{"id":2060,"date":"2009-10-02T20:35:09","date_gmt":"2009-10-03T03:35:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/evilmoose.shafted.com.au\/?p=2060"},"modified":"2011-02-17T16:47:16","modified_gmt":"2011-02-17T23:47:16","slug":"the-alps-three-2000m-passes-in-one-day-2-oct-2009","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/evilmoose.me\/?p=2060","title":{"rendered":"The Alps: Three 2000m+ passes in one day (2 Oct 2009)"},"content":{"rendered":"

We had an overnight deer barking at us, but were otherwise undisturbed. This was good, because I was feeling a little trepidation about the steepness of today\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s ride. We got away as soon as it was light, as it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s always nicer to not be sharing the road with cars and motorbikes. And that plan actually worked really well, often we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d be cycling along for 15 minutes without a vehicle passing, it didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t start getting busier until after 9am, and even then it wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t too bad. Unlike the Gro\u00c3\u0178glockner, this road had no toll, and no picnic benches, but it was still a really nice ride. And, as we discovered, it was no steeper than the Gro\u00c3\u0178glockner! Our legs were perhaps a little more used to the mountains now, but it even felt a bit less steep. So slowly, hairpin by hairpin, we climbed up out of the valley and into another sunny day. The numbered hairpins pleased my stat-tracking brain, and counting down to the last one was kind of satisfying. <\/p>\n

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Setting off early paid off though, as the road was mostly deserted until we neared the Pass<\/em><\/center><\/p>\n

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Still hardly any traffic<\/em><\/center><\/p>\n

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We cycled past the rustling of a deer, but don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t see it. Right by the road wall I passed the ears of a hare, which stayed determinedly still. Then a Least Weasel (at least that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s what I think it was) poinged across the road to safety, where it peered out at me from a crack in the wall. We cycled underneath a couple of Hoary Marmots who then start peeping in alarm when we reappeared above them, sending hoards of Marmots scurrying in the few hairpins below us.<\/p>\n

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All the hairpins we’d cycled up already<\/em><\/center><\/p>\n

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Finally we reached the summit \u00e2\u20ac\u201c Stilfser Joch\/Passo dello Stelvio (2757m) is just a ski resorty touristy mess without much of a view, so after pausing for a coffee (and some thumbs up from motorcyclists that had passed us on the way up) we rolled onwards. After a short downhill, there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s barely a few hundred metres of slight uphill before you reach the border with Switzerland at Umbrail Pass (2501m). <\/p>\n

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Passo dello Stelvio<\/em><\/center><\/p>\n

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Umbrail Pass<\/em><\/center><\/p>\n

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The descent from here was slightly hair raising \u00e2\u20ac\u201c there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s lots of hurtling towards hairpin bends that seem to have unprotected cliff drops on their edges. In reality there are no cliffs, but it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s still a bit steep and spooky. Actually descending steep hairpin roads in general tends to be a bit spooky on a fully loaded touring bike with nothing but V-brakes to hold it back. We stopped a lot to help prevent the brakes from overheating, and to enjoy the views. And to have lunch before we descended too far into the valley (there be dragons).<\/p>\n

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Alex flies down through the amazing scenery and slightly scary road on the descent from Umbrail Pass<\/em><\/center><\/p>\n

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After lunch we continued the downhill rolling (on gravel road for a few kilometers too) to arrive in Santa Maria: where everything was closed for lunch\/siesta. So we continued up the valley and onwards, heading uphill again (much more steeply than we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d expected when we looked down on the valley from above). We hit a few supermarkets that would open in an hour\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 then an hour later\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 then finally reached the steep switchbacks to Ofenpass\/Pass dal Fuorn (2149m). It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s much steeper than Stilfser Joch, and a busy road to boot. And it was getting nice and warm; I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d long ago stripped off to a singlet. <\/p>\n

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The Umbrail Pass road turns to dirt for a few kilometres as we descend further<\/em><\/center><\/p>\n

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Pass dal Fuorn<\/em><\/center><\/p>\n

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Finally that is over too though, and we descended again before climbing to Ova Spin, and then had an even steeper drop into Zernez (1473m) where we finally found some groceries (ow my wallet) and a campsite. With cowbells. Now to sit and work out where we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re going to go next. Because the Alps are fun, but can this good weather possibly hold?<\/p>\n

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Descending through the Swiss National Park<\/em><\/center><\/p>\n

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Distance cycled:<\/strong> 66km
\nDays of rain:<\/strong> 0\/1 (wooo! the sunny spell continues)
\nPublic toilets: <\/strong>Available
\nBike friendliness:<\/strong> Reasonable \u00e2\u20ac\u201c we were cycling on the road the whole time, the main thing was to be careful on blind hairpins on the descent, as motorbikes and cars could appear behind you unexpectedly and going much faster.
\nTotal ascent for the day:<\/strong> 2019m<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We had an overnight deer barking at us, but were otherwise undisturbed. This was good, because I was feeling a little trepidation about the steepness of today\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s ride. We got away as soon as it was light, as it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s always nicer to not be sharing the road with cars and motorbikes. And that plan actually […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advgb_blocks_editor_width":"","advgb_blocks_columns_visual_guide":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[29,141,1,17],"tags":[1318,1319,1315,1316,1317,1320],"class_list":["post-2060","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bikes","category-european-bike-epic","category-general","category-trip-reports","tag-ofenpass","tag-pass-dal-fuorn","tag-passo-dello-stelvio","tag-stilfser-joch","tag-switzerland","tag-zernez"],"author_meta":{"display_name":"megan","author_link":"https:\/\/evilmoose.me\/?author=1"},"featured_img":null,"coauthors":[],"tax_additional":{"categories":{"linked":["bikes<\/a>","european bike epic<\/a>","general<\/a>","trip reports<\/a>"],"unlinked":["bikes<\/span>","european bike epic<\/span>","general<\/span>","trip reports<\/span>"]},"tags":{"linked":["ofenpass<\/a>","pass dal fuorn<\/a>","passo dello stelvio<\/a>","stilfser joch<\/a>","switzerland<\/a>","zernez<\/a>"],"unlinked":["ofenpass<\/span>","pass dal fuorn<\/span>","passo dello stelvio<\/span>","stilfser joch<\/span>","switzerland<\/span>","zernez<\/span>"]}},"comment_count":"0","relative_dates":{"created":"Posted 17 years ago","modified":"Updated 15 years ago"},"absolute_dates":{"created":"Posted on 2.10.2009","modified":"Updated on 17.2.2011"},"absolute_dates_time":{"created":"Posted on 2.10.2009 8:35 pm","modified":"Updated on 17.2.2011 4:47 pm"},"featured_img_caption":"","series_order":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/evilmoose.me\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2060","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/evilmoose.me\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/evilmoose.me\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/evilmoose.me\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/evilmoose.me\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2060"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/evilmoose.me\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2060\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2911,"href":"https:\/\/evilmoose.me\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2060\/revisions\/2911"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/evilmoose.me\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2060"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/evilmoose.me\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2060"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/evilmoose.me\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2060"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}