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  • 3-4 day MTB tour in Switzerland – ideas and help needed :)
  • HansRey
    Full Member

    Hi,

    I’ve been asked by a friend in Zurich about going to Switzerland on a MTB tour across some mountains. About 3-4 days with lift-assists. I’m pretty excited!

    I’ve no idea about what to expect. Except that we’ll bivvy/stay in mountain huts.

    Any recommendations on…
    – what to do
    – pack
    – where to go
    – realistic daily distances

    cheers,
    HR

    jambalaya
    Free Member

    If you are a stud you can ride from Verbier to Grimentz in a day ! Grand Raid Christalp

    With a little planning you can spread that out with some stops. There have been a few threads on here on similar trips. Hopefully someone will post links to them.

    From Zurich you can link up into Lenzerheide/Arosa/Davos with a mix of mountain railways and lifts

    mick_r
    Full Member

    As above – Davos area (and whole of Graubunden I think) is very friendly and openly supportive regarding mtbs on singletrack (provided you are sensible). Loads of routes:-

    http://en.graubuenden.ch/mountainbiking-switzerland/mountain-bike-trails.html

    http://www.davos.ch/en/experience/summer/bike/mountain-bike.html

    philholmes
    Free Member

    I work in Zurich but live in Davos at weekends, there are nice routes not far from Zurich but some really great rides in Davos / Graubunden.

    This is a group that I ride with mostly around the Zurich area, but they also travel all over CH. They might offer advice if you email them, but this club is a hobby for Dave, so not sure how much time he has.
    http://www.alpineadventure.ch/

    The Davos trails are pretty good, more xc style, but there are some really good technical steep rocky tracks if that is what you like.

    There are three lifts open for bikes in the summer. Parsenn is a good way to gain height for some longer xc rides, Rinerhorn has only a few options from the top, again xc. Then Gotschna which is the lift for a freeride track, then a top lift leads to the more techy steep tracks. Apart from the freeride, all tracks are duel use, so expect to find lots of walkers there and pretty slow going, walkers can get very pissy towards bikers, if you don’t give them space / use the horn.

    Lenzerheide is 1 hour from Davos and has decent uplift with mulitple trails and is holding a round of the worldcup DH this summer.

    Flims/Laax has good uplift and decent single track, a nice freeride trail and is a pretty cool place.

    I have not been myself with the bike. but 1.5 hours from Davos there is also Livigno which is lift assisted DH trails, but there is also xc available.

    Also I recently saw a great looking video from St. Moritz, again, not ridden it, but I will do this summer.

    I have not done much biking other than Graubunden region.
    Hope some of that helps,

    Phil,

    mick_r
    Full Member

    Apologies for the slight hijak….

    Phil – we are seriously looking at Graubunden area this summer. Don’t want to be staying in a town so wondering if Davos itself will be a bit big and busy. Any other quiet village you could suggest to stay that link in well with the techy XC riding in that area?

    Also Lenzerheide – good alternative location for a week or better to stay nearer to Davos / Klosters?

    Thanks

    Mick

    philholmes
    Free Member

    No worries,

    Davos is not a big place, but is definitely built up, and not that pretty in all honesty.

    I have only been to Lenzerheide twice, but it is a much prettier place, nice lakes, narrow valley floor, I imagine there would be some nice remote accommodation around there.

    Flims is not far from lenzerheide either and is next to the Julier pass which links straight to St. Moritz.

    There are a few small villages close to Davos which are quite pretty, but exactly remote and I don’t know anything about the available hotels / acomodation, Monstein (has a brewery!) Wiesen, Clavadel.

    Even Klosters is a much more typical looking alpine town than Davos. It is a lot smaller and has a nice atmosphere in the summer.

    Selled
    Free Member

    Any recommendations on what to pack

    A credit card with a huge limit!

    HansRey
    Full Member

    Philholmes, MickR, jambalaya – thank you for the advice. I’ll take it on board and look at my options.

    Cheers,
    HR

    professor_fate
    Free Member

    +1 for the Davos/Klosters area. Planning to do some Hut-to-hutting later this year there myself, as had a ball in the area last summer. Check out the possibilities up along the Austria/Lichtenstein border although lifts there are doubtful if i recall from my experience several years back, but those lifts outlined above are really useful with free person use (with nominal bike fee) if you stay in the valley (including the Rinerlodge campsite just south of Davos).

    jambalaya
    Free Member

    OP Davos is relatively large I recall with 10,000 permanent residents. Klosters is very nice and Lenzerheide is pretty too with the lakes and riding both sides of the valley. With the mountain railway from Chur upto Arosa you have some options to play with for uplifts in addition to the ski lifts. In the past I found some forums with routes in the area

    As an aside I saw last year this ultra marathon around the Eiger / Grindelwald area. The longest route is 100k and 6500m climbing and I wondered whether it might be an interesting ride, various huts on the route. Maps etc on the site and a video. I’ve no idea what it would be like as a ride in terms of technicality / single track etc

    eiger ultra

    adsbatts89
    Free Member

    I stopped off in Laax in the Flims area. Its a lift assisted resort with loads of trail bike friendly trails and some really cool red bull north shore style trails. There’s even a pump track and mini free ride area on the central campsite (opposite the main chair lift). I think they do local dh races ‘mates race’ style events each week too that anyone can enter.

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