It is the dream, if not the duty, of every truly passionate (European) mountain biker to cross the biggest mountain range in Europe - the Alps. Since they have been populated for thousands of years, they are dotted with beautiful trails built by  hunters, farmers, smugglers and the the military forces during the wars of the previous centuries. We crossed the alps right in the middle and probably took one of the most internatinal routes possible. We started in Germany, entered Austria, then Switzerland, then went back through Austria and Switzerland again, then crossed over into Italy, quickly passed through Switzerland, travelled through Italy again and finished our crossing in Switzerland.

If you look at the map below, it may seem like we didn’t actually cross the Alps all the way, but we decided to turn back once it would have only been downhill rolling until Lake Como and rather cycled back up to St. Moritz to catch our train back home. Accordig to my altimeter watch, we ascended nearly 10.000 metres overall.

Crazy person that I am, I had decided to do something special and take my Tout Terrain Silkroad rigid steel travel bike and to even out my usually greater fitness, I packed 20 Kg of luggage in my two panniers on the the very stable, integrated rack. This made for an overall weight of 33 Kg (72 lbs) and in hindsight I can still hardly believe how I managed to carry (!) that up some incredibly steep and rocky sections. Downhill, the bike was a great pleasure, though and after the bad weather had given way to beautiful sunshine, I regained my strength and really enjoyed the trip.

I would like to thank my brother David and my friends Sebastian and Jörg for all their help and the fun we had, sharing this little advenure. Now, here are the links to the photo albums, because pictures tell more than words:

Day1 - I had participated in the German XC-championships the day before and that took its toll, although I had tried to take it easy. It started to rain and then snow in te late evenening and we only reached our destinaion at 9:30 pm.

Day 2 - Starting with snow, then continuing with heavy rain and finishing with snow again. Highlight was a tremendously strenuous passage through a moor at 2000 m (they endearingly called it “Feuchtschutzgebiet”- “wetland protection area”). I was extremely exausted and could barely walk. Luckily, Jörg had changed bikes with me halfway through the day because his back hurt and I offered him my comfortable travel bike with panniers. Dragging that heavy contraption through that swamp and up the ridiculously steep climb up to the house (well, I helpd a bit, there) was really a feat.

Day 3 - much, much better weather, but we needed a rest and only rode to the next hut, which turned out to be a great decision.

Day 4 - a beautifully sunny day. We passed through some very impressive regions.

Day 5 - our longest stage. We involuntarily had to travel on two hours longer than anticipated because the house we wanted to sleep in was full. Therefore, we effectively finished crossing the Alps in the evening of this day.

Day 6 - We travelled back to St. Moritz, which was another 1000 m ascent and the scenery wasn’t so nice so I didn’t take many pictures.