Stuart’s GoldWing Blog

Mont Blanc

Mont Blanc is the highest mountain in Europe and sits right on the border between France and Italy.  The mountain has 48 principal, named and almost equally high very near neighbour mountain tops, so it’s really just one great big fat mountain called the Mont Blanc Massif with a multitude of summits.  There are no roads up that high, so riding around Mont Blanc on a motorcycle means riding around the whole lot.  Altogether, depending on the route you choose and your appetite for alpine twisties, this involves a minimum of 200 miles and probably more like 300 miles and climbing a dozen or more high Mountain Passes.

Mainland Europe offers a wide variety of superb motorcycling roads but for sheer spectacle as well as riding pleasure and fulfilment, this is the absolute tops for me.  It is certainly worth a place on every motorcyclist’s To Ride Before You Die list.  Of course you do have to learn how to ride the hairpin bends if you haven’t done so before, but that is perfectly achievable for the ordinary motorcyclist too, so don’t be deterred thinking you need to be something special.

Circumnavigation of the Massif is perfectly achievable in a day on a motorcycle and indeed doing so is part of the challenge which makes it so worthwhile.  But it makes for a full day’s ride and with refreshment and photo stops, although but without really hurrying either, so it took me nearly 13 hours last time around.  The Mountain Passes involves quite a lot of tight hairpin turns and the average riding speed is barely 30 mph.  The scenery is awesome and you really have to stop and take pictures every now and then, so that accounts for at least an hour or so.

This ride has to be done in summer (June to September) because in winter most of the passes are completely blocked by snow.  Even during the height of summer you will encounter some snow or ice on the roadsides on the tops of the Passes, although thankfully not on the tarmac, which is entirely clear of snow and mostly in very good condition.

Since it’s a circular ride you can do it clockwise or anti-clockwise and you can start and finish anywhere you like, depending on where you are staying.  There is also a convenient short cut across the middle through the Mont Blanc Tunnel, which is convenient if you want to do the circle in two parts or if you want to cross the Massif to get to riding areas (and more Mountain Passes) on the other side.

Swapping ideas with a German Winger on top of the Col D'Iseran

For example while staying on the North side I rode through the Tunnel on a Day Return Ticket to reach the Col D’Iseran down to the South East, which at 2764m is the second highest in Europe.  Riding around the Massif takes you through France, Switzerland and Italy, you also need to remember to take your passport along; you will do through Passport Control both entering and leaving Switzerland.

I have circled Mont Blanc twice so far, both times clockwise.  The first time, in 2005, I started from Chamonix and rode with an organised Tour led by a Professional Guide, which was very useful because although most of the route is easy to navigate, the access route to one of the most appealing Passes, the Paso San Carlo, is not easy to find and if you miss it you end up taking the main road and a much less appealing one.  The Guide also took us off route down a little track for a few miles to a marvellous photo-opportunity spot where we could take magnificent pictures of Mt Blanc with our bikes on a grassy mound in the foreground.

The following year I went back to the French Alps with my friend Bill and our wives and stayed in our motorhomes near Annecy, which is a beautiful old lakeside town.  This lovely town, with its medieval centre which is both scenic and full of shops and restaurants and, and the attractions of sunbathing on the campsite which overlooked the lake was so appealing to our ladies that we were allowed to disappear for the whole day on our Wings – and they even had cool beers and a meal ready for us when we got back.  Starting from Annecy added a few extra miles and a couple more Mountain Passes but the circumnavigation was still enjoyable as a day’s ride from there and Annecy has much to recommend it as a motorcycling base from which to tour the French Alps.

The San Carlo Pass viewed from Les Souches

If you have no previous experience of Alpine riding it would make sense to spend a day or two acclimatising yourself to it once you reach the area, otherwise the circumnavigation of Mont Blanc would be a bit like jumping in at the deep end of the pool to learn how to swim. Not that there is anything about Alpine riding which any competent motorcyclist cannot cope with, but it does make sense to have got the hang of taking hairpin bends with confidence before you take on a whole day’s worth of them.

Riding Alpine hairpin bends boils down to forcing yourself to turn your head and look where you want the bike to go (with these bends this will often mean looking back over your shoulder) rather than looking at the road immediately in front of the bike.  You should have looked at the road surface on the bend as you approach it, so once you enter the bend all your attention should focus on where you will be riding as you exit, hence the need to force yourself to look around it.  Trust the bike to follow your gaze aroud the bend which, you will be delighted to discover, somehow it just does!

