TransAlp trip report

[gairym]

It's been well over a week since I returned from my 'Big Trip' and so I decided it was about time I attempted to string some words together and write about what went on.

Ok, here goes.....

We drove over to Chamonix where I got my kit loaded/packed and went for a little test ride.

The next morning I was up and out by 05:30 and in Italy by 06:00.

I then drove across the top of Italy and parked the car in Rovereto (24km from the end of the my TransAlp route).

I jumped on the train to the Austrian border, rode 26km to Innsbruck and finally took another train into Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany where I spent the night.

I was on the trail by 07:30 eager to get going on my big adventure - here's a shot just outside of town:



The bike-path went on for a good 10 miles or so (of gentle climbing) as the rain began to fall before things finally brightened up and the trail headed upwards for the first time.



Here's a nice shot of a tree growing on top of a huge boulder at the base of the first big climb of the day:



On the way up I saw my only other people of the day - a German couple who told me that the climb I was on was really hard (not particularly true) and that I'd never make it on my fully-laden bike (also not true):



Once the descent started the alpine views began and I got to glimpse the immensity of the Alps (and get a taste of what was to come) for the first time:



At one point I stopped as I realised that the trail vanished and that I had to ride along an confidence (un)inspiring wooden balcony which was pinned to the cliff face - here's me trying to scale said cliff face to mount the camera in order to take a little video footage:



Once I hit the bottom of the big descent it was pretty much bike-track and/or very quiet roads for the next 10 miles to the end of the days route (although I foolishly began the big climb of day 02 at the end of day 01).

At this point I was beginning to worry that the route I'd chosen might be a little too technically simple.

There were a few interesting bits (like the one below) but on the whole it was easy fireroad climbs and semi-interesting bike-track/fireroad descents (which is clearly a bit of a crime).



(don't worry - I didn't remain unimpressed with the routes technical difficulty after day 01)

As i began climbing again it started to rain and so I took refuge in a bus shelter for a while and ate some food before deciding to make a break for it. After a while (and having spotted nowhere to camp) a proper storm began and I quickly took a little side-road and hurried to get my tent up before everything was drenched.

The night was spent being dripped on (as I'd apparently not seam-sealed the tent very well) and so not a lot of sleep was had and I awoke damp, tired and still pretty much knackered (although this all sounds fairly negative I never once thought anything other than how much I was loving my first taste of adventure)

Here's my camping spot in the morning sun:



Not too shabby hey....?

So, day 01 ended with me being tired, wet and loving every minute of my trip so far!

I rode 88.3km (55 miles) and climbed just over 1000m (3280ft).

Not a bad start.

Tune in next time to find out what exciting things happened on day two.....

Cheers, Gairy.

[normg002]

Gairy, looks brilliant!

I was planning on doing a similar trip, Innsbruck to Lake Garda, but work commitments means it is going to have to wait until next year. Do you have a GPX file of your trip I could use a reference?

Cheers

Norm

[gairym]

Norm,

Sure, I'll email you with the route (is in 7 .gpx files) just as soon as I've edited out the errors from the device (my profiles have my suddenly gaining 100's of feet because of GPS glitches.

(remind me if I take too long as I'll likely forget )

Cheers, Gairy.

[gairym]

Ok, day 02.....

I woke up pretty early as everything was damp (especially where the leak was funnily enough!) and so got up and started to pack everything away.



Before long I passed through a nice little village where I devoured some local pastries (although neither the German nor Austrian pastries lived up to my expectations on the whole) before continuing upwards.

Luckily one of the outdoor shops in the village happened to have some seam-sealer for my tent (as it's a ski resort in the winter and so there were loads of sports shops) - result!

Once I'd left the main road behind and begun climbing a nice little mountain road I found a perfect spot to dry out my gear:



After a while the road became fireroad and the whole mood of the climb changed:



I'm no expert but I know most common bird calls and so I was surprised to be hearing a weird one I'd never heard before - it wasn't long before I discovered the culprits - Marmots!

They're not shy either - this one was about 8ft away and still not worrying about my presence:



The climb continued.....

.....and continued.....

