Col de la Seigne & Col de Ferret

by Sandra Sowerbutts

Roughing it Alpen style

Sitting at home, map spread on the table, a mug of tea to hand, that's when the highest and roughest mountain passes seem possible. We chose three off road routes from "Roughstuff cycling in the Alps" (Ibex Press). The Grand col Ferret 2537m, the Col de la Seigne 2516m and the Gemmi Pass 2316m all these are classed as moderate routes with good scenery in the guide, but I must admit I soon started to have my doubts, especially as I looked more carefully at the description for the Gemmi pass which says, "At Leukerbad the road ends and a good path leads to an almost vertical cliff 600m high... the path climbs this cliff in a remarkable piece of mule track engineering... gradient of 25%-33%". Holland suddenly looked like a tempting option!

We were of course fully loaded with tent, stove and kitchen sink all crammed into 4 panniers and a bar bag each, but despite this we were still determined to try to do the routes. We had quickly discarded the advice to take rucksacks as prescribed in the Alps guide only at our peril as we struggled later.

We arrived in Geneva in a storm, in the dark, so we headed straight for a campground, this we eventually found after several unsuccessful attempts. The next morning we headed off with good weather towards La Clusaz, Beaufort and on toward les Chappieux on an interesting and slightly convoluted route that bought us tothe base of our first pass, the col de la Seigne, this pass would take us into Italy. We were happy to rough camp, near to the refuge of Les Mottets following a long hot day.

To try to miss the midday sun we set off early, the first section was a hard push, followed by a series of switchbacks that steadily climbed the mountain. Pushing, and stopping with increasing regularity while taking in the fantastic scenery, slowly but surely with sweat dripping from eyebrows and nose, we arrived at the top for a spectacular 360° panorama.

Most people walking the Tour de Mont Blanc rested at this point, many of them were amazed to see us arrive with heavily laden touring bikes, some looked envious as we started the descent!

The descent was much more pleasant, although the top section was tricky to cycle in places. We attempted to perfect the art of skid cycling on some of the steep gravel sections while enjoying the view unfolding in front of us as we dropped into Courmeyeur (Italy) where we stocked up on essentials such as chocolate and wine. Before the day ended we were already headed for our next pass, the Grand Col de Ferret starting from Entreves and the Val Ferret.

The Col de le Seigne was reasonably hard as the aching arms, tired legs, and muzzy head, (caused by slight dehydration) showed. However never ones to give up without a fight we go on to the next one on the agenda, the Grand Col de Ferret. A rough, steep but ridable track leads to the Refugio Elisabetta, suddenly the real mountain looms over you, putting nasty nagging doubts in your mind and knocking your confidence. So we ate some good solid food to bolster our egos before attempting it. The sun disappeared as we started the climb, clouds turned to rain on the harder part of the track. This track was steep and stepped in places, and with rain on it became slippery and exhausting.

We found we had to double push, which basically meant dropping one bike to push the other between us, Trevor steering and pulling at the front while I pushed with all my strength at the back, the track was so viciously steep in places that we found we could not do the pushing without sliding backwards. So pushing shoving panting, sweating cursing and praying we crept snail like up the mountain. The rain continued so that even a group of hikers below us set camp, giving up for the day. We however were determined to get to the top that day. Exhausted, wet and finally at the top we started cooling down rapidly, so we put on waterproofs, fleece hats and gloves in order to enjoy the well earned descent into the Swiss Val Ferret.

The toughness of the journey and sore-blistered hands made me very sure that I was not going to do the Gemmi pass. Following a pleasant Camp at La Fouly in front of a glacier, and after re-scrutinising the guide we noticed there was mention of a ski lift at Leukerbad, Hmmmm!. So off we set down to Martigny hanging right and following the pleasantly clad (and easy) Rhone valley up to Sierre and then taking the back road to Varren eventually joining the steady drag up to Leukerbad and the opportunity to see just what we would have had to attempt; this was one time when the old saying, "no pain no gain" seemed very silly.

We enjoyed the spectacular views from our cable car assisted journey up the Gemmi, and took a leisurely ride along the top before camping at about 2000 metres.

The next day we dropped to Kandersteg pitching our tent under the Eiger at Grindelwald. The weather turned back to rain as we rode an alpine route to picturesque Fribourg eventually returning via Lousanne, then ferry to Thonon les Bains and Valley Verte, to Geneva where we took in the sights.