Alpin – you're back. Are you going to let us know how you went on, thoughts on the route, which bits did you follow, pics, etc?

C

Are you still sleeping it off?

Hello mate,

I am indeed weider da. Sat up till silly hour this morning cutting video and going through the pics. there is a full report floating about on here somewhere, AlpenCross.

your name was mud toward the end of the first day. that push up to Leutkircherhütte was horrendous. not something i want to repeat in a hurry. the descent from there was fun though.

with hindsight i think i'd ride from Schrofenpass up the hill to Warth – Lech – Verwalltal, saving myself the climb from Steeg and the push up from Bodenalp to Leutkircherhütte.

how many km were you covering in a day? what were your sleeping arrangements?

we were covering 40-55km/day. carrying our own sleeping gear was a burden. we were limited to five days as we had o be in southern italy to meet girlfriends/friends for the rest of our holiday. i would have rather taken my time and done the lot. i was also considering taking the train up to northern italy and riding back to germany. girlfriend wasn't overly impressed though….

i think next time i'd stay in Pensionen/B&B's. carrying less and therefore covering greater distances.

thanks for your help!

when are you off? which route are you taking?

I did try to dissuade you from carrying sleeping gear, it’s crap and the huts are just great.

The way up to Leutkircherhütte is not that bad? Did you go right to the very end of the jeep track where there is a farm/hut then double back. About 20 mins pushing, along a narrow ledge then mostly rideable. See http://www.vielevisels.de/bikepages/bilder/alpencross2004/2004-08-31%2017-14-05_044_MTB-AlpenX_DSC01266.JPG
I have just read your report and I know the way you went up. That way is crap and is a clay slippy gully with bushes that catch the bike all the way up. We did that in 2005. Look at the map again and see where we went in 2008. Seeing about the snoring, you will have seen the ear-plugs on the kit list!

I hope you thought my advice about the Schroffen pass was good and that the pushing there was not too bad at all.

We normally do 70/90K per day and about 2000/3000m of ascent.

We fly out to Stuttgart next Thurs night ready for an 8am train to Mittenwald. From there to Bassano via Cortina. I’ll let you have the full route and the maps etc for next year!

I hope your report makes some other people in the UK think about taking such trips,

C

yup, like i said in the other post schrofenpass isn't that bad. i'd simply read some reports from others saying it's a crazy ascent where YOU WILL DIE if you put a foot wrong.

tbh, our camping gear didn't weight that much. my bag is lightweight and the mat is tiny. a tarp doesn't need that much room and was comfortably wrapped arond the bar/stem out of the way.

i think if i do it again i'd take the girlfriend as much of what we saw was rideable, if slowly, for most people.

if i'm paying for a bed i want a little more luxury than is offered in the majority of huts. the noise and smell in the room was awful.

btw, what was the paraguide line for?

The paraglider line is to hang up and dry stuff on, we tend to wash shorts etc most days and dry them.

We seem to have had much better luck with huts. That said I'm always that tired I would sleep anywhere. The other thing to bear in mind is that you absolutly must eat properly every night to have any chance of riding well every day.

C

we ate like pigs whenever we had the chance. infact, we worked out we spent more than half our money on food. bakeries at closing time are a ripe spot for freebie brotchen (rolls).

oh, and if you go to the supermarket in Mals, give the good looking girl behind the counter and nice smile, chat to her a bit and tell her her hair looks nice and she might even lace your rolls with with a few extra slices of salami.