Mountain Bike (MTB) Tours/Trails in Switzerland

Sports and Hobbies
1
More information is available at www.swissalpineadventure.com or join www.swissalpineadventure.ch to get yourself out and about on your bike with new friends.

This thread is for people to give details of Mountain bike tours or trails they have done in Switzerland. This thread should only contain information about the tours or trails themselves and not contain any discussion. If there are any questions or discussions about what is posted in this thread, please direct them to the following thread. Discussion Thread

(If you are looking for Road Biking Routes then check out Dakman 's Thread here .)

Tours: Here you will find a direct link to the tours on this thread.

Gurten, Bern

Bucheggplatz to Würenlos, Zurich

Aegeri

Hoch-ybrig

Uetliberg, Zurich

Lenzerheide Freeride, Graubunden

Val D'Uina, Scuol, Graubunden

Pfanensteil Hochwacht, Zurich Oberland

Filzbach, Walensee

Creux du Van, Jura

Walensee/Laubegg

Feel free to post your bike tours , but please read the rest of this post first .

lets try to get a constant terminology going so people know what to expect on a particular tour.

Physical Fitness: Lets rate this 1 to 5. A tour with rated 1 would be one that you can take your kids on and is not physically demanding, while a 5 would be very strenuous. In terms of Physical Fitness, distance, height gained and surface all play a significant role so please factor these into your assessment. If the surface is quite loose then this would make the tour physically more demanding.

1: Easy tour mainly flat, less then 300m height gain and/or less then 15km distance.

2: Slightly demanding, between 300 and 700m height gain and/or between 15 and 30km distance.

3: Moderately demanding, 700 to 1200m height gain and/or 30 to 45km distance.

4: Demanding, 1200m to 2000m height gain and/or 45 to 60km distance.

5: Suicidal, greater then 2000m height gain and/or 60km distance.

Technical Difficulty: Lets rate this 1 to 5. A tour mainly on tarred roads and nature streets would be graded as 1 and a downhill course requiring very long travel bikes and full body armour should be rated as 5. ( Requiring is an important word here. A freeride course that most people use long travel bikes and body armour on, but is possible to ride on a hardtail or short travel bike should not be graded 5!).

1: Easy, tarred roads and nature streets.

2: Slightly demanding: Sections of easy single trail with no significant roots or rocks. Not very steep (downhill).

3: Moderately demanding: Sections of single trail with some roots or rocks, and possible some short steep (downhill) sections.

4: Demanding, Sections of trail with quite a lot of roots or rocks, steep (downhill) sections, all rideable without having to be able to jump,

5: Suicidal, VERY technical, jumps, drop offs, root sections that require long travel bikes, only experts need attempt.

Tour Planning: There are many options available for mountainbike tour planning in Switzerland. I find the singletrail maps the best, but there is also a series of bike explorer maps. These maps have suggestions for tours printed on the back, or alternatively you can pick a route yourself. I usually use a mixture of the maps and various books that can be found in any book shop to plan a route which is based on a tour from a book or map, but is adapted to suit my mood or the people I am riding with on the day. Get some maps of the area you ride most and go out and explore. There is a ridiculous amount of biking potential in Switzerland.

If anyone thinks anything should be added here then PM me and I will add it.

2
Website:

http://www.gurtenbahn.ch/

http://www.gurtenbahn.ch/img/upload/...bahnbikerE.pdf

http://www.trailnet.ch/

The trail is located in Wabern near Bern, it is easily accessibly by public transport and by car. There are directions on how to get there on the websites above.

Trail type: Freeride

Physical Fitness: 1 to 2

Technical Difficulty: 3 to 4

The Gurthenbahn funicular train brings you from the carpark to the start of the trail, no tiring uphill slog for your kicks here. The day card for the train costs 9CHF but you pay separately for the bike. A bike ticket costs 40CHF for 20 runs up on the train. The upper section of the train is reserved for bikes.

Once you get up to the top with the train, the trail head is about 50m down the paved path. It follows a trail down along the side of a hedge for the first section, here there are a lot of braking bumps and you feel it quite a lot on a short travel bike. Following this there is a short drop into the woods where you find banked corners steep sections and various kinds of jumps. The jumps are all possible to ride over without your wheels leaving the ground. It takes a run or two to get used to the trail but as your confidence grows it is a really good place to boost your technical ability. You get to get a lot of runs down the trail in and it is great practice for some of the better trails that you get when you are out on a day tour in the mountains.

