of the climb. In retrospect, it was probably easier than Grimselpass. The grade was relatively consistent the entire way up, a steady 6-7% with little variation. Which makes climbing a lot easier. I never got out of my middle chainring and typically was in the larger three rear cogs, depending on the actual grade or how I felt.

We started out headed pretty much due south along the Saltina River, which cuts through the middle of Brig. That led us to some minor roads out of town that would shortly connect us to Swiss Route 9.

After 20 minutes, we were already noticeably gaining elevation. That is Brig in the background.

Ten minutes later, we turned onto Swiss Route 9 from the road we used up from Brig central.

Both Mark and I had some trouble with our Garmins tying into satellites, and our location at the start is not properly represented on the RWGPS track. It actually shows me starting at an elevation of plus 30,000 feet! Hopefully I'll be able to edit that when I get home (and I did, so that was fixed!). Regardless, in a short distance, our route appeared and stayed with us the rest of the day (although we lost signal in some tunnels).

About ten minutes after turning onto Swiss Route 9, we were at our first major switchback. Check out that barrier wall!

And me not far behind. This picture gives a good sense of the grade, which varied little at this point.

The climbing started immediately and attained the 6-7% slope pretty quick. It always amazes me how fast you can gain elevation when you climb. We were on the aforementioned highway bridge in no time, and the grade did not look impossible. But I can tell you, the bridged portions are real cliffhangers.

Traffic was heavy. This is a main corridor to Italy and has been used as an important trade route for centuries. There are some other roads for starting the ride, but I was never sure about connectivity issues and learned later that the grades on the old road can be steep in some locations. And eventually, you end up on Swiss Route 9 regardless.

And while we had traffic, we also had a climbing lane. Two lanes headed up, so traffic passed easily. And we had great views of the valley as well.

Our first tunnel. Note the two lanes on the approach. One dropped off passing through the tunnel, but it picked up again on the far side.

Further up the first switchback and after the second tunnel. Here, we are almost to the wrap point and the third tunnel. As you can see, the roadway literally hangs off the mountainside.

In that first bridge section, before you take the wrap around the end of the mountain at around MP 7, we passed through three tunnels, two short and one of significant length. The first two were easy, the last more of a challenge.

If you were on the old road, you probably would bypass all three tunnels, as it appears that at the end of the third tunnel, the old road joins the new road. We considered getting on the old road right before the third tunnel (it looked like a bypass route) but couldn't find an access point, so opted to brave it.

Point of information: Most of the traffic was headed for Brig, the tunnel was well lit, and it had a slight downgrade as it wrapped partially around the mountain top. So we made sure our lights were on and waited for an appropriate break in traffic (we could see quite a long ways down the road behind us) and let it rip.

The view after the third tunnel and at the end of the wrapped section. Now we climb the backside of the mountain.

Success! On to Simplon!

I should note something further about the route this road takes. Unlike Grimselpass, we were not following a river valley per se. The valley here is extremely narrow with many dead-end roads. And the old road, like the new road, hugs the mountainside. This explains the uniform grade. By hugging the mountain, you basically do a continuous climb, whereas if you follow a river valley, you may follow the river, but the grade can vary substantially due to the side slopes of the valley. That can end in a steep climb, such as Grimselpass.

And the view further up the valley. You can see why a road along the river made no sense.

So around the bend and up we go, with great views that only got better (as we were always climbing). And then we saw a great bridge that lay ahead of us. A Christian Menn bridge. Quite spectacular and a joy to bike over.

The Christian Menn bridge as we first saw it.

And here right before we crossed it to the next mountain.

That section leveled out a bit, and then we were on the next switchback. The third, depending on how you want to count this. They aren't switchbacks in the traditional sense, more a turn to follow the mountain grade up.

And not before too long, we were way above it.

There, the climbing got a little stiffer, and we took a slight break for snacks and water, only to find a restaurant around the next bend, which we also stopped at! No rush after all.

