More Ride Than Free: The Alta Rezia All-Mountain Tour
Some say that there’s no such thing in life as a free lunch, while others believe there’s no such thing as a free descent. Even on a Freeride Tour, gravity is not always on your side as Dan Milner finds out on a four-day epic ride of the Alta Rezia region.
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 Taking the Bernina Express train out of St Moritz delivered us to the Bernina Pass at 2252m (pictured). The line is 100 years old and still runs with Swiss punctuality, unlike ourselves who arrived at our Monastery accommodation that night 2 hours late after having taken 2 wrong turns en route.I trace the line of our trail with my gaze, as it drops down to the azure blue Lake Giacomo far below. To any casual passerby, the trail we're about to drop into looks far from welcoming; it's a twisting, foot wide swathe of loose gravel and fist sized rocks that cuts back and forth across an exposed mountainside that itself feels a long way from anywhere, but to us it's the deserved fruit of our labour, reached by an hour's climb and a final bike shouldering scramble across some very exposed scree chutes. Right now loose gravel and fist sized rocks have never looked so inviting. I drop my seat and roll into the entrance of the trail sporting a cheek to cheek grin. |
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| The whole Alta Rezia region is littered with ancient farms, many showing the signs of suffering decades of inclement weather, being buried in metres of snow in the winter. It's the penultimate day of a four day navigation around 270 miles of the Swiss and Italian Alta Rezia region of the Alps. Self supported, we're carrying the basics for overnight'ing in the villages that dot our map while loosely trying to follow the route pioneered by Hans Rey and Thomas Frischnecht back in 2004, labelled the "Alta Rezia Freeride Tour". Using ski lifts, jeep shuttles and mountain railways to cover much of the uplift Hans and Frischi were entitled to use the term "freeride", but to us however, the word is a proving a little misleading. Lulled by the downhill image painted by the international duo's pioneering trip, Guillaume, my riding buddy has brought his seven inch travel Specialized SX trail, only to find each of our four days involves more than a thousand metres of climbing, a challenge made a little tougher by the fact that we're carrying 22 Ib backpacks. I feel for him on his heavy, long travel bike as we start every climb but I haven't the nerve to tell him that our version of the Freeride tour has deviated from Hans' official route and thus omitted a couple of chartered uplifts. |
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| Another col, another descent. And so the pattern for each day is set. The AR is all about earning your rewards it seems. Despite the abundant lifts en route, t's no free ride. We start our epic in St Moritz by taking a historic train up to the 7000 ft Bernina Pass. The red Bernina Express sports a dedicated carriage in which to hang our steeds, but we've made the wrong assumption that the "Freeride train" is just that, a train laid on for bikers. It turns out in fact that only alternate trains are bike friendly and having just missed the 9.10, we have a two hour wait until the next energy saving departure for the spectacular Bernina Pass, a location that has done so well in preserving 1960's chintz I half expected a Sean Connery-esque Bond to step from behind one of the station buildings. |
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| Fast undulating forest singletrack polished off day one with a well earned shot of adrenaline. Half an hour later we'd be enjoying the hospitality of Italian nuns. The descent I have decided on is one that follows an ancient mule track historically used by smugglers and we set off from the Bernina Pass in high spirits, weaving our way down a stunning mountainside, before turning uphill again. Uphill? 'We should be on a descent, shouldn't we?' I ask rhetorically of Guillaume. We've gone wrong already, having missed one vital paint flecked rock that marks the trail. Fifteen minutes of backtracking puts us back en route and we ride a rollercoaster trail, in places paved with ancient slabs, into the Poschiavo valley. To make our tour more manageable I've downloaded our day's routes from a mountainbike tour website (www.bike-gps.com), and have come armed with profiles, distances and "roadbooks" (directions to take at each junction) all printed out and filed in a waterproof map case. I feel snug at my level of organisation, but soon realise that omitting a GPS is an oversight that costs us in time and energy on several occasions. |
