Sunday, July 25, 2010

MTB Route : Pischa tour (Davos)

Some days, you wake up, look at the weather and think, too perfect, I need to ride, now! This was one of those days. Being a day off work and having a freshly dialed bike to play with I could think of nothing better than finding a new route to explore. So, here it is: The Pischa tour!

Tour no 645, ca. 30km, ca. 1400hm

The panorama from Pischa towards Davos (left) and Klosters (right)










This fabulous tour starts at Davos Dorf train station. Out of the station join the ring road, going towards Davos Platz, then turn left down Dischmastrasse by the Egg bar. Follow the road past Solaria and the Timber merchant, then turn left to head towards In Den Büelen, ascend the turn left again onto a gravel road the ascends very steeply before turning left again onto a short section of single track.

The single track breaks back out on to a fire road before leading you on to the single track climb to the guest house at Tschuggen. This climb is 100% doable with only 1 or 2 technical sections - can be a little overgrown though, but warms you up nicely for what is about to come....

At Tschuggen (1938m) the trail goes through the guest house front garden towards the little church, here is where the climb really begins, with an average gradient of 14%. The climb is pretty technical and I found it to be maybe 80% rideable, there are lots of hairpins, rocks and some great views of the Flüela pass. After about 200 high meters of ascent the path breaks to a slightly easier gradient and becomes a rocky road that leads past the Pischa berg station - this lift is closed in summer.

Continuing on the path heads towards the Hüreli and turns into a really fun section of single track across slabs of rock. At the end of this section you will come to a very scenic bench where you can take a breather before turning right onto the descent.

The descent back to Davos Dorf is moderately technical, with some stepped, tight hairpins on the first section. That said anyone with good bike handling skills should have an absolute blast. About half way down the track is I think the best panoramas you will see of the Landschaft Davos, taking in Davos, Klosters and the Parsenn, truly breathtaking. From this panorama point, you need to take some care, sections of the path are quite overgrown and also don't have huge amounts of height Clarence, I was glad of my knee pads! The final section of the descent brings you through a field (no visible path) and across the railway line towards the lake.

From here you simply follow the path back to Davos

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