Pretty idyllic picture, no? Except when this was taken mr. boxer was DEAD. @#$%^&. As I came cruising down the pass, the engine stumbled a few times and then quit permanently. We quickly determined the fuel pump died and a few calls needed to be made. After two hours of waiting, a flatbed truck arrived to take the crippled boxer to the nearest dealer which happened to be about 100km back and off route.
It is a pretty sad sight to see your bike on a truck. Fortunately, 2 days and 500 euros later the bike was running again and we could continue our trip. Except now the weather had changed, and not for the good.
Arriving again at the Oberjoch to Austria, it was cold and wet. The white stuff on the mountains didn't promise much good either. Sure enough, once we were in Austria our planned route over the Hahntenjoch and Timmelsjoch passes was down the drain as both were closed due to heavy snow. The alternative over the Fernpass was also closed so the only way to cross towards Italy was over the Arlbergpass near Lech which was 50km West of our planned route. This means another 150km orso detour to really mess up our schedule.
It still looked pretty here, but it was cold and not much fun to ride through the slush.
The amount of snow was already collecting up to 15cm and this was just the beginning. As we pressed on, we didn't even bother stopping anymore to take pictures. Visibility was down to about 50m due to the snow flakes and riding a few minutes behind a snowplow made you wonder if the thing had taken a detour as you couldn't tell it had been there. The people in the village of Lech stared at us and our bikes as if we were from outer space as they walked their streets in full winter gear.
As hoped, the bad weather was stuck against the mountains and things cleared a bit when we got to the other side. We got to a lake with a weird showing of a church tower sticking out of the water.
Turns out there is a complete village down the water and the only thing you can see is the tower. There are actually several towns drowed there as the water rose.
As we continued back on route, things definately started to look better. Weather was good, roads great and lots of fun. And all the snow now high on the mountains where it belongs gives nice shots like here on Passo Nigra.
The clouds and wind sometimes left for dramatic and chilly views like here on Passo Rollo.
But after what we went through the day before, it was just great to us. After a good night sleep in an excellent hotel down in Arabba, which was our basecamp for 2 days everything got even better. Arabba is a great place to stay. It is central in the Dolomites and you can hit about a dozen passes in a single day if you want. We wanted to.
Nearest is Passo Pordoi, just outside Arabba. 30 orso switchbacks to the top and nice views along the way.
Once you are down Pordoi, you immediately go up Passo Sella to line up for Passo Gardena.
So many views to look at and the combination of clouds and blue skies made for some very pretty sights.
After crossing Passo Gardena, you ride into Corvara a small little ski town just North of Arabba.
After Corvara, it's up the mountains again to conquer Passo Valparola and Falzerego.
You can then chose to either go to Cortina d'Ampezzo, a bit of a cosmopolitan mountain city or hit another pass. We opted for more twistie bits and bike fun instead of expensive shopping. No women in our group.
So down Passo di Giau it was.
After this pass we go back up towards Falzerago using a different route, only to down Marmolado towards Passo Fedaia. This is a great pass with the most gorgious scenery, deep gorges and nice curvey roads.
After this pass, it is back over Pordoi into Arabba. But as we were back sooner than expected, we took the one pass we still missed: from Arabba to Corvara over Passo Campolongo so we could have a cup of coffee and icecream.
Next day, it was time to start heading back in the direction of home, but that mean looking for more passes while moving west. First new pass was Stilversjoch which is better known as the Stelvio Pass.
Looking up to the top from about halfway, it is a little less know view.
Better known is the top down view.
And down the south side...
Enjoying a bit of rest and refilling the liquids, we had a nice view from the valley before lining up for Bernina pass.
Only so we could make our way to the Abula Pass. This is a beautiful pass.
Too bad the road really sucks. It is so bumpy, your fillings are gone and your kidneys have reversed places once you are down.
From there on, it was driving towards Andermatt. Which sounds more boring than it really is, as even though there are no more passes it still is pretty impressive. Like gorges hundreds of meters deep.
After crossing the Oberalp Pass into Andermatt, we called it a day. It was getting late, the day had been long and intense and we really needed some beer and good food.
The next day looked grim. We planned to cross the Furka pass, but from town we couldn't even see the mountain. Having done Furka once with little over 10m visibility, I wasn't looking forward to repeating the experience but we decided to give it a go anyway. I am glad we did. The road had clear visibility and once we reached the top we got to see an interaction between sun, clouds and mountains that presented us with a view that changed almost every second.
Going down, things were not getting any worse.
You can see the road going down from Furka, and going up onto Grimsel pass.
And looking up from the valley to the Furka glacier.
On the Grimsel pass, weren't getting any less spectacular either.
After Grimsel pass, we still had to cross over the Susten pass, the last pass of this trip. Susten pass was covered in fog on the top, but not too bad to not see anything. View were beautiful as ever.
On the other side, things looked a lot brighter. It's funny how clouds can hang against a mountain on one side, and not interfere much on the other.
Now it was time to get moving and go back home. As we got out of the Alps and into the Black Forrest and eventually the Ardennes scenery got more flowing and eventually back to dead flat back in Holland.
Another trip over and done with. Lots of good memories and a lot more expensive than anticipated, but a great trip nonetheless.
If you want to see more picture, please visit my gallery at: http://gallery.sport-touring.eu/list.php?exhibition=28
Hope you enjoyed. Ride safe!
You covered a lnumber of the same passes/places we did last month, but you had more dramatic weather, altho. we had our fair share of mist/fog.