Take it slowly the first time down the trail and learn where the features are. If you are not confident in jumping there are usually flatter routes to the side of the bigger jumps. There is one point on the trail where the better riders take a big jump over a road gap. Just before you get to this jump there is a warning sign for a road on the right hand side of this trail. Unless you have good control of your bike slow down and make sure you take the right line to avoid the jump.

The Gurten trail is a fun day out if you are feeling lazy and just want to go and ride some trails on your bike. It is rideable on hardtails as well as full suspension bikes, but the more travel you have the faster you will probably be able to go.

Video of an over talented friend we made at Gurten.

3
BucheggPlatz, Zürich to Würenlos

Trail type: Trail/XC

Physical Fitness: 1 to 2

Technical Difficulty: 1 to 2

Start off at Bucheggplatz, head North up Rötelstrasse, turn left onto Obere Waidstrasse then right onto Im Rehsprung. Climb up the hill, and then it is up to your imagination. Just follow trails that look interesting and keep on heading North West, though a bit more West than North and explore. It is a mixture of wide open trails, walking trails and random bits of single track. If you accidentally come out of the forest, then just turn back into the forest.

The exception to this is that at Höng you will need to ride around the institution there. You will also need to cross Regensdorferstrasse (which I havn't done yet).

This is a fun ride with no killer climbs or difficult descents. But there are some fun single tracks if you find them. The beauty of this ride is that because it is in the middle of the city, you can make it as long or as short as you like, with many opportunities to pop back onto a street and take the easy way home if desired. There are also plenty of tracks to explore without any real risk of getting lost, so this adds another element of fun to the trail without having to be a super fitness freak.

Just remember that you will be sharing a lot of these trails with walkers, so be careful and courteous.

4
Starting Point: Aegeri

Trail Type: Short Tour. (April to November/December)

Physical Fitness: 2 to 3

Technical Difficulty: 3

Map: Einsiedeln/Rigi Singltrail map

Parking: Car parking is available by the lake in Aegeri. Drive through Unter and Oberaegeri. After Oberaegeri as soon as the lake is visible, there is a small lay-by with parking for about 10 cars. Alternative parking is available at the highpoint of the Pass in Raten.

An approximate route for this tour can be found here (This map is very rough and I would advise you to pick the route out on a singletrail map before starting the tour.)

From the parking place by the lake in Aegeri ride back towards the town. Take the first right signposted for Raten, and immediately take another right up a narrower street. Follow this road uphill; it curves first to the left keep going straight until you come to a hairpin bend. Follow the road around the hairpin bend and keep on climbing up past some open fields; you will see a nice view of the lake as you climb. Keep climbing on this road eventually the road will curve left and then a long curve to the right with open fields around you.

After the long curve to the right, there is a house on the left hand side of the road with a narrower road turning left just after it. As you turn left the road rises for a few meters then starts to descend to a small town called Alosen. Here you join the main road again, follow it uphill (right turn) for about a hundred meters then take the narrow pedestrian path that goes steeply up to the left hand side (you’ll want your granny ring).

At the top of this climb, take a left and the next right. You should now be going up a short road between some farms it ends in a T-Junction, take a right and ride about 500m or so before taking a left and following wanderweg signs towards Gotschalkenberg (and Raten). Around here, the road will become unpaved and you will be riding through the woods. Keep climbing on the unpaved road until you come out in open fields again. Take a left towards Gotschalkenberg. If you follow the signs to Gotschalkenberg from here you will pass a farm building on your right hand side, keep going towards Gotschalkenberg, past this building, keep going uphill until you come to a cross roads.

At this cross roads, a paved road goes downhill straight ahead, and goes towards Gotschalkenberg to your right. To your left a trail leads uphill into the forest. Take this trail, it starts off quite flat but you will be looking for your lower gears quite quickly. This section of climb is tough but short. At the top there is a small area where you can have a break, there is one small bench there and if you look through the gap in the trees to your right you can see lake Zurich. This is also where the fun begins.

Take the trail going downhill. It is a relatively wide singletrail with some rooted sections and some rocky sections. The trail is moderately technical but all obstacles have an easier line over them if you look ahead. This trail finishes at a 4 way cross roads. Here you can choose to turn right and take the paved road back to the start of the trail you just did, or keep going straight to continue the tour.

