Time has flown by and I’m counting the last days of work until I will start a new adventure…. The Haute Route from Chamonix to Zermatt with the bike… 6000 hm, over eight passes, inspired by a trip report in the Bike Magazine where the bike legends Hans Rey and Holger Meyer rode this tour. I’m following their route, all by myself, hopefully everything goes well!
Back some days… On my last day off last week I stayed in the region for biking and went again on the same bike tour where I’ve been with my friends a couple of days before. Stalden – Gspon and further on… High above the Rhone valley…
Weisshorn
…some hikers along the way…
Finsterahorn
…view into the Saas valley…
Gspon, a little mountain village high up above nearly 2000 m’s, only accessable by an old cable-car…
The plan was different though. I had packed up my backpack with tent, sleeping bag, etc to try out if it would be possible to bike over the western alps without staying in guest houses. To tent whereever, whenever I want. The try-out failed but that’s why I tried it out. The reason why: It’s just not very enjoyable to carry a very heavy backpack on your back while biking on single trails… And on my supposed route over the alps I will have to carry my bike that weighs over 15 kg’s on parts of the way anyway…
I’m prepared for a cool adventure and looking forward to! Weather is looking pretty good… So wish me luck and I’ll let you know how everything went…
Finally I had some visit from home. Well one half at least… My friend Sabrina came to visit with her swiss boy friend and we took a great ride in the valais region again…
Planned was to ride the Gornergrattrail again but the weather didn’t promise to stay good further south, so we went north and explored a different region, a new trail…
Our starting point was in Stalden, a little town at the entrance of the Matter valley… The Fön wind, which is very uncommon in the valais region was blowing very hard but the good thing was that the rain stayed away… We took a lift up with an old cable-car to Gspon, a little swiss mountain valley, up on 1893 m’s. From there we biked further to the Gibidumpass at 2201 m’s. As the wind was blowing really hard, the temperature was quite low, so we were lucky that there was a Tipee at the Gibidumpass, open for everyone – a shelter for everyone… What a cool idea and how suprised we were to find a tipee up on over 2000 m’s…
A short rest in the tipee, just outside a beautiful view to the Gibidumlake… Then a long downhill started… From very difficult, where some parts were not rideable, to flowy and easy going – everything in there… That’s what I love about riding – you never know how it’s gonna be but there is always a big smile on my face 🙂
1100 hm’s downhill later… a stop sign, trail closed… But we didn’t care and had an awesome ride along the “Suonen”, the water trail with some sections where no mistake was allowed… Otherwise you would be stuck 200 m’s above the hill and I don’t know what would happen then…
Thanks Sabrina and Simon for coming and riding with me – it has been great!!!!!
It’s been definetely one of the greatest rides I’ve done so far… With the most beautiful surroundings you can imagine… Biking high above Zermatt, in Single-Trail paradise… So many options, so much fun, always challenging, never boring…
Started the tour in Herbriggen, 14 km before Zermatt, biked to Zermatt and took the Gornergrat railway up all the way to the top of 3090 m. The ride with the old railway is always very amusing and exciting. So many different cultures combined in that train. From India, to Japan, to America, Spain etc… For the tourists an easy access up to the glacier and the view to the 4000m peaks…
So from the Gornergrat the first part of the nearly endless single trail started… As it was during the week, I was pleased that not many hikers were on or in the way ;-)… Hikers aren’t bikers best friends ;-)…
Around 800 hm downhill to the Grünsee before the next uphill started… My aim was to get up to the Rothorn, also high up at 3000 m’s… I started my tour quite late, when I was biking up again it was already 5 p.m. But as the weather was stable and no thunderstorms were predicted it wasn’t a problem at all. Actually it was great to enjoy the peace of being in the mountains with no rush of hords of people. Just me and my bike and the mountains… From the 700 hm uphill not that much was rideable. I had to carry or toss the bike quite a lot but good training…
When I got up the top an amazing view waited for me there again. 6.30 p.m., no human soul around and another great downhill to come…
Here are some impressions from the day and another video…And if you have the possibility to come here to Wallis for riding – DO IT!!!! It’s AWESOME!!!!!
