To have mastered the queen of ski crossings from home with our own strength. This statement makes us not only infinitely proud and meets not only the ravages of time, but leaves traces and an unforgettable time in our minds. Through our successful project we had the chance to be a role model and at the same time create something extraordinary.
Every year in November we usually sit down and plan a challenging project for Team Alpine Carinthia, which usually takes place in the Western Alps. Why? Because this is a region to which one rarely comes as an Austrian living in Carinthia, the southernmost province of Austria. This requires careful planning, a concrete goal and a longer period of time in order to be able to do everything and also to be able to wait for possible periods of bad weather - but this year everything went a little differently:
Five of us sat down at a table and discussed the project and its implementation, which had already been considered several times: the queen of all ski tours in the Western Alps, the most famous multi-day crossing on two boards - the Haute Route. With the actual conclusion of the meeting, Gerald mentioned in passing: "I foa mitn Rald obe" - puzzled and questioning faces were the result. Questions like: "Woos?", "Gschpiast di noch?" and "are you serious?" were the result of this statement. Understandably, a short time later we had to arrange another meeting in order to implement the changed plan in the best possible way.
The Tyrolean has been part of the Hagan team for a few years, is a good friend, is available for any crazy idea and has already been involved in other projects and is therefore well known to some of the team.
The idea was born and the round was complete!
After fact-finding and a discussion about feasibility, it was decided that we would all bike to Chamonix. With the new mindset, all heads were running on high speed in the coming weeks and months. To be able to cope with the challenge of logistics and planning. Because the goal was to get from Nötsch / Seefeld to Chamonix by bike and from there to continue to Zermatt with touring skis. All under their own power and with all the luggage on the bike.
So we saddled our bikes as minimalist as we could. But even the minimalism with, for example, only a change shirt, brought us to a total weight of a wheel between 33-45kg. Tomaz, the cameraman, also had his entire equipment including drone, camera, change batteries and lenses, etc. stowed on the bike.
Let's go to Chamonix:
With skis, alpine touring equipment and bike gear, we set off on Monday 16 April 2023 at 06:00 in Nötsch/Seefeld in the direction of the French Alps. Before we cycled between mighty mountains and glaciers, it went only once across Italy to Lake Garda, where our group was then complete with the addition of Anna.
Anna cycled from Seefeld in Tyrol over the Brenner Pass to Peschiera del Garda and the five Carinthians, Gerald, Leo, Marco, Peter and Toamz start in Carinthia in the Gail Valley.
Six of us then continued via Milan, past Lake Como, to Domodosola. Countless questioning faces met us on the route, at the traffic lights and in the small towns where we stopped for coffee breaks. After all, who rolls through Bergamo with six fully loaded bikes with ski touring skis and high altitude touring equipment, at the end of April at 25°C?
Unfortunately, the weather was not always on our side. In the evening, before we wanted to cross the Simplon Pass with our heavy bikes, the webcam showed 10cm of fresh snow, 0°C and deep fog at the pass and also in somewhat lower regions.
But so quickly nothing could shake us. Already in the daily rut of "climb on the tractor" we started the next morning at 08:00 in the pouring rain There was no trace of bad mood, much rather ran the "Schmee" and we joked how you could probably attach snow chains to the bike. With this mindset, we step at 0 ° C to the Simplonpass. 1800hm and 110km with a 35kg (+) wheel was on the day card.
As usually seen in retrospect, it was "not so bad" to step up there. The snowfall was absent and the rain was also less and less. But dense fog spread and so the coffee at the top of the pass was almost not visible. Almost means but still a bit and therefore we did not miss it and could warm and strengthen us with coffee and cake, before it went at breakneck speed from the pass back into the valley and then with powerful tailwind further to Sierra. Here we managed then even along the valley floor, without uphill or downhill to complete a distance of 40km in an hour - the grin could not have been wider, as the wind pushed us with the heavy bikes through the valley.
On the last day, the Forclaz Pass to Chamonix was on the agenda. Like from the Swiss "textbook" it went with a constant slope of 10% up to the pass. This masterly precision of a constant gradient over several kilometers put the morale at times very much to the test. Overcoming this hurdle, of course, we headed back down to the French border and uphill one last time over the Montets Pass, to - we could hardly believe it when we read the town sign: C H A M O N I X !!!!
Overjoyed and full of adrenaline, we then rolled into the center of Chamonix, where many questioning, enthusiastic, amazed and perplexed faces looked at us. The bikes were inspected by passers-by, many questions were asked - and we each treated ourselves to a well-deserved APEROLi (possibly more) ...A feeling of full pride and simultaneous relief flowed through us.