Relaxing on top of the Susten Pass

Today dawned bright and sunny, I had a difficult night sleeping which is always frustrating when I want to have lots of energy the following day. We had a nice plentiful breakfast and made (one) cheese and jam sarnie to take with us. That together with an apple, orange and some dried fruit + nuts did us until we got to Andermatt!

Day 2 of our tour was ‘easier’ on paper than the first day, at 38km and 1,300m of ascent -except for:-

• the blazing heat when we had to climb from Wassen up to Goschenen where we were catching our train back. Only about 4km and 200m up but gosh was it hot
• the last 5km up to the summit where we climbed 360m at an average 8% with some sections far steeper than that

We were glad to get away by 9.00 as the day was forecast to be hot, also we wanted to be ahead of the tourist traffic on the pass. We were very happy that the initial stage of the climb was through shady woods, round long hairpins giving good views of the valley and mountain ranges – making for interesting cycling. Apparently this area is one of the top rock climbing locations in Switzerland. A real treat was coming across a water trough where we could douse our heads and refill our water bottles. Very welcome.

We took our time today climbing the pass, enjoying stops to appreciate the panorama, remembering where we started our ski tour from and taking lots of photos / video. The ride up to the mountain hotel where we spent the first night of the ski tour (Berghotel Steingletscher) marked to me the start of our climb proper (as mentioned above) although we had already gone up 650m over 10km. 

I loved trying to spot, and succeeding, the mountain hut where we were snowed in and remembering that time. The ride was really beautiful and fortunately there was municipal grass cutting with associated traffic control, meaning that we had some nice quiet sections on the road and then waited in laybys for the traffic to pass before the next stretch. Some very fancy sports cars went by us.

The top of the pass is actually bypassd via a tunnel, however, there was a small steep road up to a hospice on the top which we went up to. From there we were able to see across to the other side and our road down. Pretty special! Loved the gnome garden someone had laid out.

More traffic control through the tunnel which was perfect as it ensured our descent was largely traffic free. A long ride down of nearly 18km. We stopped partway for our shared sandwich – why hadn’t I made 2! We enjoyed the views from our picnic bench. Really enjoyed the descent on a very good road surface. 

Sad to see that when we joined Rt2 at Wassen that the charming cafe we had stopped at on our tour to Schwyz last year was shut down – probably a casualty of the Covid impact on tourism. Good thing we were not able to stop however as we only just caught the train we had planned for. One last treat was having time to get a cold drink and ice cream when we changed trains at Andermatt. Also enjoyed the views on the train up to Andermatt of the Reuss Gorge at Schollenen and from there of the Furka Pass. Fond memories of last years cycle tours.

See below for a video of our ride. Note to see the full controls click on the < control on the progress bar. This will allow you to watch the video full screen.

See below for a map of our ride