I rode, ate, rode, swam/washed, rode, ate some more and I was still climbing:



As I got further and further up the valley the views got better and better:



Nearing the top I was forced to shoulder the bike more than once as things were getting pretty steep:



Here's a shot taken looking back down the valley I'd just climbed:



Once at the top (after 8 hours of climbing!) I stopped at a mountain refuge for some local Austrian sausage and sauerkraut before beginning the descent.

There are no photographs of the descent as the cloud had moved in and I could only see about 20ft in front of me!

(note: this would become a theme throughout the whole trip - there's a severe lack of photographs of certain sections due to rain/cloud - apologies!)

I eventually dropped down out of the cloud:



But.....it was chasing me and shortly after the shot below was taken the daily evening storm began (including a 3 inch thick covering of HUGE hail) and I just made it to a lovely little B+B before getting drenched:



I repaired my leaking tent and went out for dinner (local Venison, mushroom sauce and some tasty little cranberry-like berries) and a pint - nice!

I was tucked up in bed by 21:00 and got a great nights sleep.

Another brilliant day (yes, even the uphill!) and I was looking forward to more.....

[Cereal_Killer]

Sweet trip report so far!  Very inspiring.  Yep, gotta do a TransAlp ride now!  lol
Looking forward to more.

[gairym]

You should - is a great experience!

Here's some more.....

Day 03:

Despite what the profile of the .gpx file indicates below I did not descend to sea-level before climbing a 1.5km vertical cliff at the start of day 03!



It did however feel like riding up a cliff-face as I began the long steep road climb up out of town.

I must admit that the morning of day 03 had me looking seriously at the cable-car which ran alongside my route (and would have saved me a good few hours of climbing) but I won that particular mental battle and was rewarded with probably my favourite days riding of the trip.

That's not say that the 5 hour climb before lunch didn't hurt (IT DID!) but the trail/scenery more than made it worth while.

Views like this:



.....and this:



oh, and this:



Around lunchtime I made to a little mountain hut where I enjoyed an over-priced and thoroughly unimpressive lunch before swiftly moving on.

It was another couple of hours to the summit and so I got a shuffle on (you can just about make out the mountain hut in the valley in the photograph below):



Nearing the top things got more and more barren and lunar:



Nothing remarkable to note (other than the 360° panoramic views which were too wide to be captured on camera) at the top and so I began to head down one of the most technical and physically demanding downhills I've ever had the pleasure of riding!

Here's the beginning:



I took a load of video footage of the descent but it's all way too shaky to be of any use - it's a shame but is what happens if you don't fork out the big money on an action video camera.

Here's a shot looking back where I'd been:



.....and one looking forward from the same spot:



Still a long way to ride downhill yet!

At one point I rode through a cloud of butterflies (cloud is the only way to describe it) - literally thousands of them within a couple of hundred meters of trail.

I'd accidentally scattered most of them but there were still a fair few around as you can see below:



Descent over I realise that at some point I'd entered Switzerland and so I re-stocked in a nice little mountain town before heading skywards once more.

The beginning of the ascent doesn't look much on the profile but it was a gruelling road climb which turned into a lovely desolate fireroad as you can see below:



It was getting late but I was delaying stopping as I kept seeing signs that there might be more bears in this part of the Alps than I'd been lead to believe.

A motorbike left at the side of the trail with a rifle propped up against it (should have taken it!), claw marks higher up trees than I was happy to see, lots of signs indicating not to leave food around as it would attract bears and worst of all a wooden sculpture of a bear climbing a tree which took me a while to conclude wasn't a real bear before I dared pass it on the trail.

So, I set-up camp, ate a crappy meal (I wish I remembered the brand/type so that I would ensure that others didn't suffer such culinary crimes in the future) and went to sleep.

I slept with a sharpened stick just outside the fly-sheet and with the wheel of my bike just next to the tent so that I could pop the tyre with my knife (simulating a gunshot) if I was to be approached in the night.

Here's my camping spot:



Other than being frightened to death by every movement and noise in the night I survived the night (and more rain!) and awoke, cooked some breakfast and was back on the trail by 07:00.

What a day!

[rom1red]

Very nice trip ! 

[gairym]

Sorry for the delay in the posting of Day 04 but I’ve been having image hosting issues and have been unable to put anything new up for days.

So…..where were we?