Which was good. We needed to refresh for the last challenge. A series of three more tunnels, the last one two miles long, right before the peak. I don't recall exactly where the construction started, but I'm pretty sure it was at the second tunnel. The uphill lane was under construction, and the remaining lane was alternating one-way traffic.

There were warning signs, of course, so as we made our way through the first tunnel and came upon a queue of cars, it was not a surprise. The lane was wide enough (or the cars thin enough) that we easily made our way to the front . . . the SAFE place to be. And there was plenty of room for us there, as it was at the end of the tunnel, and the flagger was holding traffic back a distance. We kept to the right and soaked in the scenery, looking back down the valley. In short order, the flagger noticed us, and through a combination of bad Italian and bad English and various hand motions, it was clear we should go after the last car. I was good with that as well. No problemo!

At the front of the queue after the first of the last three tunnels. Our flagger was very nice, but I don't think we were the first cyclists he had dealt with. And later we met two more who came after us.

And the grade continued up and into the second and third tunnels. I had no idea how long the construction zone was, but Mark and I took it in stride and noticed that between sub-work areas, there were breaks in the barriers where we could seek refuge. We both figured there was no way we were going to make it through before traffic was reversed, so we were already planning our refuge points. And they were often enough that it worked fine, even with the construction activity all around.

And here I am, sitting in a break in the barriers, waiting for traffic to pass.

With Mark right ahead of me. Since we followed the first queue through, this must be the second, which would have come after the opposite-flowing traffic had passed.

Taking a break between tunnel two and tunnel three.

So we hopscotched through the tunnel. About halfway through, we noticed another pair of cyclists, also touring, not far behind us. That is always good news. Strength in numbers!

About halfway through the third and last tunnel, the construction zone ended, and traffic was back to normal with only delineators between the opposite travel lanes to get approaching downhill traffic to slow down. But for us, that was not a problem, as this section of the tunnel had been improved to add refuge points for people in case of an emergency (accident, fire, or otherwise). I am more than a little familiar with this, as one of my last projects when I worked included the extension of an existing tunnel by twice its length. It is quite a complex project and now under construction in Washington, DC. So I know a little about emergency exit points and knew these would work for us if we were backing up traffic.

But I don't recall that happening. We did pull off in a wide area that was paved and overlooked the valley, and traffic may have passed us then. The cyclists behind us overtook us at that point, and I grabbed a picture. Later we talked at the summit, which was not far.

Looking back on the third tunnel from what appeared to be some sort of refuge point (or possible vantage point for hikers). This was actually closer to the top than we realized at the time.

Our two fellow cyclists, who were not far behind us, passed us when we stopped. Luke, in the forefront, is from Ireland. Tom, at the back, is British but living in Germany.

I thought we still had about a mile to go, but shortly after exiting the third tunnel, there was the summit! At this point it felt like a piece of cake. Maybe it was. Mark and I had trained a lot for this ride. We were now over the Alps!

From here it was all downhill to Simplon Dorf, the village the pass is named for (or vice versa). Only six miles! And a lot steeper . . . but in a better direction. The warning signs indicated 10%! Well, Italy does lie at a lower elevation than Brig . . . so we checked our brakes, put on our jackets for warmth, and started the descent, stopping now and then for pictures (and to let the occasional truck pass).

And the view ahead. Check and double-check your brakes!

Descending is so much different than climbing. But I was ready to get to our hotel. Tom and Luke, the two cyclists we saw behind us, were headed for Gondo to camp. Gonna be cold tonight! They still had 12 miles or so to travel. But they probably saw the gorge in better light than we did (see tomorrow's write-up).

We arrived in Simplon Dorf around 4:30. That was almost five hours after we left this morning. A long but beautiful day. Tomorrow: Italia!

Today's ride: 20 miles (32 km)
Total: 744 miles (1,197 km)

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