If you keep going straight the fireroad rises slightly for a few hundred metres before entering another singletrail. This trail has a couple of tight right hand turns and crosses a couple of fields. Eventually you will get to an open space with a turn down to the left (there is a wanderweg sign there for Aegeri). Follow the trail down towards Aegeri. It is steep and there are some drainage ditches across the trail

This trail ends on a paved road which you follow downhill. Just after the road curves to the left (about 600m) there is a wanderweg/singletral on the right hand side of the road, follow this trail, it goes through the woods for a short distance then opens out into a field. It ends at a residential street, keep on follow the road straight downhill and you will come to another short section of trail.

Eventually you come onto a street that brings you back to Oberaegeri, where you can turn left and ride back to the car.

There are also other routes in the area, this is a suggestion but with a map you can play with this route and make the route longer or shorter as you please. The trails on this tour are quite good fun and it makes a good afternoon tour if you are based in the Zurich region.

5
Starting Point: Sihlsee (Euthal)

Trail Type: Tour (June to October/November)

Physical Fitness: 3 to 4

Technical Difficulty: 2/3

Map: Einsiedeln/Rigi Singltrail map

Parking: Car parking is available by the lake between Euthal and Unteriberg.

Nice scenic tour through the Hoch-ybrig ski area.

Start at the carpark by Skilift Euthal. Follow the road towards Unteriberg until you corss over a small river. Here take a left turn onto a nature street. Follow this road (towards Unteriberg) until you can take a right to ride along the left hand side of the valley towards and past Unteriberg. Keep going past Unteriberg towards Waag. After Waag you will come to a paved road going uphill to your left. There is a short section of singletrail (next to a farmhouse) which goes through a field back to the main road between Waag and Weglosen. Take this trail to the main road. On the other side of the main road is a farm, there is a nature street that goes from the farm entrance parallel to the road for about 50m then turns 90 degrees right and starts to go uphill. This climb has a few tough sections and brings you up to the town of Oberiberg. In Oberiberg take the main road in the direction of Ibergeregg. After you leave the town of Oberiberg just before where the seat lift crosses over the road take a left turn up a narrow paved road. This road will lead you up to the lower lift stations of the Hoch-ybrig ski resort.

There is a short paved downhill just after getting to the resort (Laucheren), take this down towards the skilift at the bottom of this road take the more right hand road uphill towards Sternen and Spirstock. The road winds uphill at a nice easy climbing gradient from here. During the summer, you will pass grazing cows as you ride through a stereotypical Swiss postcard landscape. The road leads up to a saddle where you can turn left towards Restaurant Sternen. At this point you will need to get off your bike and carry it up some steps to the right towards Restaurant Spirstock. The carrying section is a few hundred metres, once you get to the top of the steps the trail is rideable but those who are not good at technical climbing may be better off pushing the bike. At the top you will be greeted by a stunning view of Vierwaldstettersee and Gross Mythen.

The decent follows part of a skipiste for a short distance towards Ibergeregg. Keep going past the little chapel, the going gets a little steep over some loose rocks here, but with a low saddle and your weight shifted back most people will tackle it quite easily. Follow wanderweg signs for Ibergeregg where you can take the road back down to Oberiberg and Eventually Euthal.

If you have the singletrail map it is possible to ride further trail sections past Ibergeregg

6
Uetliberg (somebody had to include this one )

Starting point: Triemli train station

Trail type: Trail/XC

Physical Fitness: 2

Technical Difficulty: 1 for the climb, 3 for the single track descent

Go to Triemli train station. Though if you want to cut out some of the climb then you can take the train up one more stop. Bikes are banned from the train past Uitikon Waldegg.

Head in the same direction as the train and turn left at the end of the platform to cross the tracks.

Cross the tracks at the crossing just above the train station. In front of you is a road bending off to the right. Follow this road up the hill, and not the walking/bike path going to the left. The road soon goes from being sealed to being a gravel road. Keep following that road for a few km until it comes to a T intersection where the right turn crosses the train tracks and the left turn makes a hairpin back in the direction you came from but heading further up the hill. Take the left turn and continue climbing.

Now keep heading roughly in the same direction towards Üetliberg. There is no real defined route up now, but the main route is marked with little brown cycle signs. But as long as you keep heading generally uphill and don't cross any railway lines, you will reach the Üetliberg train station one way or the other.

When you reach the train station, keep going up the road to the very top.