It’s been a while that I haven’t updated my blog, so I’m trying to give you some news what’s happening in my life…
As I’m working right now in the Wallis region, my leisure days are limited but I still have enough time to enjoy what I love to do most in summer – biking… Freeriding in summer and winter, how wonderful 🙂
So two weeks ago on my day off I went to St. Luc in the Val d’Anniviers region, a small little town with lots of small wooden huts that are so typical for the valais region. We are now already in the french speaking part of Switzerland, where none of the locals wants to speak english or german ;-)… and I never learned french, so my french knowledge is very poor…
St. Luc also has a bikepark, a secret spot for now… My plan was to go riding first in the bike park and then continue on a freeride tour… There were still a lot of workers, kids, locals alongside the trail as the park isn’t finished yet, so good vibes along the trail…
Downhillbiking is definetely much more fun with friends or other riders but it is much more of a challenge riding all alone. If something happens, nobody is here to help you, you are completely responsible for your own health…. But I’m aware of that ;-)…
During the week I’m mostly up for biking or slacklining, so it never gets boring. Right now I’m organizing and planning a 6-day bike tour starting from Chamonix and leading all the way to Zermatt… Over the alps of course… Hopefully the weather is gonna be okay to realize this project… Keep you updated about that…
Then last week I drove to Crans Montana. That’s the cool thing about the Wallis region. For bikers everything is so near, easy accessible, thousand different possibilities, modern infrastructure, cable-cars or busses shuttle you everywhere…
Crans Montana is a posh mountain village in the Valais region… Well known for its huge hotels and the jet-set. A lot of swiss business people have a chalet up there. The view from up there is amazing! 360 degree mountain panorama with views to Mont Blanc, Matterhorn, Weisshorn and other famous 4000m peaks…
Already last year I’ve been riding here and this time I had planned a tour to do something else. I had a description of the trail but no map, still I thought I would be able to ride my planned tour… Well, it came different… Of course, without a map it isn’t that easy but the trails are good marked, whatever… From Cry’d’Er, the top station of the cable-car I followed the trail all the way to the top there… Hard work because I carried the bike for over half an hour… But the view on top was amazing! It seemed to be on the moon, such a special landscape…
Lac de Tszeuzier......
Mont Blanc...
Beautiful...5 minutes riding a cool, flowy trail until my journey ended and I had to make new plans… A secured ladder in the mountain wall, no chance to lift my bike there and bring it through there…
hmmm... won't fit through here with the bike ;-)...
It would have taken to long to take the other trail and hike back up, so plan B was on the go… Riding in the Kona Bikepark… As I had the afternoon ticket anyway, I enjoyed riding in the park, met some nice swiss guys and had lots of fun….
Kona Bikepark...
......
I also had my helmet-cam with me… The videos I’m cutting and editing are non professional but I would like to give you an impression of the beautiful surroundings and maybe it’s a reason to go there one day 😉
Biking at one of Europe’s most beautiful regions, wow, stunning, amazing, big… The Aletsch glacier belongs to Unesco’s World heritage and is just beautiful!!!!!
Another day off work for me, the sun was shining, so the decision was clear to drive to Fiesch. The starting point for my bike tour. As I’m a lazy biker 😉 hahaha, I took the convenience of the cable car and started from Fiescheralp. http://www.aletsch.ch/
It was a Sunday, so crowds of hikers on the mountain, well no wonder… That was the reason that I started out late, to avoid the crowds… Interesting to watch people up there 😉 On the mountains you can see everything, all sorts of hikers. From the woman with a sexy dress, to stupid people, to unexperienced mountain hikers, to… a lot of weird people 😉 hahaha… And of course, hikers have the preference to walk first, us bikers are “gentleman/women” and wait ;-)…
When I got to the Gletscherstube it was already around 3 p.m. Still crowds of people coming up from the glacier… As I didn’t want to go on confrontation with them, I decided to chill and relax at the lake and bike down to the glacier a bit later… Good decision… On my downhill to the Aletschglacier not many hikers came along the way, so wohoooo :-)… Quite bumpy though ;-)… Without a Fully, the ride wouldn’t have been a great one… Finally I got down to the beginning of the glacier and met some belgian hikers, that just came back from a hike at the glacier… They where on the way for more than 9 hours and you could see how exhausted they were… The asked me what the shortest way down to the valley was… Well, still a few more hours to go ;-)…
Carried the bike a bit up on the glacier to bike a few meters, yes I biked on a glacier 😉 and went up to the Gletscherstube again, where one of my greatest downhills has started!!!! Wow, soooo cool and as it was already late in the afternoon, turning to evening, nobody in the way 🙂 AWESOME!!!!!
The downhill was amazing! Challenging, flowy, not tooo hard and never ending…
To get an impression of the day, here is a video edit from the day…
Finally my first day-off within the past three weeks of working… As the weather is so changeable at the moment and the forecast predicted showers for the afternoon I decided to stay low and continue to bike the “Südrampe-Trail” from Visp to St. German. It’s a very popular hiking path just above the “Lötschinen-Train-Route” and it’s really a lot of fun. You bike alongside so called Suonen (*german explanation see below) on challenging hiking paths up and down above around 1000 m’s. The weather turned out to stay good, so lucky me J
A lot of hikers were on the way but all friendly and not toooo surprised that bikers came along ;-)… At some parts the trail is quite exposed, so no mistakes alowed…
So here some impressions from the day…
„Pfade den alten Wasserleitungen entlang gibt es im Wallis unzählige – im deutschprachigen Oberwallis heissen sie Suonen, im Unterwallis Bisses.