Ok, day 04 started wet. I continued the climb I’d started the afternoon before and still had another 500m of ascent to finish off:



You can see the wonderful alpine views I enjoyed in the morning below:



On the way up the climb I stopped in a little village to fill up my water and asked a woman there if they ever actually saw bears in the area and she informed me that they’d had one in the valley two weeks previously and so it may well still be in the area – nice!

Once I reached the top of the first climb of the day the weather was showing signs of brightening up (though it was still raining):



A great descent followed and I ended up in a little hamlet attempting to extract some genuine nourishment from the miserable array of low quality snacks on offer in the little store (without much success):



Once the next big climb had begun the sun did pop it’s head to clear up lingering mist and things were soon looking a hole lot brighter:



As I popped out above the forest the views just got better and better:



This particular climb is a bit of a local classic and there were quite a few locals just tootling up it just to enjoy the views before riding back down – I had a nice chat with a couple in their 70′s who were climbing it on touring bikes and making it look easy to boot!

Eventually I left behind the tourers and continued to climb towards the summit:



…..and climbed…..



Once up and over the top I enjoyed a great fast descent (though a little technically easy) before being spat out in some lovely alpine meadows:



At some point I must have crossed the border with Italy as the signs were all of a sudden in Italian!

I reached a massive reservoir where I camped for the night:



Guess what – it rained.

All-in-all another fantastic day in the mountains – priceless!

[gairym]

Day 05 was brutal!

It had a nice easy beginning (as you can see below) but then there was a 1600m/1mile vertical ascent which nearly killed me:



Predictably the day started off wet and windy but there were still some nice views to be had:



I had to descend on this mountain road which was a lot of fun (and a little dangerous!):



Next up was a little town where I stopped to pick up some supplies and a new innertube for the bike (after I realised that I'd packed a 29er tube by mistake).

I ate some disappointingly average pizza (I was in Italy after all!), some nice little pastries and moved on.....

The road out of town was a little problematic as the little trail that runs along side very busy main road was closed while work was done on it and so I had no choice but to run the gauntlet of riding 3km through a narrow tunnel (with no footpath) with lorries flying past at insane speeds - it was truly terrifying! After the first truck nearly sucked me into it I took to watching behind me and then, when I saw a truck coming, I would stop and literally hang on the the side wall.

But.....I lived and emerged at the other side well albeit with more grey hairs (or would have if I wasn't so bald!).

I began the BIG climb of the day and was immediately impressed by the stunning mountain road the climb started with - really beautiful (and quiet):



Before long the road ran out and the trail continued as the rain started once again.

The wind picked up and the next few hours were spent slowly creeping upwards. I was getting seriously fatigued and didn't have much snack food with me and so I suffered a little but it was a great trail:



I eventually passed the summit and began one hell of a descent.

Really technical and twisty - stunning!



I messed up a little due to being really tired (which worried me a bit and made me re-focus) as I realised that I'd missed a turning and decided that I just continue and then cross the river further down the valley - what I hadn't thought through was just 'how' I'd cross the river. It was fast-flowing and deep and so I waded through (as I could see some walkers heading up the trail and so knew that I'd be found should something nasty happen). It was about as bad an idea as I had on the whole trip and I eventually made it to the other side cold, wet and annoyed at how stupid I'd been.

But.....I was alive!



After a while the downhill ended and I pointed upwards once again for a short stint on the road up to the final summit of the day.

I was cold, tired and hungry but still enjoyed the breath-taking scenery on the way up:



After the summit the road descent was a little bit dodgy as the weather really worsened (hence no photos) and so I quickly descended before stopping for the night.

During the night there was an incredible storm which resulted in about 10cm/4" of hail on the ground which was gone by morning but higher up I could see fresh snow and so (seeing as it was still raining down below) made me opt for the bad-weather alternative route for the first part of Day 06 - a shame but the right choice I think.

Day 05 - classic!

[offroute]

Fantastic, Gairy. Keep 'em coming 

[gairym]

will do!

[gairym]

Right, we're nearly finished.....

Day 06!

In a word 'LONG'.

I began the day with a detour. There'd been snow overnight and the high mountain pass I'd intended to take looked a bit ominous and so I opted for a safer option.

