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With the experiences of 5 tours to the High-Tatras and two cycletours in Austria and Slovenia, in the year 2001 with joining to the holiday of my parents I tried to cross the swiss Alps.

CROSSING THE SWISS ALPS 2001

Gyorgyigabor
2004-02-05 19:47:34

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With the experiences of 5 tours to the High-Tatras and two cycletours in Austria and Slovenia, in the year 2001 with joining to the holiday of my parents I tried to cross the swiss Alps. The startpoint was a small village Champoussin, situated 1575m high not too far from the Lake Leman. This village was az ideal place to go cycletraining into the mountains and to gather power for the next two week cycling. I planned to finish my tour at the main railway station of Munich until the evening of 9th August, because at that night started my train back to Budapest. I spent the first week with my parents next to the swiss-french border. We had beautiful clear and sunny weather, so I could warm up for the tour with pack between ideal conditions. On my first cycletour I biked to France through the not too high, but steep Col de la Forclaz. This pass are usually compared to the famous climb, Alpe d’Huez, because of their comparable steepness and long. Before that time I hadn’t seen the Mont Blanc, so I found amazing the huge mass of snow. Looking at the glaciers, I found fantastic the 3800m height-difference between the 1000m high situated Chamonix and the 4807m high Mont Blanc. Cycling back to Champoussin I needed the most effort on the last 18 km, when I had to climb 1200m height-difference from Monthey to our hotel. I began this ascent after 150km biking. (1st training-tour: 171 km + 3741 m height-diff.)
On my second cycletour – thanks for the warmer weather – I took sight at the 2469m high Col du Grand Saint Bernard, at the border between Switzerland and Italy. According to the legend, in the XI. century the here settled down monks rescued with the St. Bernard dogs those people who got stuck there. The pass-road ascends from Martigny to the pass 42 km long, but from this distance only the 27 kms after Orsieres are serious. The trafficked mainroad goes to Italy through a tunnel at the height of 1930 m, but I chose the thin passroad up to the pass surrounding by ...