54 km, 1440 vertical metres up
We catch the Bernina Express back up the hill to just over half way along Lake Bianca before we take off straight uphill to the Swiss Italian pass. Like most of the path along the Bernina Express trail, it is quite rocky and we end up walking too much of it.
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Norbert's bike at the highest point before the second border crossing much later in the day. We had passed this way in the opposite direction 2 years earlier. Photo by Norbert.
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Past the hight point and a bit further down the ridge, we came across some frozen snow and stopped to look around. The image below was created by Norbert with his phone on a panaromic setting and the rest of us, posing then racing behind him to pose again, later.
Kevin, Volker, myself and Alexander now on the snow. Photo by Norbert.
The line we ride down is clearly shown here.
The road that comes up to the pass when the border crossing is can be seen here. Everybody buys an expresso, I get a Swiss Hot Chocolate because, well, I didn't last time...
A beautiful trail comes down from the pass: Volker, Norbert and Kevin above, Alexander below.
This beautiful trail gets us all the way down to Livigno where we meet up with a lot of traffic. It is the opposite of what we did, two years ago. Now we go somewhere new. We continue up a trail that is full of all sorts of walkers and ebikers. We set off for a Gasthaus for lunch but they have no food and suggest further up the valley. It is just what we are looking for and we are more than ready to eat when we arrive. The trail continues up the valley, below.
After lunch, we set of for the big uphill, below.
Below, Alexander at the intersection with the long, slow uphill to the Italian/Swiss pass. Kevin, Norbert and Volker (at the front as always) further up the hill..
Below, Kevin taking one of many rests. On the right, is a couple where the guy is pushing both bikes uphill and she is just walking along.
A look across the valley . . . this uphill was a couple of hours of walking.
At about 50m from the top of the pass, there is a closed hut where we rest for a while.
Kevin's bike at the border/pass.
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Nearly four hours of movement . . . just 14 degrees Celsius at the top and nearly 2700m.
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Some of the hairpin corners are very sharp but it is a relatively smooth run down. We are able to really pick up the pace once we are on the gravel, logging roads. We manage to find our hotel for the night, Hotel Allegra in Zuoz and are able to clean the bikes. Dinner is at a nearby resturant.
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