Well, maybe crossing the Alps by bike is not one of those remarkable deed all the world should know. I mean, thousands of people do a similar trip every year. Thousands. They grab their bike, plan their route, they can choose to go there alone or in groups, with some friends or colleagues. While you’re crossing the highest mountains of Europe, you probably will not bump into fierce bears and hostile wolves. In all probability, you will not meet a savage wilderness or lose yourself in an uncharted territory. But, in the end, what makes an experience really worth?

“Alpine beauty is pure harmony. Still, you will find enemies on your way. The powerful and heavy rainfalls, the steep paths and the long climbs won’t make your route easier. Indeed, they challenge your motivation and test your will."

How important is to choose the right stuff to bring with you? How do you learn to carry just the essential?

It’s crucial to bring the right stuff with you but equally important to not carry the unnecessary. It’s also very important to know how to pack this stuff properly on the bike and get an easy and quick access to the things you will need during the day. When you travel with other people, every error you make affects the rest group directly. I did several one-week-long trips through the Alps, and Morocco too, but never in full autonomy. Alex and Eugenio are both highly experimented travellers with various months-long trips in South America and Asia (Freewheelin’ Asia, a journey featured on eldoradoexperience). David, did several shorter trips in Europe and Morocco. So, all of them gave me precious tips and tricks, but as Einstein said: “Experience is knowledge, all the rest is only information”. So for me, last year’s Transpirenaica has been a major learning. Despite this, the Alps are not the Pyrenees and we’ve suffered much harder weather conditions than in Spain. As a consequence, I left some important items at home, such as
winter gloves and rain pants. Again, it’s all about experience!

—Travelling is taking a journey to yourself

You guys pushed, pushed and then pushed again. How tiring it was to climb those peaks all along? How did you deal with the fatigue?

Of course, the objective in the end is to be on the bike as much time as possible. Our goal is to follow the tracks that are as close as possible to the mountain peaks, for the views, but still remain cyclable. But at the end of the day, when you decide to cross the Alps, you know that pushing will be part of the game. You need to be mentally (and physically) prepared for this. That said, we did some planning mistakes and we have pushed a bit more then expected. The problem is that we carry about 15kg of equipment plus food and water on top of our bikes, so the total weight reaches 30kg. We followed some GR trails that were as steep as stairs and forced us to sometimes carry the bikes on top of our shoulders. One day, we climbed 1000m elevation gain like this. It took almost 5 hours. I guess the best way you can deal with it, is humor. We did so many jokes about the pushing that it really helped to forget about the fatigue. Eugenio even invented the term “pushing-bike”, the next trend after mountain-bike…

How did you take decisions on the route to take?

There are thousands of ways to cross the Alps. David was the team member that owns a GPS and did the main work of investigation. We have to admit that we were all a bit lazy to make this off-site preparation work. We ended up with two possible tracks that had some common parts. One option had more asphalt and the other more forest tracks. Having two options allowed us to have a B-plan in case we didn’t like it, or didn’t make it.

How planned was everything and how much of the journey did you leave to fate?

Everything was pretty well planned. We have had various preliminary meetings, months before, to sort out all logistical issues, and of course, have some beers. Fun fact, one of the most complicated issue has almost been to figure out how to get four bike carton boxes to Malpenza Malpensa airport to be able to fly back to Barcelona! Luckily, a friend of David who lives in Milan, brough the boxes to his workplace, located next to a train station at 20km from the airport. Problem solved!

This is a demonstration blog post. You can read the original one at El Dorado Experience

 

Did you enjoy the story? Share it with friends