Now the fun begins. Head back down the road from the top for about a hundred meters. When the road bends to the left, there is a single track going to the right between some rocks into a park. Follow the track to the far left side of the little park and back into the forest. This will then take you back down to the Triemli station, and is pretty obvious most of the way down. If you are uncertain, then on a Saturday morning somebody is bound to come past sooner or later who knows the way. This is all single track to the bottom. But for the first third of the descent there are about four places that you can go back onto a formed road if you feel that you have bitten off more than you can chew.

This will eventually bring you out onto a paved walking/cycle path with a drinking fountain. Turn left and follow the path down the hill and you will come out where you started.

7
Lenzerheide http://www.lenzerheide.ch/en/navpage-BikingLH.html

There are a number of trails in this area, including XC, tours and Freeride. I am initially going to cover the Freeride runs that I have done here. But there is potential for this post to be expanded or others to add other Lenzerheide posts.

Starting point: Gondola station by Heidsee, between Valbella and Lenzerheide on the road up from Chur.

Trail type: Freeride (June to October)

Physical Fitness: 2

Technical Difficulty: 3

Catch the gondola up to mid station. Get out at the mid station, turn right and go a little past the bottom of the next cable car, but before the restaurant. You will see a single track going down the hill. Just follow the single track to the bottom.

This is a great track for first timers, as there are no nasty surprises on the way. There are no man made constructs except for some very sweet berms, you only catch air if you really, really want to, and the rocky sections are quite manageable. This track is easily doable on a hardtail, but much more fun on a full downhill or freeride rig.

But if you are an advanced rider, this track is far from boring. The track has a nice, fast flow and you can link the track together very nicely. Some sections of this track is very fast. I am a capable, but not fast rider and was managing to spin out on a couple of sections with a 38T front ring.

At the bottom there is also some fun and easy little "North Shore" wooden bridges and a seesaw. You really must give the seesaw a try. It is very safe being both wide and low. Though the first time I tried it, and my first ever attempt at a seesaw, I did hurt myself. But that was from hurting my sides laughing so much at how startled I was.

Starting point: Gondola station by Heidsee, between Valbella and Lenzerheide on the road up from Chur.

Trail type: Freeride (June to October)

Physical Fitness: 2

Technical Difficulty: 3/4

Catch the gondola up to mid station. Get out at the mid station, turn right and go to the cable car. At the top of the cable car, follow the road down. You will see a single track going down to the left. Follow this down.

Follow this single track down through a rock, lunar landscape. It will weave it's way along the the top of the ski trails on loose rock until it joins a service road. Follow this road down, but keep an eye out for single tracks giving nice little shortcuts between the switchbacks.

At one stage there will be a signposted singletrack going off the the left that traverses across the mountain. Follow this singletrack along the side of the mountain until you come close to the line of the cablecar. The singletrack then descends the mountain down to the bottom of the cable car. You can the got the rest of the way to the bottom on the trail described above.

Starting point: Gondola station by Heidsee, between Valbella and Lenzerheide on the road up from Chur.

Trail type: Freeride (June to October)

Physical Fitness: 2

Technical Difficulty: 3/4

Catch the gondola up to mid station. Get out at the mid station, turn right and go to the cable car. At the top of the cable car, follow the road down but don't go down the single track to the left as described above.

Or just run downhill tubes, on a plush downhill bike and ride smooth...

8
Starting Point: Scuol

Trail Type: Tour (June to September/October)

Physical Fitness: 4 (1400m climbing, 40km)

Technical Difficulty: 3

Map: Bike Explorer or Singletrail Map (There is also a cheap local map available in Scuol)

Parking: Parking is available by the ski-lift and camp site in Scuol. Easily accessible by public transport, and good camping facilities in the area.

This tour is one of the most scenic tours I have done yet in Switzerland. It follows an old smugglers route over the alps and across the border to Italy. The gallery that this tour follows is a small path cut straight out of the cliff. To describe it as breath taking would be an understatement.

From Scuol follow the river east for about 7km to Sur En. In Sur En there is a wanderweg sign that points south and uphill towards Val D’Uina.

Ride up the nature street along the side of the river, the route is very straightforward. Keep following the nature street until you get to a small mountain restaurant. From here you can look up the valley towards the gallery that you are heading towards.

From this restaurant you start to ride on single trail. After a while you will come to a sign that tells you to push or carry your bike from there. It is possible to ride a little bit past this point, but not too far!!! The effort required in pushing the bike is well worth the trip through the gallery.

