Simplonpass from Brig

I've read so much on how bad the Simplon is for cycling. I finally attempted this climb on a mid-October Saturday afternoon, during school holiday season. The traffic was much lighter than expected: literally no one on the first section (except for two motorcycles) until the road joins the main Simplonpass route at Rosswald. The first section is panoramic, large and on PERFECT asphalt. Then the main road begins: most cars were coming from the other direction, and the road is still quite wide enough to feel safe-ish (except when two trucks passed me: but in Italy trucks are not allowed to run on weekends). There are three tunnels until the pass: two are half-open on the side with wide windows (lots of light gets in), the last one just before the pass is an actual tunnel but it's very short (450 m) and flat. The climb gets easier and easier, the last kilometer is pleasantly flat. Great views: golden larches all around, big deep valleys, and the huge Ganterbrücke. There are probably other small detours you can take to further avoid the main road (e.g. one goes below the Ganterbrücke), but I'm not sure if they are paved. Having done the Grand-Saint-Bernard 4 times this year, this is way better: shorter, easier, no endless tunnel, and I definitely felt safer on this low-traffic weekend. Descending is also quite nice (I stayed on the main road all the way), surprisingly there were no road works, and most turns are very wide. Compared to the GSB, however, I expect the other side to be much worse (the Gondo canyon is horrible even by car), I don't think I'll ever try to go to Italy this way.

This was my first ever real climb (done in Aug 2023) and was one of the most harrowing, terrifying things I have ever done. While bikepacking on an old steel frame bike with an enormous chainring and tiny cassette (53/39 and seven speed 11/25) I decided that it would be fun to make a trip into Italy. The feeling of sprinting to try to get out of a tunnel before being runnover by freight trucks going both ways is one that I will probably never forget. Immaculately beautiful, but not worth it when there are so many amazing climbs in the area.

Unfortunately, this has been my least favorite climb so far in Switzerland. High traffic from Brig most of the way up, and several road construction delays. I won’t do this one again.