Three passes in three days

The Gotthard crossing became serious. And finally, there should also be an opportunity to wild camp again. The daily destination was the Maighelspass, which led parallel to the Oberalppass road to Andermatt and is a classic alpine bike tour.

Slowly, you climb the 1000 meters in altitude from Rueras up to the Maighelshütte, which is located at the beginning of a huge rock basin, surrounded by snow-covered almost three-thousanders. And the best part - a wonderful, mostly rideable uphill trail winds its way through this magnificent landscape with a pleasant slope up to the pass. My overnight camp was supposed to be up here, above a small lake sparkling in the sun and with a view towards Andermatt.

Once again, there were light thunderstorms announced, but they kept waiting longer and longer, so I could hang out by the lake all afternoon and watch the bikers passing by and how they dealt with the descent, which I would have exclusively for myself the next morning. It got a little cloudy at sunset, but I was really happy today to have had some luck.

The nasty surprise came overnight. Rain moved in. Not just a short shower, but low-hanging clouds surrounded me in the morning. A really bad day was about to start, contrary to all predictions. Accordingly, I had to pack up quickly and ride down the trail in the rain as a matter of necessity. That somehow went quite well, and I got to Andermatt more or less dry. But then it really started, and I decided to prefer a fixed accommodation instead of wild camping for the second night.

Andermatt itself is quite a curiosity. In any other country in the world, the small village would probably be an outpost of civilization due to its remote location. In Switzerland, however, you are perfectly connected to all types of transportation here. In addition, the Chedi, a huge luxury resort with a golf course and a fancy restaurant, has been built. Somehow it doesn't really fit here, especially in my perception with the still fresh impressions of the lonely Maighelspass in mind.

Although I didn't stay at the Chedi itself, after two weeks in the tent, my small single room in the hostel felt similarly luxurious. A real roof over my head, a real mattress, and even a chair and table to sit on. I had never appreciated it as much as today.

Due to the unexpected interruption, the next stage was now even longer. Two passes and 1900 meters in altitude were on the program, but as a reward, it should be dry and sunny. First, the next day started with a steep pushing passage to the Urseren Höhenweg, which, however, convinced with a fantastic panoramic view of the Gotthard mountains and led to a well-rideable up and down to the road towards Furkapass.

Unfortunately, from there on there was no real alternative to the heavily trafficked pass road, and I was catapulted directly from the rough, lonely mountain world into a wild, almost anarchic traffic chaos. And naturally, I was at the very bottom of the hierarchy. Definitely well below the roaring motorcycle gangs and the space-filling worry-free motorhomes, but still with a considerable distance to the agile road cyclists who seemed to effortlessly pass by me with their few-gram-heavy bikes and no luggage.

Nevertheless, it was impressive to reach the pass, as it was the gateway to another mountain world. The 4000m peaks of Wallis rose in front of me, and the transition from the Eastern to the Western Alps was immediately visible. Rolling delightfully along the still young but already wildly thundering and roaring Rhone, I reached the last climb of the day. It went up again to the Grimselpass. I had already booked another accommodation there. Because it's not a good place to camp in the midst of crowds of tourists. When they had left late in the evening, I was rewarded for the efforts of the day with a fantastic sunset over the steeply rising, shark-fin-shaped Finsteraarhorn, and enjoyed it so much to be able to snuggle into a soft bed once again afterwards.