Gaining confidence that you can ride these turns on a big bike like a Wing also takes a little experience.  But a Wing is more than capable of coping with the tightest of Alpine hairpins and it is you, the rider, who will be the limiting factor until you have done it a few times and can then start to believe that you can do it repeatedly and eventually quite smoothly and satisfyingly as well.  Once you have started to achieve this you can start to enjoy taking these bends.

It is no use trying to take the hairpins hesitantly, nor trying to shuffle around them with your feet on the ground, the camber on the roads around the bends is often too steep for that and you will find that your legs just aren’t long (or strong) enough.  Go out on a short excursion (say up one of the side valleys) and practice on some of the gentler bends to start with and then, when you are ready to tackle the hairpins, get yourself into the correct low gear (often first is necessary) and scan the road surface on the bend during the approach, then  as you enter the bend force yourself to look where you want the bike to go, which will almost invariably mean looking more than 90 degrees away from the front of the bike.

Up in the Clouds

So let’s assume that you are starting your circumnavigation somewhere near Chamonix, which is on the north side of Mont Blanc, in France, where I started from first time around.  We stayed at the Hotel Aiguille du Midi in Les Bossons, which is the village next to Chamonix, only 2km away.  In 2005 this was a very comfortable hotel and it was owned and run by a resident family, including an English daughter-in-law, which made for easy communications.  There was no garage but plenty of off-street parking, which I felt was secure enough.  Les Bossons is a very quiet little place and apart from the Hotel there wasn’t much to it.  Nearby Chamonix is much more of a tourist town, with lots of shops and nightlife but also higher accommodation prices and parking problems, even for motorcycles.

The Aguille du Midi, after which the Hotel is named, is one of the principal peaks of the Mont Blanc Massif which towers above the Hotel and is accessible by cable car from Chamonix – a very worthwhile excursion while you are there.  This is the the highest vertical ascent cable car in the world, from 1035m to 3842m and the views from the top are truly spectacular.  Another cable car will take you on from the Aguille du Midi right over the top of the massif and down into Italy and that really is an experience – although if you want to make that trip it is best to ride your bike through the Tunnel and start from the Italian side at Palud, near Courmayeur.  (The queues are shorter and a package deal is available to bring you back to Palud on a bus to collect your bike.)

Back to the riding route, we set off from the Hotel at Les Bossons and headed North East to Switzerland along the N506, a fairly straightforward road up a valley, crossing the Swiss border at Le Chatelard, where the road took on a new identity as the Swiss 203.  We all refueled just after crossing the border, both to make sure we all had a full tank and because (at least in 2005) fuel was significantly cheaper in Switzerland than in France. Otherwise as I recall this climb up the valley was pretty unremarkable and merely a means of getting to the next bit, when we turned East towards Martigny-Combe, which is where things started to get more interesting.  Now we were climbing more steeply and, as we climbed over the Col de la Forclaz (1527m), we started to encounter some climbing turns which, although by no means really tight hairpins, provided an opportunity to “get our eye in” for what lay ahead.

Climbing the Grand St Bernard Pass

At Martigny-Combe we turned right on to the E27 for about 2 miles to a small village called Les Valettes where we turned right off the main road (which we would eventually rejoin) to ride a more interesting (and more challenging) minor road over the Col de Champex (1470m) to rejoin he E27 at Orsierrre.  Now we head South up the Valle du Enremont, which has some gorgeous sweeping turns, where we paused and retrace our steps several times trying to capture pictures of the bikes leaning over on the bend, towards the Great St Bernard Pass (2469m), the highest on the route.

The main road makes use of the St Bernard Tunnel (1918m) but we branched right just before the Tunnel entrance to take the high road, 500m higher.  This is where you are sure to see snow on both sides of the road, even in summer and the Pass may be closed as late as June and closed again as early as September.  The temperature as we paused for photos near the Hospice at the Summit was 2 degrees Centigrade, compared with 28 degrees down in the Italian valley beyond it.  Julius Caesar used this Pass with his army in 57BC and Napoleon did the same with his army of 46,000 men in 1800.  It’s quite a place.

