Schweiz - Landschaft am Susten

The Great Eight – Grimsel Pass, Furka Pass, Nufenen…

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This tour leads over five of the most famous and highest Swiss passes and is for real die-hard curvy fans. It is a classic that no biker will ever forget. We even ride one of the passes twice during the day, which has to do with the name of the tour. But more about that later……

Distance: 250 kilometers
Riding time: 4-5 hours
Route and GPX download: kurv.gr/qiuGa

Directions and accommodation

The day before, we took our standard route from Bregenz via Chur-Oberalppass-Andermatt to Göschenen. On the left, a small cul-de-sac leads steeply up to the small hamlet of Gwuest at an altitude of around 1700m.
The 9km ascent from Göschenen in the canton of Uri is a scenic surprise in itself. There is no traffic, the route is increasingly steep and soon also winds upwards. The valley becomes increasingly narrow and high alpine, and by the time we reach the Göscheneralp inn, we are only a few hundred meters below the tree line.

After checking into our booked accommodation in the pleasantly simple guest house, we head over to the inn for dinner.
On entering the restaurant, we are greeted warmly and, sitting on the high terrace with steep mountains towering all around us, we are served a meal of a quality we would never have expected in this rustic setting.

The other guests here are more likely to be hikers and mountaineers. The surroundings are so wonderfully secluded and away from traffic, the valley so narrow and surrounded by 3,000-metre peaks, that the noise of motor vehicles is extremely distracting.
You involuntarily feel the desire to be part of the peace and quiet up here.
Without anyone asking us to do so, we always deliberately let our bikes roll down the driveway without power and also tried to avoid unnecessary engine noise.

Afterwards, we explore the area by driving another three kilometers uphill to the Göscheneralpsee for a short digestive walk.
The artificially dammed lake originally supplied the electrical energy for the Gotthard Railway and draws its water from the Dammagletscher, around 1000m higher up.

The tour

The next morning, we get up comfortably and have breakfast until the first rays of sunshine find their way over the high valley flanks at around 10am. The weather is dazzling, cloudless blue, but the landlady is a little skeptical as to whether it will stay that way. We check Kurviger.de and finalize the route: the tour will describe a big eight on the map and where the route forms the middle ridge of this number 8, i.e. roughly on the border between Central and , we will even ride a section of the route twice, each time in the same direction.
But first things first…….

Gössenen – Wassen – Sustenpass

33 km – SS 2

We start our bikes down on the road in bright sunshine and let them warm up a little on the descent into the valley to Göschenen. This applies not only to the engines, but also to the brakes, which are constantly needed despite downshifting. But this is just the beginning, because it’s going to get a lot more extreme. In Gössenen, I turn left onto the Gotthard road. All the way to Wassen, I wonder whether the highway running parallel to our main road 2 will spoil the valley or not. Two voices are arguing about this: One that condemns the filling in of the valley floor with so much concrete and another that is full of admiration for the audacity of Swiss road, bridge and tunnel construction.
In Wassen we tip the machines to the left, up to the Susten Pass. The 18 km to the top of the pass are not overly demanding and would be completed in 30 minutes if you weren’t tempted to descend every few kilometers and marvel at the view. As this phenomenon of grandiose views threatens at every turn, and the journey is the goal when riding a motorcycle, our tendency to descend decreases as the day progresses. Finally, the tunnel before the top of the pass and we are already at the top of the Susten Pass, at an altitude of 2224 meters.

Innertkirchen – Grimsel Pass

90 km – SS 5

Now we cross over into the canton of Bern and enjoy the 30km descent from Susten down into the valley to Innertkirchen. It is far more winding than the ascent to the top of the pass, and you wish you had ridden the tour the other way round, as the brakes are once again in great demand.

The Honda Integra is not fully automatic here, otherwise the front brakes, which are excellent by the way, would simply burn out. You downshift manually and only use the brakes for the last few meters before the hairpin.

The 50 km to the Grimsel Pass pass by with braking, putting it in, accelerating, braking, putting it in, accelerating, braking and braking again, urgs, adrenaline rush…., PUT IT IN NOW!, accelerate, brake. In between, there are always glimpses of the landscape, which takes on a new shape at every corner.

