Bicycling and Skiing in Switzerland, 2002
Michael J. Ferguson
In 2002, I was fortunate to be able to live in Switzerland for several months.
During January/February, I skied at Arosa, Davos, Grindelwald, and
St. Moritz. When I ski, I put crampons and climbing skins on my skis,
climb up the hill, and then take off the crampons and skins at the top
and convert my bindings to alpine downhill. In March and April, I brought my bicycle and rode around the Bodensee to Arosa, and then from St. Moritz to Lugano.
Skiing
- Skiing in Arosa (photos)
Here I could start right in town and climb, with crampons
and climbing skins. It was also
possible to ski all the way back down. Unfortunately, the climb left me
at the middle-station, on a large hill in the middle of the upper
plateau that seems to be characteristic of all the ski resorts in Europe
that I have skied. These upper plateaus have some high peaks, but there
is a lot of up and down in between. The middle-station was on a hill,
almost in the centre of the plateau. There I had to take off my crampons
and skins, and convert my bindings to downhill-alpine, to continue. It
was inconvenient to put them back on in the middle of the slope, so I
just skied down rather than going up one of the side peaks, such as the
Weisshorn.
-
Skiing in Davos (photos)
Snow this year was in short supply almost everywhere. Here it was crusty
with the occasional tree showing through. However, it was bright,
sunny, and beautiful
-
Skiing in St. Moritz (photos) The snow in
St. Moritz was the worst it has been for at least 10 years. Their only
real snow was man made.
-
Skiing in Grindelwald (photos) This is a truly
spectacular place. I was there for three days, staying in a hostel in
Grindelwald. It was quite dull and, very messy to climb up to the main
ski area around Kleine Scheidegg. On my last day, I skied over the top
to Wengen, and then took the train up to Mürren to ski the
Schilthorn. There I took the tram all the way to the top and skied
down, in white-out conditions. My first two days were sunny, but this
was overcast.
By Bicycle: Schaffhausen, the Bodensee, and Arosa
Schaffhausen, the Bodensee, and Arosa (photos) The
ride started after a train trip to
Schaffhausen. After a 20km or so up the Rhine, I spent the first
night in the hostel in Stein am Rhein. Stein am Rhein is a delightful
gabled and "oriel" windowed town, meriting a Michelin ** rating.
The second day I rode almost the full length of the Bodensee, but
decided at 4:45pm not to stay in the hostel in Rorschach and took the
train, instead, to Arosa.
This was still ski season and I caused quite a stir at the hostel in
Arosa when I arrived with my bicycle. Since I had just come from the
Bodensee, after a full day's ride, I arrived just after 8:00pm and the
reception had closed down. I couldn't find anyone official, and neither
could anyone else. However, I seemed to have half the hostellers trying
to help. Then a nice woman phoned the hostel on her cell phone. After
several tries, the resident manager answered, and was very solicitous
when she was told that I had come by bicycle.
The ride down was on a glorious sunny day. For the most part, the road
was on the cliff above the train. It was that train ride when I was
skiing that inspired me to ride down. It was indeed down - all
the way. I spent some time in Chur looking for a new rear wheel - I
dumped my solid rear tires after the ride in the Jura because, not only
did they break spokes, they killed wheels, and were much harder to pedal
than ordinary pneumatic tires. I am not certain why they were much
harder to pedal, except possibly that they did not absorb and distribute
the road impact energy as efficiently as ordinary tires. In Chur, I
tried to go to southern Switzerland, but found that it was almost
impossible to go to the Ticino (Lugano and environs) from Chur without
going back to Zurich. So instead, I went to St. Gallen, again too look
for a tire, explore the old town, but really to go back to Appenzell to
get the fondue cheese mix that I was supposed to get on my first visit,
and failed to do, because of ignorance, and misunderstood
instructions. After some effort, I found a shop that had a new back
wheel, and continued on to the hostel.
My last day was a ride over the southern ridge, to Appenzell, where I
got a strong fondue mix, handmade while I watched, from Mösler's
Käsewelt, and then rode up and down and up and down and ... all the way
back to Rüti.
Schaffhausen, the Bodensee, and Arosa (photos)
By Bicycle: St. Moritz to Lugano, and beyond
St. Moritz to Lugano, and beyond (photos)
The second trip started in St. Moritz in an icy fog, and was to end in
Lugano, crossing Italy and riding along Lake Como. I stopped for the
night at the top of the Maloja Pass, and much to my surprise, and
consternation, woke up to about 10cm (4") of new snow. The road was
essentially clear, except for some slush patches on the
switchbacks. On the way down I stopped at Soglio, which in nice weather
has magnificent views of all the surrounding mountain ranges. However,
after a 300m climb, all you could see was the inside of the
cloud. Soglio gets ** from Michelin, with one of its features being old
villas of the Salas family. One, which is mentioned in the
Michelin Guide, has been turned into the Hotel Palazzo Salas. Each
room in the hotel is very different.
Chiavenna, was another required stop, a delightful, and very shut
down town, about 10km inside Italy. The day continued overcast, grey,
and low clouds all the way along the north shore of Lake Como to
Menaggio. The hostel in Menaggio has a magnificent view of Lake Como,
that would have been even prettier in nicer weather.
The next day I climbed 200m up the side of the cliff that seems to
continuously surround the lake, and rode the 35km, downhill mostly,
until the ridge that protects Lugano. I arrived there in the early
afternoon, where I discovered that I had lost my new Yosemite Logo,
"Swiss Champ" Swiss Army knife that Virginia had given me for
Christmas. I was more than a trifle upset so I started to ride back
halfway to Menaggio where I had last seen it. Of course, it was not
there, so it was back again to Lugano. It was still overcast and dreary
when I returned at about 4:30pm so I decided to take the 5:45pm train to
Lucerne,
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On 08 Jul 2014, 05:46.