Um ihre Wiesen und Äcker ausreichend mit Wasser zu versorgen, hatten die alten Walliser ein Bewässerungssystem geschaffen, über das wir heute nur staunen können. Sie bauten ein kunstvoll angelegtes Netz von Wasserleitungen. Als Leitungen für das Gletscherwasser, das aus Bächen angezapft wurde, dienten ausgehöhlte Baumstämme. Mit ihnen wurden die Höhenunterschiede ausgeglichen und Felsen umgangen. Die Wasserzufuhr wurde über ein kompliziertes System von Rechten und Pflichten geregelt. Entlang der noch heute bestehenden Suonen verläuft ein schmaler Weg, der früher dem Wasserwächter diente, der ständig unterwegs war, um das Leitungssystem zu kontrollieren.
Die meisten Wasserleitungen sind unterdessen in Rohre gefasst – damit entfallen die oft gefährlichen Unterhaltsarbeiten nach Regenfällen und Unwettern. Da die Wege aber für die Wanderer sehr attraktiv sind und ohne grosse Höhenunterschiede den Hängen entlang verlaufen, ist man wieder bestrebt, sie für die Touristen zugänglich zu machen oder gar die alten Wasserläufe zu regenerieren.“
…not much news here… The weather is very changeable at the moment, up at the mountains snow is greeting… wooohoooo, soon there is gonna be winter again 🙂 Soooo looking forward to!!!!!
…had an afternoon off and went on a very cool bike ride up to Zermatt… Always facing the Matterhorn… Well it was in clouds but I know how it looks like 😉
Come with me and take a ride 😉
Good night, sleep tight and lots of greetings from the Wallis 🙂
It’s been now over a week that I’m back in Wallis, near Zermatt working my way around and enjoy the leisure time with biking in and around the 4000 m peaks. The beauty of nature is amazing here and although I’m working here, I enjoy every free minute outdoors.
Friends already have visited me and it’s always a great change to see familiar faces…
Melli and Manni were soooo lucky with the weather, they had three awesome days at Aletsch glacier and the surroundings of the Matterhorn. I’m really happy for them as the region is just amazing!
They stayed near my place but two days ago I met them in Zermatt, hung out a little with them before I had to bike back to Herbriggen, the place I live at the moment. There’s a fun, enjoyable trail the way out and I love biking there… I was a bit in a hurry as my work started around 6.30 p.m. and I had to be back by then… One unconcentrated moment and I hit a shark rock, sh… a flat tyre! And that just before 6 p.m. In half an hour I have to be at work! What should I do know? Well, one option – changing the tube but that would cost me at least 10-15 min, running – would take at least over half an hour, so my decision: hiding the bike in the woods, run to the main street and hitch-hiking… I didn’t know that swiss people don’t take strangers with them in the car… Standing at the street, trying to stop a car, no success and time was running… At least 30 cars passed by until finally a nice guy from Germany stopped and took me with him… Lucky me and thank you stranger!
In time, ready to leave my flat, the room key got stuck in the house door – oh no! What a day 😉 So I had to leave the stuck key behind, leave for work… After work I tried to open the door – no chance. Without the help of Manni, what would I have done? Thxxx Manni…
Then I had to take the car, drive to Randa, about 5 km’s away and find my bike, of course in the dark and of course I forgot to take my headlamp with me 😉 Hahhahha 😉 So with the cellphone I had at least a little light… Thank godness, the bike was still there and I could take it home with me…
What a day…
Already last year I’ve been to Mattmark, a barrier lake up on 2200 m’s in the Saas valley. You can hike or bike around the lake and enjoy the beautiful view…
The past weeks I got kind of lazy biking uphill – why pedalling up if there are cable-car’s that transport you up? 😉 Of course, I know, it’s a great way to get fit for winter and get some endurance…
But sometimes I prefer it to just ride in the Bikepark, improve the downhill skills and get better there… And believe me, it’s also really hard work!!!! And of course a lot of fun!!!!
This time Pia, Chris and myself went to Bikepark Leogang and yes it’s one of the coolest Bikeparks I’ve been so far. At least in Austria. It’s well known all around Europe and the atmosphere is just great there!!! Saalbach/Leogang were the first “skiresorts” in Austria, that took up the trend, built Bikeparks and let the summer tourism grow through the bikers…
It was my first time there and it’s a must to go there 🙂
We had such a beautiful day, had great runs, Pia and Chris had both a bad crash but luckily nothing serious happened… Some little wounds a “souvenirs” of what you’ve done during the day 😉 Hard riding…
At the weekend the Brenner Downhill was on… Over 180 riders from all over the world came to the Wipptal to celebrate the opening of the new Bikepark in Steinach am Brenner…
It was great to see soooo many young riders pushing their limits down the mountain!!! The juniors have great potential and it’s good how the Downhill sport is developing 🙂
MELs' Blog 