Keep following the trail upwards until you reach the gallery (you will know it when you get there!!!). The walk through the gallery takes about 40 minutes.

At the top you can continue riding along a single trail across the border and over the top of the pass to an alpine restaurant which is literally in the middle of nowhere. The apple strudel is pretty good here!

Once you’ve refreshed yourself sufficiently then turn around and follow the same route back. The single trails you have just cycled up are pretty fun to ride back down. You pass through the gallery once again and then blast down the single trail and nature street back to Sur En and eventually Scuol.

Disclaimer: The signs on the entrance to the gallery on both sides warn you not to ride your bike there. The path is loose and any mistake here could be lethal. In the interest of safety I would recomend pushing your bike through the gallery.

9
Pfanensteil is an ideal afternoon or evening tour for those living in the Meilen or Uster areas.

Starting Point: Uster, Meilen or just about anywhere you can get to Pfanensteil from.

Trail type: XC or Freeride (Some Jump and Northshore options)

Physical Fitness: 1 to 2

Technical Difficulty: 3 to 4

Climb up to the restaurant which is on the main road that goes over Pfanensteil. Take the turn here to follow the road up towards the Hochwacht.

As you climb towards the Hochwacht restaurant you can stay on the paved road or take a turn to the right and go up a gravel path. The gravel path is quite steep so expect to be burning at the top if you take this route.

At the Hochwacht restaurant you can enjoy the views over Greifensee and Zurioberland before taking a left up the gravel footpath behind the restaurant. Keep climbing past the lookout tower and the barbecue area. Shortly after the barbecue area the path flattens off, and just after this there is a single trail going up hill on your left.

Climb this singletrail for about 100m, then in the small clearing take the trail to your left and follow it down to a fireroad, take a left at the fire road and turn right onto the first singletrail you see.

At the bottom of that trail turn left onto the fireroad and follow it around to the right, you pass an open field on the right hand side, shortly after the woods restarts on the right take the second singletrail on your right.

From here the trail crosses fireroads but restarts almost directly across the road. After the second fireroad you will pass a bike park with some jumps. Right after the jumps there is a steep gully going downhill, you need to drop into this gully on its right hand side to avoid falling into a drainage ditch, follow the gully down and then stay to the left unless you want to end up on 2m high north shore trails.

When you come out the end of this section go straight across the fireroad, into a narrow walking trail, after 50m the walking trail goes left and the bike trail continues straight down between two trees. Follow this trail down to the end, and then either turn left and climb back up, or take a right and follow a Tobelweg town to Meilen.

Any questions on this tour, address them in this thread.

10
Filzbach http://filzbach.traildevils.ch/

Starting point: From the village of Filzbach, follow a lane up the mountain until you reach a small chairlift with a car park.

Trail type: Freeride (May to October)

Physical Fitness: 3 (The trail is short, but physically demanding)

Technical Difficulty: 4-5 (There are choices)

Take the first chairlift right up to the top (second station). There is a restaurant at the top to the left. Follow the road straight ahead and then to the right around a shed and back to the start of the track. The track goes from the top to down to the mid station. So take everything you are likely to need up with you as you will probably not return to the car park again until the end of the day. Though there is a very easy road down from the mid station to the car park.

This is a very fun little trail. It is quite short but has lots of challenges both natural and man made. This includes wooden wall rides, jumps, moderate rock gardens and a few steep sections with tree roots. They have also added some more "North Shore" wooden tracks in the forest in 2008 that look like they could be fun when they are less wet and slippery than last time I was there. All the jumps have an alternative route that airtime is optional on.

This is not a track for beginners and is definitely best on a full downhill or freeride rig. Hardtail is possible, but you want a fairly beefy hardtail. But if you are comfortable and relaxed (and maybe a bit bored) with everything that Uetliberg throws at you and happily pin Lenzerheide at speed, then this is the track for you. It is exceedingly fun. I have taken a couple of mates here who had never been downhilling before, but had been mountainbiking before. They both finished the day with the biggest grins on their faces.

Lift passes are half price if the weather looks a bit dodgy with rain.

11
Starting Point: Boudry

Trail Type: Short Tour. (April to November)

Physical Fitness: 3 to 4 (40km, 1100m ascent)

Technical Difficulty: 3 (some steepish rocky singletrails on the descent)

Map: Ordanace Survey Map 1163 Travers

Creux de Van is a huge amphitheatre shaped cliff formation in the Jura region of Switzerland.

