Grosse Scheidigg

The descent from Susten Pass was breathtakingly beautiful and endless--over 5,000 vert. ft. in 12 miles. The grace of the bicycle cutting neatly through the curves and accelerating through the straightaways made me feel like a dancer on top of his art. OK, I'm not a great descender--Rick, Bill, Markham and any number of cycling buddies are faster, more fearless--but I'll claim the feeling anyway. And the podium visit may have had something to do with the dancer thing :-)

All too soon, we arrived at Grosse Scheidigg, the hardest climb of the week. 4,000 ft. vert. in 10 miles, it features a number of sustained grades between 12 & 17 %. The race was over so now the approach was, "just finish, baby!" The initial ascent is steadily steep for a couple miles before the road enters a open mountain meadow and follows a small river. Here the slope moderates, and we wound our way through small farms, still climbing at 4% or so. At the end of the meadow, we stopped for lunch at a picturesque inn with a cafe and outdoor seating area. Relaxing under shade trees, we enjoyed the best lunch of our Switz. visit with homemade soup, large sandwiches, bratwurst and fresh fruit. We enjoyed it so much we stayed for 2 hours!

We returned to the Scheidigg as it turned up in earnest--the next km often hit 14% and higher slope according to the Garmins. Cars are not permitted from here to the top, only bikes, hikers and a special bus--the "ExtraFarht" bus! We're still trying to figure out what it means exactly, but there's evidence it's related to the bratwurst several teammates had at lunch. The narrow road wound higher, generally maintaining at least 7% slope and more often 10-12. It was brutal and I slipped into a zen of climbing, blank mind, push, breath, push, breath. Maybe that's Lamaze, not zen? Whatever, it got my compadres and me to the summit, a place that happens to be a stone's throw from the Eiger Glacier.

We celebrated the summit with a beer before heading down a steep, hairpin descent toward the town of Grindewald. Once again an animal emergency arose as a herd of milk cows sauntered down the road toward their home barn. Skidding to a stop, we handled it the only way we knew how: taking photos. The cows were amiable enough as long as we got out of their way.

We finished our day in a whirlpool at the Belvedere Hotel, before moving on to the terrace for a beer. High mountains with glaciers and impossible tram cabling rose all around us.