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| Our return to the Bernina pass was greeted with rain. A long slow steady climb up to the La Stretta pass border with Italy once more, ended in a swirl of cloud, obscuring our descent to Livigno. Just as well, it was steep and scary as hell, but rideable, spitting us out with the kind of massive grins and overdose of endorphins to freewheel into town. Reaching the hamlet of Lungacqua at 6200 ft is one such error having climbed six hundred feet too much. 'Extra up means extra down though' I repeat mantra-style, as we drop onto a techie trail strewn with canon ball sized rocks before, heading along what is perhaps the best trail we encounter of the trip: a four kilometre stretch of undulating mossy singletrack, that clings to the side of the mountain like it's the material incarnation of the contour line itself. A few spots of rain entice us to quicken the pace, and I dig deep within my energy to stay focused on the half meter wide snaking trail, determined not to pitch myself off the edge. Fifteen minutes of rhythmically swooping trail bliss restores our faith in the bike as a ticket to adventure and it's with tired legs but a sense of accomplishment that we spin up to the door of the convent in Poschiavo for a meal of nuns' home cooking followed by deep, deep sleep. |
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| Each climb out of one valley delivered a change of scenery, like the Trela Pass out of Livigno. Tours are like that: a never ending supply of visual rewards, with the well earned feeling of accomplishment remote passes like this can deliver. The Bernina Pass often acts as a barrier to storms, but the rain that we wake to in Poschiavo is still with us as we jump from the train back at the pass, clad head to foot in wet weather gear, to set off along a rumble-strip of slippery rocks that tests our technical prowess. Thankfully the rain eases off as we start a 1200 ft climb up the Val de Fain valley toward the La Stretta pass from where we will ride down into Italy. 'So where is the trail?' Guillaume asks when we reach the lofty pass. We're shrouded in mist but through the murkiness I can make out the edge of an abyss: the trail appears to literally drop off the edge of the world. The exposure renders the initial descent a hike-a-bike and in places we have to hang onto chains anchored into the rock. I start to get the feeling that the Alta Rezia is not only about the bike parks of Livigno, but about adventure biking in the purest sense of the term. It's a buzz though, and despite the weather the adventure factor kicks in to make it one of the most memorable days of a summer of riding. The rain returns as we ride a dozen tight switchbacks before spinning the final fast kilometres of open trail to the warm and comfy Baita Montana Hotel in Livigno. |
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| Accommodation en route is comfortable and warm and laden with Italian hospitality. The Forni refuge is just one such beauty. We wake to sunshine and I instantly regret not planning in a backpack-less day of blasting Livigno's bike park trails. Instead we don our packs and take the Mottolino lift up to 9500 ft to start another day of epic backcountry riding to Santa Catalina. Following the rain, the August sun returns with a vengeance and we sweat our way up climbs to earn several fast, pedal-free descents before arriving at the Bormio gondola, only to find that the top section is closed for the day. The closure leaves us a thousand metres short of the 9000 ft summit from where it would have been a long descent to Santa Catarina. 'It's OK' says the friendly liftie, recognising angst on our weathered faces 'you can just follow the jeep track; it makes a traverse to Santa Catarina'. "Traverse" in Italian obviously translates as "climbs", and an hour and a half later than scheduled, and after some severe sense of humour failures en route, we arrive at our meeting point to take a Landrover shuttle up to the Forni refuge. Nothing seems a problem for Italians though, not late arrivals nor the fact that our bolt through forks won't fit Maurizio's bike trailer. His initial concern soon becomes joy as we flip the bikes upside down and lash them with rope for the 1500 ft climb up to the refuge. |