The descent into Aosta in Italy is an exhilarating slalom ride and the temperature rises spectacular.  The ride West along the floor of the Valle d’Aosta on the SS26 is the least enjoyable part of the circuit, hot and in traffic, so it is tempting to use the Autostrada instead, but the SS26 provided an opportunity for a lunch stop, so on my first circuit of Mont Blanc our Guide settled for that.  I remember that he mentioned at the time that there was a better route, but he had missed the turn due to roadworks.  The second time I did the route, a year later, with the aid of satnav I found the right turn before Aosta on to the SR41 (which becomes the SR26) running parallel to the road in the valley bottom but offering much better riding.  When the SR26 eventually joins the SS26 West of Avise, the road is less urban and carries less traffic, so the diversion along the SR41/SR26 is well worthwhile.

Just before Morgex (so if you enter it you have missed it) is a left turn into what looks like an industrial area and then up a narrow lane through a village which is (very inconspicuously) signposted Colle San Carlo and (maybe) S39.  This is a relatively modest Pass and involves another diversion from the main road but it is well worth the effort of finding it – it has an excelent surface and a set of open bends which can be taken in combination and fairly quickly, almost like a slalom.

Mont Blanc from Les Souches

Again, just beyond la Thuile, we rejoined the SS26 and headed Souh West for the French Border.  Exactly 2.5 miles after we rejoined the SS26 however our Guide turned leftoff the road on to a track heading East for a mile or so to a small cluster of skiing lodges called Les Souches.  The reason for this diversion became clear as we came up to Les Souches; the view Northwards to Mont Blanc, across the valley and also overlooking Colle San Carlo, which we had just ridden, was absolutely stunning.  This was the ideal place from which to take a picture of the bike with Mont Blanc in the background and well worth the visit.

Back on the SS26 we continued South towards the French Border atop the Col du Petite St Bernard (2188m), where the road becomes the N90 and down the mountain into Bourg St Maurice, the largest own in the area, on the approach to which there some memorable sweeping curves.  Bourg, as it is known, did not strike me as a pretty place but it does present an alternative (and a less costly one than the North side of the Massif) as an accommodation base for touring the area.  There is a very pleasant cafe on the left as you reach a main crossroads, where we enjoyed a rest for afternoon tea.

Leaving Bourg we took the D902 North West along a steep valley before climbing the Cormet de Roselend to the Col de Meraillet (1605m) where the road becomes the D925.  This road loops around the North side of the Lac de Roselend but there is no view of it.  However our Guide took us on a short diversion South along the West bank of the Lake to a parking place (and a viable overnight camping stop) at the Barrage de Roselend and then beyond it turning North West over the very narrow (but worthwhile) Col du Pre to join the D218 turning North to Areches and then Beaufort, where the road becomes the D925 again for a while, before we turned right on to the D218 again, to climb through Les Saisies and the Col des Saisies (1650m) to Flumet, where we turned right on the N212 to head back to Les Bossons.

This is a main road and less twisty, but it offers some spectacular views and the descent into St Gervais-Les-Bains is steep and twisty, to make up for it.  Turning right along the n205 took us back up the valley towards Les Bosson for a very welcome beer, then a much needed shower and a well earned evening meal.

Mont Blanc (left) viewed from 30 miles away at the Col de la Madeleine

My second circuit of Mont Blanc, the following year, started from Annecy and this alowed us to do another three Passes, the Col de La Columbiere (1613) on the D4 on the way out and the Col des Aravis (1486) on the D909 and the Col de la Croix-Fry (1467) on the D16 on our way back.  We were also able to explore other Passes, including the Col de la Madeleine down to the South West, which gives a lovely view of Mont Blanc 30 miles to the North East.  Continuing South West takes you to the Col du Glandon, from which you can look back 60 miles and still see Mont Blanc!

At the top of these Alpine Passes there is often a cafe or at least a car park and at the Col de la Madeleine there is quite a large restaurant.

Memorial at the Col du Glandon

The Col du Glandon only has a car park but there is also an unusual set of marble columns which are aligned towads Mont Blanc as some sort of artwork, but across the road on top of a little mound is a touching monument to a wartime Resistance Group who fought some German Troops here in 1944, so it is well worth stopping for a look.

The French Alps is an amazing biking area, with so many appealing roads and such amazing scenary that you could come back year after year and still find soething new to explore.