clairedavieswriter

Day 2: Chapella to Thusis, 62.3k, 993m climbed

20/7/2025

Écoutez Guillaume, telling me I only climbed 993m today is just rude. It felt a lot more, because virtually all of them were packed into the short, hairpin-heavy strip of tarmac snaking up the mountain from the village of La Punt Chamues-ch to this little beauty on the right:

Never heard of it? Me neither before planning this trip, but the Albulapass and I are now pretty well acquainted. Not because anything bad happened, but simply because I rode up it so slowly that I feel I surveyed every inch of tarmac ahead of Bernard’s front wheel. On the plus side, travelling so slowly meant that I had time to spot a couple of these furry fellas scampering about on the high alpine meadows:

But back to the technicalities. According to mycols.app: ‘this is a Category 1 climb, starting from an altitude of 1,712m and finishing at 2,312m, averaging 6.6% over 9.2k, with a maximum of 9.9%’ (by the way, I beg to differ: Guillaume was showing 11% when I dared have a look, and plenty of it felt steeper than that, but let’s not quibble). And for the real bike nerds, here are the gradients of each segment, according to the app (for non-bike nerds, the only important fact is that none of it was flat):

Suffice to say it was hard, but I’m pleased to report that I pedalled all the way up without stopping (Alun, thank you for making me do all those Bulgarian split squats). Okay, it took me an hour and twenty minutes, but nobody said it was a race. Luckily you can’t see the sweat dripping off my face from this distance:

I spent most of the 40k after the pass freewheeling downhill (see how those statistics can be misleading?), or rather, clinging to Bernard’s brakes to avoid falling off the side of the mountain. At least on the way down I allowed myself pauses to enjoy the scenery:

I mean, how could I not?

And on a day of spectacular views, this was my favourite, not least because of the glimpse it offers of Switzerland’s incredible rail network, which extends far into the mountains, with frequent services even on Sundays – because why offer fewer trains when people have spare time and want to use them? Why indeed. Something for British train operators to ponder.

Other highlights today included the pretty village of Zuoz, with its cobbled streets, painted houses and pencil-thin church tower:

This last look at the gentle Engadine valley, before we headed into the mountains:

And the jolly Sunday market / fête that we happened upon in the village of Bergün, on the other side of the pass:

Where there were yet more painted houses: it’s clearly not just an Engadine thing:

This was most definitely not a highlight. As you can see from the red bike sign below the traffic light, cyclists are supposed to use this tunnel. Quite how, I’m not sure: the 20 yards or so I spent pedalling into the darkness while heavy traffic squeezed by on my left were without doubt the scariest I’ve spent on a bike. Even the usually stoic Bernard took fright. Luckily, there was a pavement to take refuge on. I didn’t dare cycle on it, for fear of being swept off by a lorry’s backwash, so I grabbed Bernard by the bars and walked as fast as I could to the other end (1.1k away) – and repeated the process in the next (500m) tunnel

Happily, there were only a couple of miles to go after that, but they included this very bouncy wooden bridge across the Hinterrhein:

After all that excitement, I think you’ll agree that a soothing draught was in order, and we’ve recently discovered just the thing: an alcohol-free lager, brewed in Appenzel, and blended with apple and pear juice, making a delicious and refreshing fruity shandy flavour. Prost!