From Boudry train station head downhill and take the firs right towards Gorge de l’Areuse. The proper route takes a left here and heads past the gorge on paved streets. We took the option of pushing our bikes through the gorge (biking is not allowed here and we would never have been so irresponsible as to ride through it!). The scenery in the gorge is truly amazing and well worth taking a diversion to check out.

At the top of the gorge you rejoin the tar road and keep climbing towards Champ du Moulin Keep going straight on following the signs for Ferme Robert. On many of the junctions there are signs which say no bikes, but there is always one option that you can take. From Ferme Robert you can already see the cliffs, but you only have about half of the climbing done. Keep following the unpaved road that goes past the restaurant. It winds its way up through a variety of scenery. There are a few turn offs, but keep following the wanderweg signs going towards La Grand Vy and Creux de Van or La Soliat (there is always an option where biking isn’t forbidden). Eventually you cone out on a paved street again, where you turn right and keep going until the street ends and you take some singletrail type paths to the top of the cliffs. Once you get to the cliffs enjoy the view and work your way towards La Soliat.

The View from the top

Finally there! The highest point on the tour.

Once you have had a rest and enjoyed the view the descent takes some singletrails from La Soliat down to La Barrone. At La Barrone there is a T-Junction. Take the base of the T, and keep going until you start to go downhill, after a little bit on this road there will be a wanderweg sign to the left. The next section of singletrail begins here. It has some fairly steep rocky sections. Keep following the trails and roads back down towards Boudry.

I would advise getting the 1:25,000 or 1:50,000 map of the area before going. There are no singletrail maps for the region.

There are a lot of hikers in the area so be courteous.

12

Starting Point: Weesen Bahnhof

Trail Type: Tough tour for experienced bikers. (May to November)

Physical Fitness: 4 (43.4km, 1290m ascent, 1560m highest point)

Technical Difficulty: 5 (very technical singletrail with some highly suicidal sections)

Map: Ordnence Survey Map Walensee

I found this route on GPS-tracks.com and navigated the route with my Garmin Forerunner 305. The GPS download and much more detail on the route can be found here . You can easily do the route without the GPS though by following the directions:

Weesen Bahnhof - Mühlehorn - Murg - Walenstadt - Walenstadterberg - Schwaldis - Sälserhütte - Hag - Laubegg - Betlis - Weesen

This is a tough tour with 6 distinct sections which are all interesting in their own way. I would only do this tour in good weather with the ground as dry as possible. Although I did the tour alone, I would recommend to only go in a group - there are some seriously difficult sections and it would be good to know that someone was there to "pick up the pieces". Start from Weesen Bahnhof (plenty of parking 50rp/Hour). Cycle on the veloweg along the side of the lake, next to the autobahn to Walenstadt. This is about 20km of flat, mostly tarmac riding that serves as a great warmup and allows you to take in some nice scenery and gaze up to the Laubegg on the far side of the lake where you will be later. The climb! It's tarmac almost the whole way from Walenstadt to Walenstadterberg but it's steep and relentless and feels like a lot more than 1000m. Great scenery though with amazing views down the valley to Chur and beyond. Finally the road ends and you continue on a trail towards Alp Schwaldis. There's a section with a bike verbot but according to the GPS tracks site, bikes are tolerated before 1700 Mon-Sat. There are a couple of shorter climbs that will test your legs again but it's all easily ridable. There's a turn off to Gocht (which you don't take) and after this, it starts to get very tricky indeed. If you look at the trail alone, then most of it would be ridable. The problem is if you put a wheel wrong then you will most likely fall to your death. You will need to carry the bike for quite a lot of this section, riding what you dare in between! In mid-June, I needed to climb over one quite substantial snow drift in a gully which was very very slippy indeed. I actually had to excavate some foot holds out with my hands. Even carrying/wheeling the bike was precarious at times. Good shoes are essential on this ride. This section has some amazing views of the lake. Finally, at about 1100m altitude, you come (walk) down through an abandoned hamlet (there was a tap here where I filled my camelback) and enter the forest where the track becomes more ridable although still highly technical. It's a fantastic singletrack with many tight switchbacks, rocks, roots, drop offs - everything you could want. I had the track to myself on a Friday morning but I would imagine that it would be a nightmare on a sunny weekend. It's very steep and technical and walkers would really detract from the enjoyment. The singletrack goes all the was down to Betlis (there were walkers for the last couple of km but the track is wider at this stage. After Betlis you follow the tarmac path by the lake back to Weesen. There are loads of opportunities to swim in the lake and a few restaurants as well. I completed the tour in 4'15" including a couple of short stops to eat and enjoy the view as well as chatting with a friendly walker. If you were riding in a group and enjoying the view then I would allow at least 5 hours.