Below you can see the fresh snow where I would have been heading:



.....and here:



On paper that meant that the days riding should have been slightly easier than planned but it didn't turn out that way:



The morning started early and wet (what a surprise!) with a nice easy forest road descent before a tame and quiet mountain road climb.

The descent from there was fast if not massively technical - single-track leading to double-track leading to bike path which was all very picturesque (if a little cloudy!).

At the bottom I had a rest and some food in a nice little village before heading upwards once again.

The GPS was going slightly mental at this point as you can see from the jagged points on the big climb on the profile and so I just followed the biggest trail and it turned out to be the right way (luckily!).

After hours of gentle (but still painful) climbing I reached a terrible snobby ski resort complete with compulsory stuck-up English families strutting around like they own the place (maybe they did....?).

I bought a little food and very quickly decided to carry on and begin Day 07's trails in order to put some distance between me and the evil ski resort.

After half an hour on some nice forest trails I came to this tiny waterfall:



Pretty stunning - no?

I then began to climb and climb!

I was looking for somewhere to camp when I heard what may have been (but most likely wasn't) a bear in the forest!

Now don't get me wrong - there's a 99% chance that it wasn't but.....it sounded like I imagine a bear roaring in the forest would sound like and so I did the only sensible thing.....

I carried on riding for another few hours to distance myself from the (imaginary?) beast.

To say I was knackered would be the understatement of the post!

Instead of continuing for an extra hour from the ski resort I ended up doing another 4 hours and pretty much ran out of daylight as I finished the days riding (not wanting to stop until I felt I'd left bear-country).

Nearing the top of the massive climb I came across this purdy little lake:



Here's me feeling the burn just before the summit:



Over the summit and beginning one hell of a descent:



The views along the ridge were something else - absolutely amazing!

I took loads of cloud/sunlight shots and I won't bore you with them all but here's a nice one:



Shortly after the light faded and it started to absolutely hammer it down with rain/sleet and so I found somewhere (semi) dry to lay my head and got some sleep.

Only 1 more day to go.....

[gairym]

Ok, so this is it, the final TransAlp post - thanks for staying with me. It's been a long trip-report and I think we'll all be happy to move on with our lives now that it's almost over!
The final day was relatively short and tame (by comparison):



Mostly downhill and mostly on bike-paths it certainly didn't have anything like the challenges that the other days contained but it did have one great advantage.....

I woke up to the most glorious sunshine!

My last day was to be a scorchio!

Here was my view in the morning:



I was up and on the road by 07:30 and sunburnt by about 09:30 - it was HOT!

The views weren't too bad either:



Just after the bridge photograph below I encountered another of the death-defying tunnel challenges but this one wasn't quite so long or nearly as dangerous (still frightened the crap out of me though!):



Once I'd lost most of the height from the previous days mountains I ended up tootling along a beautiful little valley as I headed towards Lake Garda:



After a couple of hours meandering and snacking I finally neared the lake:



Once I reached my final destination I was struck by two things:

1. Lake Garda is a naturally stunning location - really, really beautiful!

2. Lake Garda has been ruined by tourism and so I took a couple of photographs and got out of there as quickly as possible.

Seriously, the whole place stank of grease and suncream - terrible!

But.....it sure was pretty:



I made my way back to Rovereto (another 25km), packed my things haphazardly into the sweltering car and drove the 5 hours back to Chamonix.

All-in-all a phenomenal week. I'd have preferred some nicer weather but then again the burn I got on the final day showed me that there was an upside to all that cloud cover!

I'm already thinking about the 'Big Trip 2013' and what high-jinx I might be able to get up to.

Thanks must go out to Nikki for being so accommodating/understanding about me just buggering off and leaving her with Amelie (although I appear to now be on some kind of indefinitely extended 'morning duty' as payback).

Cheers to Stuart and all on the http://www.bearbonesbikepacking.co.uk forum for all of their help, information and advice – very much appreciated!

Also, thanks to Ian and Beth at Wildcat Gear for helping me out with some mighty fine pieces of equipment which made carrying my kit not only possible but a pleasure.

For more information about the route I followed visit: http://www.transalp.info/english/

Ok, I'll stop now.

Thanks for taking the time to read this.

Cheers, Gairy.