Stelvio or Turini??

[Janosh]

I'm planning a 3 day loop in July, starting and finishing in Chamonix, so am currently looking at either the Stelvio pass and surrounding areas or heading down towards Col de Turini..

I imagine we won't go too far wrong, but thought I'd open it up for advice!

We're probably going to be 3 cars and 2 bikes if that makes any difference

[G Man]

Janosh said:

I'm planning a 3 day loop in July, starting and finishing in Chamonix, so am currently looking at either the Stelvio pass and surrounding areas or heading down towards Col de Turini..

I imagine we won't go too far wrong, but thought I'd open it up for advice!

We're probably going to be 3 cars and 2 bikes if that makes any difference

I did them all last year there are pros and cons for both

Stelvio
1 If you never done "the Stelvio" it has to be done
2 You can do the Andersmatt loop Furka,Grimsel,Nufenen on the way
3 Do the Gavia and Mortirolo as well
Against
1 Stelvio on a weekend is busy as hell with campavans and buses
2 the ride from Martigny (St Bernard Pass) to Andermatt crappy but for the last 25 miles

Thought on Turini to follow

[skodamanpat]

Stelvio, it is possible to queue up the Stelvio and hit a traffic jam at the top, if you are going to hit it early (or late) then great but get behind a camper van and if you are on 4 wheels then it is a long way up. However as mentioned you have some fantastic roads in the vacinity Fluela, Umbrail, Gavia and getting there san Bernardino Splugen etc etc are all possible.

Haven't been up the Turini for a couple of years afaik they where doing a lot of work on it 2009/ last year. The biggest draw back I found was the abundance of debris (read rocks from the size of tennis balls up) and the number of completely blind bends (at least on a lot of passes you can see traffic coming above/ bellow) but having said that I thought it was a better drive than the Stelvio. If you think of takeing the D68 round the Mercantour, be warned it is 1 way and looks like it should be good for a hoon, BUT it is practically a farm track and takes ages 5mph max (even bottomed out a Fabia on Eibachs )



On the plus side there is the Col de Bonnett, route Napoleon, Verdon Gorge

Edited by skodamanpat on Thursday 5th May 17:49

[Allyc85]

Do Stelvio and see if my sticker has survived the winter


FEOC-UK Sticker on Stelvio by Allyc85, on Flickr

[mikey k]

They clean it off each year
We got up there the first day the South side was open not a single other vechile on it! , North side was still closed

[Janosh]

Looks like we're going to go for the Stelvio loop...

Day 1 - Leave Chamonix, through tunnel & over Grand St Bernard, then pretty direct route to Davos.

Day 2 - Stelvio pass, should we overnight in Davos after some sort of loop?? If you look at the map, Davos is in the top corner of a horizontal figure 8.. Is that the best day loop to do?!

Day 3 - Return to Chamonix..

[Allyc85]

mikey k said:

They clean it off each year
We got up there the first day the South side was open not a single other vechile on it! , North side was still closed

Ah gutted about the sticker! Looking at the webcam today it looks like they are starting to clear the snow!

http://webcam.popso.it/cm/pages/ServeBLOB.php/L/IT...

[eccounts]

We're heading for Stelvio in 10 days time, fingers crossed it's all open.

[G Man]

eccounts said:

We're heading for Stelvio in 10 days time, fingers crossed it's all open.

That good because it doesn't open usually till 1st June

[eccounts]

I'm adsolutely kicking myself, i got carried away with our hot April and assumed like a fool that its Europe wide. Gutted

[G Man]

eccounts said:

I'm adsolutely kicking myself, i got carried away with our hot April and assumed like a fool that its Europe wide. Gutted

Well they have the diggers at the top of the pass ... but it still snows in May there

http://webcam.popso.it/cm/pages/ServeBLOB.php/L/IT...

[eccounts]

apart from putting our trip back 2 weeks, any suggestions ? We were doing the usual 7day Calais, Nurburg, Stelvio, Monaco, Route Napoleon, Calais circuit leaving 14th May.

Edited by eccounts on Saturday 7th May 22:21

[G Man]

eccounts said:

apart from putting our trip back 2 weeks, any suggestions ? We were doing the usual 7day Calais, Nurburg, Stelvio, Monaco, Route Napoleon, Calais circuit leaving 14th May.

Edited by eccounts on Saturday 7th May 22:21

Go to Andermatt, the Furka,Oberalp are open


Swiss pass status http://translate.google.co.uk/translate?hl=en&...

Edited by G Man on Saturday 7th May 23:58

[Janosh]

We're off to do Stelvio in 4 weeks....

The current plan is:

Day 1: Chamonix to Davos, via Andermatt loop
Day 2: Davos to Davos, via Stelvio
Day 3: Back to Chamonix, via anything we missed on the way out..

Now the question: on day 2 from Davos, do we do the Stelvio clockwise or Anti-clockwise? We have a mix of cars & bikes if that makes any difference?

[Janosh]

So from the various searches I've done it looks like we'll go up the East side and down the West.... That means we'll do the Stelvio slightly earlier in the day as it's less km's from Davos..

Let's hope it's nice and sunny that weekend!

[IainZ]

Janosh said:

We're off to do Stelvio in 4 weeks....

The current plan is:

Day 1: Chamonix to Davos, via Andermatt loop
Day 2: Davos to Davos, via Stelvio
Day 3: Back to Chamonix, via anything we missed on the way out..

Now the question: on day 2 from Davos, do we do the Stelvio clockwise or Anti-clockwise? We have a mix of cars & bikes if that makes any difference?

Just behave yourselves in Switzerland - latest reports are that the Swiss police are quite keen and not very forgiving.....

[Janosh]

We'll definitely keep it sensible on the motorways and bypasses, but hopefully there won't be too many coppers on the passes!? Particularly on the Andermatt loop?

[mikey k]

I've just got back from 3840 miles mainly round Switzerland.
Not a single issue and passed loads of plod.
The trick is to stick to the speed limits in town and not take the piss on the motorway.

A picture? - why not!

[Janosh]

Thanks Mikey - just what I wanted to hear

[mikey k]

Not a problem
BTW Col de Turini is not that great