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| The AR route is not signposted as clearly as we'd have liked and with so many trails scoring the mountainsides, regular map-reading breaks were a must. A tour is only a tour of course if you return to your start point, meaning we need to reach Tirano to take the Freeride Express back to St Moritz. Marcizo, our enthusiastic host at the refuge points out a great singletrack descent back to Santa Catarina where we can take a cable car to 8000 ft before descending to Tirano. Well rested and over-fed, we pedal out of the refuge in the shadow of an almighty glacier, its ice glowing blue in the early morning light. Perfect high mountain singletrack and a cablecar uplift put us in good spirits as we trace our route to the Paseo dell'Alpe pass, but when the trail eventually leads out onto 4x4 track we become lured away from the easy descent to Tirano by a small trail heading off over a makeshift bridge and into the forest. 'Okay, if it turns downhill in the forest we'll follow it' we agree, before finding ourselves lunging down the trail as it swoops through mossy old growth forest. |
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| The AR isn't all singletrack, but when it comes it's as good as it gets. Big climbs and big descents in big mountains are about as far from the daily grind as you can get. Ahead of us now is a 1600m descent to finish four days of epic adventure. A half hour later we are raising looks of concern from occasional mushroom gatherers that we pass as we push our bikes up an impossibly steep climb that will, we insist pop out somewhere. We emerge at a deserted hamlet far above the valley floor along which we should by now be pedaling to our train. We're miles from where we should be at this stage in the game, but the experience seems highlight the inadequacies of the term "freeride". As we roll into yet another technical descent, I realise there's a pattern emerging with our own version of the Alta Rezia Freeride tour, one in which includes a lot more uphill. Of course this means more descent and a lot more adventure to boot: worthy rewards indeed for a little extra effort. You've just got to have the right approach. And the right bike doesn't hurt either. |
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| With big days and regular wrong turns ahead, early starts were almost compulsory. With them comes the beauty of slanting light and the awe of enormous glaciers peering through the early morning mists. |
Load 'em up: Carrying the essentials for a multi-day epic takes some planning. It’s surprising how little you need if you have a warm, dry accommodation waiting at the end of the day, but you also need to go prepared. The weather in the mountains can change quickly even in summer, meaning foul weather kit is essential.
• Post-ride change of clothing. Keep it simple and light: shorts, flipflops, spare T-shirt and a lightweight fleece should suffice.
• Waterproofs. A breathable, waterproof riding jacket and pants and sealskin socks if you want feet to keep dry too.
• Change of shorts. Riding the same pair of shorts for days will get you in all sorts of trouble. Wash one, wear one is the way to go.
• First aid kit. Some basics to keep you rolling in an emergency, such as pain killers, plasters, a bandage and even superglue for closing serious cuts. And don’t forget the chamois cream.
• Sunscreen. Altitude means the effects of the sun are stronger.
• Map and compass or GPS. We used the bike-explorer.com 1:80,000 and singletrailmap.com 1:50,000 maps for the region.
• Tools and spares. Share a shock pump and other basics like chain links and spare cables throughout the group. Carry your own tube and pump though.
• Waterproof roll top bag. Because you don’t want to arrive at your destination with a wet change of clothes or a soggy passport.
• Foil emergency blanket. No one expects the worse, but at 100 grams it’s worth having this emergency essential all the same
Need to Know: Fly to Zurich or Milan to reach portals into the Alta Rezia region by bus and train (see sbb.ch for train connections). The Alta Rezia region boasts 2400 Kilometres of marked bike trails, much of which is epic singletrack along with 38 bike-hotels. Use the bike-orientated website altarezia.eu to plan the bones of your trip, but contact local tourist offices (Livigno +39 0342052200, St Moritz +41 818300001) to decipher the details of train schedules and hotels as needed. They can also provide you with information on transport between resorts and even a luggage transport service if you want to ride light. Euros are accepted throughout the Alta Rezia, even on the Swiss side. We stayed at the Refugio Forni above Santa Catarina (+39 0342 935365, 40 Euros HB), the Santa Maria convent in Poschiavo (+41 818440204, 30 Swiss Francs HB) and the Hotel Baita Montana in Livigno (+39 0342 990611, 69 Euros HB). Linen and towels are provided. For the shuttle to the Forni refuge tel. +39 338 5935882 (80 euros per group). If you have time, plan in an extra days riding in the bike park at Livigno (mottolino.com) and check out bike-gps.com for downloads of routes of rides in the region.
