I was supposed to head south to Provence for the weekend to cycle my favourite bi-annual event, the Ventoux Night Session. But serious thunder storms led us to cancel.
So instead I fled east, in hopes of drier weather, to the other side of Switzerland. And cycled up Klausenpass. The start in Altdorf is the home-town of Wilhelm (William) Tell, one of the founding fathers of Switzerland – 1300’s.
This is a big climb, but so beautiful.
The weather started out great, but I knew I had a finite window. Afternoon thunderstorms plague the Alps recently. The strong wind always seemed to be in my face, even when I took 180 degree hairpins, switching direction. 🙂 But I made my usual slow and steady progress.
Nearing the summit are several great cliff kilometres:
The money view, three kms from summit:
The plan had been to descend the 22 kms down the east side and climb back, but I got nervous with the seriously strong wind (40/50 kms? up high) and the black clouds gathering, so I only descended perhaps 4 kms over the top, but the top half of the east side looks great.
I regretted not descending further down the east side as the rain held off, but I thoroughly enjoyed myself. This is a superb pass. Both sides are fun. And missing the lower part of the east side gives me a good excuse to return.
5 Comments
Hello Will, was this Friday? I think I saw you. I did this and Pragel.
Yes indeed. Well done. I had mapped out the loop with Pragel but didn’t have the legs or faith in the weather. How is it? Yet to visit?
a+
I found that day a bit hot. I was ok on the Klausen but cooked on the Pragel, It has some steep sections from both sides.
Beautiful!
I lived in Brunnen one summer and this was my favourite climb, going out over the Klausen and back over the Pragel. I got rescued by the Swiss post bus when a huge thunder storm swept in one day. Makes mental note to go back soon!