After Handegg, 2 groups of hairpin bends lead up to a high plateau, and this is where your heart stops beating: A veritable lake landscape opens up: First Räterichs Bodensee, then 2 hairpin bends further on and 150m higher the Grimselsee, then a lot higher again the Totesee, which is also the pass summit.
I really can’t understand why I only photographed the pass sign here. But to prove that I’m not faking, at least there’s this:

Switzerland - Grimsel Pass - Pass summit
Switzerland – Grimsel Pass – Pass summit

Gletsch – Furka

109 km – SS 7

Do you know that? If you’ve only done enough hairpin bends and have ridden a few times around 1000 meters in altitude, then you think that what’s still to come can’t bring a significant increase in … let’s call it “happiness”.
Far from it: the bends leading downwards in regular serpentines not only teach the brakes what work really means, but also cause that wide-awake delirium that you simply can’t explain to a non-biker.
And so, in just 8 minutes, we plunge down the 400 m to Gletsch, into the next adventure.

Furka mountain steam railroad

At the bottom of Gletsch, we turn left onto the Furka road, past the famous Grand Hotel Glacier du Rhône, and cross the tracks of the Furka mountain steam railroad without really paying attention.
We concentrate on the next two hairpin bends, on which we ascend just as quickly as we descended shortly before. Then a long straight along the ridge, where you can take a longer look, and there it is again, the track. A little further on, you come to another level crossing at a disgustingly sharp angle, which is something you don’t like as a motorcyclist, and now at the latest you wonder what such a narrow railroad track is actually doing in this high-altitude region.

At the next hairpin bend, exactly at SS 6, the solution arrives: looking down into the valley, which is essential if only for the view of the Grimsel descent behind us, we spot a plume of smoke and only a short time later a small steam train wheezes up the slope at a snail’s pace.
It’s incredible what Swiss engineers were able to do a hundred years ago!

Hospental – St. Gotthard Pass

137 km – SS 9

The landlady at the Göscheneralp was right: the weather was getting worse. Shortly before the Furka Pass, the first drops start to fall and we put on our rain gear as a precaution. At the top of the pass, which is after all the fourth highest in Switzerland, we just take the obligatory photo of the sign and continue into Valais, down to Hospental.

Halfway along the road, shortly after Realp, a few police officers with mobile radar measuring equipment are so conspicuously positioned that anyone driving in at excessive speed would have their driver’s license revoked for blindness alone. You rarely see so much concession from the state.
Nevertheless, a good reminder that the rules are different here than at home.

By now our horses are really thirsty and we urgently need fuel. In Hospental we find what is probably the smallest petrol station in Switzerland. Fortunately, it accepts our credit cards.

Incidentally, we will have to drive the stretch from Gletsch to here again later, as it forms the middle section of the 8, the lower half of which we now want to carve into the asphalt. To do this, we leave Hospental behind us in the direction of the Gotthard Pass.

In just under half an hour we are at the top of the Gotthard pass, at an altitude of 2108 meters.

Airolo – Nufenen Pass

177 km – SS 13

The weather has calmed down a little, but the high cloud towers around us don’t bode well. The feeling of having to hurry doesn’t make us take the old pass road, but drives us further into Ticino, down the serpentines of the wide federal highway 2 over the famous Bedretto bend into the valley floor of Airolo, which we reach after 15 km of high concentration. We turn right into the Bedretto valley in the direction of Nufenen.
Although we follow the two mountain ranges that form the Bedretto valley almost parallel, the straight sections of the road become shorter and shorter. At the same time, the number of bends increases almost inflationarily with increasing altitude until we reach the top of the Nufenen pass with the last four hairpins leading steeply upwards.
When the side stands are folded out, the engine noise dies down, only the radiator fan continues to shriek hysterically under the fairing.

We are at an altitude of 2469 m on the second highest pass in the Swiss Alps and the highest point of our tour.

Because the roads are still dry everywhere, we are only now realizing that the weather is not looking good at all. The clouds are already hanging pitch black over the road. It’s hard to explain why it’s not raining yet, but the occasional rumble of thunder doesn’t bode well. We make sure that we get on.

