velotel
08-30-2012, 10:18 AM
From Aigle to Lac de l’Hongrin. A fierce climb. I haven’t done it, drove down it instead. Checked out the map for our departure from Chateau d’Oex back to France and saw a small road outlined in green on the Michelin map. Part of it in dashed red which means dangerous. I like that. Also had a suspicion of some great views of Lac Léman, or Lake Geneva in english. (Lake changed names over the centuries with Léman arriving in the 1800s which remains the name in french, Lake Geneva in english.) The great views were realized, in spades. The bonus was discovering an impressive climb, one I’d like to do, but probably won’t. I’d have to be feeling monstrously strong and have at minimum a 12-39 cluster. Or maybe I’d borrow my friend’s Eriksen with a triple. Some 1100 vertical meters, sustained, average grade over 9% and probably more because most of the profiles I’ve seen don’t do it justice. I’ve also read some swiss comments with ramps as high as 20%! No problem believing that. There are hairpins that are downright scary.
The road’s not open all the time, or at least the upper part. Some sort of swiss army camp up there with tanks and guns and soldiers running around shooting who knows what. Training for that war that never seems to arrive in Switzerland. Probably because all the war hawks on every side have accounts in swiss banks. Stupid to punch holes in your life raft. Anyway much of the year the upper part is closed with the army guarding gates. But not in the summer, tourist season. We didn’t know that, just followed the road and cruised through. Learned about the closure when I was searching on line for some information on the road.
Glorious drive, an even more glorious bike ride. But not for me. My bike was in the back of the Tourneo grumbling and moaning. With reason. Had we been there for another couple of days I probably would have done this as a loop. And died because when I was in Switzerland I had no idea how wild this road was. My Michelin 1/200000 scale map sure show that.
Lazy start with a visit to a local market, a once a year affair. Disappointment. Not much there. On the road, heading to Col des Mosses. Turn right before the col, the road to Lac de l’Hongrin, a reservoir behind a classic arched concrete dam. Found a place for a picnic. Soaked up the sun, ate well, moved on. Past some tanks, unmanned. Started wondering where in the heck we were. Tanks on top of the world. Odd.
Road curled around the mountain into a slow descent. Hints of lots of empty space to the right through gaps in the forest. A wee tint of blue lurking out there. Broke out of the trees, meadows plunging down, in the distance in full glory, Lac Léman. Fabulous. Air so clear if my eyes were stronger I could count the boats on the lake. Turned out my eyes were okay after all; there weren’t any boats on the lake, at least in the part below us.
Pitch increased a bit, road curling back and forth across the hillside. I’m wondering where this dangerous section is. Oops, hit the brakes, seems to be a traffic jam. Nope, not a traffic jam, just cars waiting to descend. There’s a panel announcing the road for a section is only open in fifteen minutes spurts. Going down authorized from 8:30 to 8:45, 9:30 to 9:45, etc. Time to cross the section, which turns out to be a tunnel, 5 minutes. In other words if you’re going down you could conceivably have to wait for up to 45 minutes for a 5-minute passage! Only in force on weekends and holidays. The honor system, there’s no one guarding the road nor a stop light. We only had to wait 10 minutes. This would never work in France or Italy. No way. Anarchy would reign.
The steep arrived after the tunnel. The lower we got, the steeper it seemed to get. Arrived at a nice looking café/restaurant, Café de Luan, with good views. Beer thirty. Menu looked interesting. Also expensive but that’s Switzerland. Cheapest we paid for a coffee while there was 3,40 swiss francs. That’s 3,50 in american green or 2,80 in euro money! Good views from the restaurant. Figured the wildness with the road was finished since we were now down in civilization. Wrong. The steepest was yet to come. There’s a section down lower that’s like driving down a corkscrew, a vertical cork screw. Can’t imagine what riding up that must be like. The hairpins were stunningly steep, the traverses between just way steep. Also short. A crazy road for riders with titanium leg.
There you are. If you happen to be near Aigle, Switzerland with your bike and have suffered a momentary sense of reason and are just dying to find out how much suffering you’re capable of, you might want to check this one out. Or if you’re really, seriously, deeply into self-flagellation, there’s also the Alp Rionda climb that Flying Pigeon posted about.
A few pictures, starting with Lac de l’Hongrin then views of Lake Geneva.
The road’s not open all the time, or at least the upper part. Some sort of swiss army camp up there with tanks and guns and soldiers running around shooting who knows what. Training for that war that never seems to arrive in Switzerland. Probably because all the war hawks on every side have accounts in swiss banks. Stupid to punch holes in your life raft. Anyway much of the year the upper part is closed with the army guarding gates. But not in the summer, tourist season. We didn’t know that, just followed the road and cruised through. Learned about the closure when I was searching on line for some information on the road.
Glorious drive, an even more glorious bike ride. But not for me. My bike was in the back of the Tourneo grumbling and moaning. With reason. Had we been there for another couple of days I probably would have done this as a loop. And died because when I was in Switzerland I had no idea how wild this road was. My Michelin 1/200000 scale map sure show that.
Lazy start with a visit to a local market, a once a year affair. Disappointment. Not much there. On the road, heading to Col des Mosses. Turn right before the col, the road to Lac de l’Hongrin, a reservoir behind a classic arched concrete dam. Found a place for a picnic. Soaked up the sun, ate well, moved on. Past some tanks, unmanned. Started wondering where in the heck we were. Tanks on top of the world. Odd.
Road curled around the mountain into a slow descent. Hints of lots of empty space to the right through gaps in the forest. A wee tint of blue lurking out there. Broke out of the trees, meadows plunging down, in the distance in full glory, Lac Léman. Fabulous. Air so clear if my eyes were stronger I could count the boats on the lake. Turned out my eyes were okay after all; there weren’t any boats on the lake, at least in the part below us.
Pitch increased a bit, road curling back and forth across the hillside. I’m wondering where this dangerous section is. Oops, hit the brakes, seems to be a traffic jam. Nope, not a traffic jam, just cars waiting to descend. There’s a panel announcing the road for a section is only open in fifteen minutes spurts. Going down authorized from 8:30 to 8:45, 9:30 to 9:45, etc. Time to cross the section, which turns out to be a tunnel, 5 minutes. In other words if you’re going down you could conceivably have to wait for up to 45 minutes for a 5-minute passage! Only in force on weekends and holidays. The honor system, there’s no one guarding the road nor a stop light. We only had to wait 10 minutes. This would never work in France or Italy. No way. Anarchy would reign.
The steep arrived after the tunnel. The lower we got, the steeper it seemed to get. Arrived at a nice looking café/restaurant, Café de Luan, with good views. Beer thirty. Menu looked interesting. Also expensive but that’s Switzerland. Cheapest we paid for a coffee while there was 3,40 swiss francs. That’s 3,50 in american green or 2,80 in euro money! Good views from the restaurant. Figured the wildness with the road was finished since we were now down in civilization. Wrong. The steepest was yet to come. There’s a section down lower that’s like driving down a corkscrew, a vertical cork screw. Can’t imagine what riding up that must be like. The hairpins were stunningly steep, the traverses between just way steep. Also short. A crazy road for riders with titanium leg.
There you are. If you happen to be near Aigle, Switzerland with your bike and have suffered a momentary sense of reason and are just dying to find out how much suffering you’re capable of, you might want to check this one out. Or if you’re really, seriously, deeply into self-flagellation, there’s also the Alp Rionda climb that Flying Pigeon posted about.
A few pictures, starting with Lac de l’Hongrin then views of Lake Geneva.