In summary this a must-do tour for experienced MTBers. It's a very enjoyable, picturesque and technical ride and you need to be prepared to carry the bike for some longish sections.

Talking to some other veterans of this tour, it seems as though my enthusiasm for shouldering the bike along cliff edges is not universally shared by all and therefore I'm downgrading this from a must-do tour to a "rather good but quite difficult and maybe a bit frustrating for some" tour.

13
This one ? Sounds epic.

14
maybe also of interest for you is

http://www.gps-tracks.com and

http://www.gpsies.com

I upload all my trips there. Very good to get good ideas for trips and on gps-tracks you get even high resolution maps.

Have fun

B.

15
HI, we are 2 guys coming on the 1 on juky to visit a friend at geneva.

we will be with our bikes (29 rip+ stumpjumper) and will ride each day

we are looking for day trips, single tracks, technical routes and more, near gevena and some around- 1- 1.5 drive by car away.

we would love to ride with sombody from the area... week days and weekend (1.7 noon till 5.7...)

all- pls replay

best

guy

16
Starting point: Davos Dorg Train station

Trail type: XC (July - October)

Physical Fitness: 4 29Km may not sound much but 1400hm is...

Technical Difficulty: 4 (some tricky rock sections and switchbacks on descent, some tricky climbing).

Start out from Davos dorf by heading into town, round the one way sytem and turning left at the EGG bar into Dischmastrasse. Folow this to the start of the valley where you go past the Lumber yard, then turn left to In den Bulen. the trail is now sign posted.

After the climb (av 12%), the trail darts through to the Fluela valley by a short section of single track, leading to a fireroad. Then the trail heads up parallel with the river all the way to the Geust House at Tschuggen, good climb (ave 8%) but not technical.

Now begins the real ascent. At Tschuggen the trail leads through the guest houes garden past the little church. It is pretty hard going (ave 12%) with rocks and switchbacks to contend with until it hits a wider path around 2200hm

Once past the Pischa Berg station you follow nice rolling (and rocky) single track to the Horli where the trail cross the ridge and starts descending. At the top before the descent is a nice bench if like me you want to put some pads on and have lunch.

The descent is I think tricky with loose rocks, loose dirt and switchbacks, no jumping required though. Half way down you will be treaded to the most fabulous view of Davos the Parsenn and Klosters and a 180 degree panoramma. The best view of this area I've seen.

After the view point the trail got harder for me as it was quite overgrown and became a foot wide and about 1/2 foot sunken, made some corners hard. also hit my head on a few branches. Became quite hard to see more than a couple of meters of the actual trail.

The end of the trail was a nice fast run through some easy single track before coming onto a farmers 4x4 road, across the railwayline, round the lake and back to Davos Dorf.

Thoughts

This trail was about as much as I could handle, in fact slightly more, I could do maybe 75% of the climb and 80% of the downhill. I consider my self an XC rider of average ablity and fitness.

However I'm very glad I did it, it's 80% singletrail and I only saw 5 people during the entire ride. Plus the view of Davos - wow!

I also had an endo near the end due to a rather large hole / rock combo that I just didn't see - wouldn't have been so bad if I hadn't been slowing down to give way to two hikers, who, by the way, didn't stop or ask if I was ok as I lay sprawled across the track - they just stepped round me.....

17
Hi everyone,

winter has already started, but maybe this could be helpful to you for next year mountain biking season:

www.bikingspots.ch

This is a site I started this year, where people can explore/upload/download moutain bike tracks as GPX or KML files (for GPS units and Smartphones).

Site is in french, but following a track on a map should not be such a big problem ...

Have fun !

Seb

18
My quick escape: http://www.mapmyrun.com/s/routes/vie...sanne/29985628

19
Just want to thankyou very much for this comprehensive, helpfull post.

20
Found this rather neat guide for MTB routes, mainly in Swiss Romande. Includes .kml files for Google Earth, maps, descriptions and technical/physical ability required. Been looking for something like this in my area for ages.

On a related note, anyone know of a nice GPS-based App for the iPhone for MTB routes in CH?

Just realised, maybe this should be merged with this thread .