Ulrichen – Furka

215 km – SS 7

The steep descent down to Ulrichen distracts us again from the impending wet. Starting the bends, pushing the bike down and finding the ideal point to open the throttle has become second nature. The bike already feels like a part of my body, and a lot better than my original walking tools, which are now suffering from arthritis.

It could actually go on forever, this feather-light dance through the dark and menacingly low-hanging clouds around me.
“Who rides so late through night and wind….”
If I didn’t know better, I’d say Goethe was a motorcyclist!

In Ulrichen I have to stop worrying about Erlkönig. Firstly, we have escaped the black clouds for the time being, and secondly, we turn right towards Gletsch.

When we arrive in Gletsch, we have finished “The Great Eight”, and from here we ride the route to Andermatt over the Furka a second time. That’s not really a bad thing, because knowing a route has never been a mistake.
The black clouds hang lower and lower on the mountain peaks around us. They spur us on even more, which is why the pace over the Furka Pass is more sporty this time.

Furka – Hospental

234 km – SS 16

After Realp, I keep an eye out for the policemen with the speed camera, but they are no longer to be seen. Instead, this time I notice the railroad line next to the road. How did it get here?
I realize that this must be the same little train that we saw this morning with the camera on the other side of the Furka. In Hospental I see the terminus with these cute carriages and I turn right into the station to have a look.
You could have guessed that this last stop would be our undoing…….

Andermatt – Devil’s Bridge – Göschenen

Km 242 – SS 17

Andermatt is quickly reached. The unusually heavy traffic in the town is not a problem for our two-wheelers.
It’s only 6 km to Göschenen, with the Devil’s Bridge and the descent down to the Schöllenen Gorge in between. Normally a fascinating scenic treat that can be covered in 10 minutes. But unfortunately not today.

This is due to 3 circumstances:
1. the entire canton of Uri has probably decided to take the same route as us.
2. the route is under construction and regulated on one side with traffic lights. You can’t even squeeze past on the left on a two-wheeler, forwards to the traffic lights, it’s so narrow here.
3. it starts to rain and the torn-up road turns into a muddy track.

At the Devil’s Bridge, the Erlkönig catches up with us – literally!
We sit on pins and needles in the swelling rain, and eventually we do make it to Göschenen. Relieved, we turn left, up towards our safe home, the Göscheneralp, which we could now reach reasonably dry.

But it will be the worst 15 km of my motorcycling career.
No exaggeration! The clouds are already dark and black, but somehow there’s still more to come. It flashes bright white and thunders at the same time, the thud is so loud and drowns out every other sound that I think it’s a direct hit. The heavens open the floodgates and our ride mutates into a dive a thousand meters above sea level.
Hospental – the station, I donkey……!
I wish I’d kept my butt cheeks together, then we’d have been spared this.
You can barely see your hand in front of your eyes, but we still desperately step on the gas to somehow escape this flashing, thundering, cold and wet hell. Within seconds, ice-cold rainwater penetrates under every root of our hair. The noise of the thunder is reflected thousands of times by the steep walls of the valley; it is an uninterrupted, roaring, deafening hell.
A terrible, eternal quarter of an hour later, we reach the entrance to the Göscheneralp.

Almost at the same moment, the spook stops and five minutes later, the last rays of sunshine of the day flash through the first blue gaps in the clouds.
“Hospental – train station“, I say, exhaling deeply, before folding away the side stand and listening exhaustedly to the radiator fan running out.

Finish

Of course, after peeling out of the slippery stuff that had to serve as a diving suit, we first have a great hot shower. And of course there’s a great evening meal over at the pub. And, of course, the whole day was a wonderful adventure, especially because we survived the danger of death by lightning and drowning. And yes, the dive was actually great, because it washed the silt and mud of the Devil’s Gorge off the motorcycles, what luck……
We sleep wonderfully that night, with the mountain air coming in through the open window.
The next morning we pack our things, a little wistfully, because we will have to leave these magnificent mountains behind us at some point on the way home.