All photography by Dan Milner. You can see more of Dan's incredible work on his website.
Did you enjoy reading about Dan's travels in the Alta Rezia region? Want to try a similar trip yourself? Let's hear what you have to say in the comments section below
Editor's note: We'll be bringing you adventures from Dan Milner each month, so stay tuned!
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great to read though. and the images bring back memories.
1.Let someone know where are you going and how long are you going to be there (bivaking or not) Report at mountain shelters. Study the area where you go very well and always have a PAPER MAP. No Iphone pish.
2.Take clothing that will allow you to spend the night in case of emergency, even if weather forecast is good. In the middle of summer on such heights it might be +20 in the sun, but at night all it takes to make experienced temperature drop below zero is a bit of humidity and light wind. Great combo for summer is a 400 grade wool sweater/rain jacket (preferably with windstopper). It is Light and can be packed into 25L back pack. Additional wool socks and a hat is a very good idea too. 3/4 tights, baggy pants and knee pads should work fine as "pants".
- at least 2L of water for a whole day. Water purifying tablettes are great idea, take nearly no place and let you use the water form mountain streams in emergency.
- Take some normal food like few sandwiches, don't rely only on energy bars. Think how much you eat during the day normaly and make sure you take at lest a half of it in "normal food". Have 2 or 3 energy bars just i case but the most stupid thing you can do is take just water to camelback + energy bar + redbull.
4.Bike kit, all basic tool set, one 150g tube or thicker along with a patch kit. Take the cell phone and really important: any kind of light source. Petzl does really small ones.
All of that doesn't weigh more than 5kg incl. backpack. It does not take a lot to fall down and get knocked out, then wake up after few hours. And it is not easy at all for your riding buddies to carry you down to the valley or just to the refugee. Increased own movement in serious concussion can be deadly. Most of all, NEVER BE STUPID ENOUGH TO BE ASHAMED TO SHOUT OUT FOR HELP. I'm young, tough - I can make it, killed lots of people.
what?
1.Let someone know where are you going and how long are you going to be there (bivaking or not) Report at mountain shelters. Study the area where you go very well and always have a PAPER MAP. No Iphone pish.
2.Take clothing that will allow you to spend the night in case of emergency, even if weather forecast is good. In the middle of summer on such heights it might be +20 in the sun, but at night all it takes to make experienced temperature drop below zero is a bit of humidity and light wind. Great combo for summer is a 400 grade wool sweater/rain jacket (preferably with windstopper). It is Light and can be packed into 25L back pack. Additional wool socks and a hat is a very good idea too. 3/4 tights, baggy pants and knee pads should work fine as "pants".
- at least 2L of water for a whole day. Water purifying tablettes are great idea, take nearly no place and let you use the water form mountain streams in emergency.
- Take some normal food like few sandwiches, don't rely only on energy bars. Think how much you eat during the day normaly and make sure you take at lest a half of it in "normal food". Have 2 or 3 energy bars just i case but the most stupid thing you can do is take just water to camelback + energy bar + redbull.
4.Bike kit, all basic tool set, one 150g tube or thicker along with a patch kit. Take the cell phone and really important: any kind of light source. Petzl does really small ones.
All of that doesn't weigh more than 5kg incl. backpack. It does not take a lot to fall down and get knocked out, then wake up after few hours. And it is not easy at all for your riding buddies to carry you down to the valley or just to the refugee. Increased own movement in serious concussion can be deadly. Most of all, NEVER BE STUPID ENOUGH TO BE ASHAMED TO SHOUT OUT FOR HELP. I'm young, tough - I can make it, killed lots of people.