I awoke this morning with the need to get to my hotel in Geneva and return my car by evening because my flight home was the following day. I wanted to squeeze in one last ride but it was raining, and I was pretty exhausted from the previous two weeks.
This ride escaped me before I left Martigny for Andermatt so I had it bookmarked as a last hurrah if the rain stopped. And stopped it did! In Conthey it was dry, but looking ominous with dark clouds around, so I decided to go for it. (Spoiler: it started raining about one minute into my descent home.)
Climb Stats
- Distance: 10.7 miles
- Ascent: 3056 feet
- Average grade: 6%
The Ritchey on the lonely twisty road to Derborence
The main point of interest on this climb is the rather long tunnel you must use. It is lit only by natural light, by way of “windows” cut into the rock. It can be very dark at times because of this, and it is essentially one lane, so proceed with caution, but proceed you should.
No artificial lighting in here. It goes on for quite a while. You will have some good light and some bad light, and no GPS signal, not that you need it. There is no getting lost here. It’s up or down, forward, back.
Near the top of the climb to Derborence, looking up the valley.
One of the many tunnels on the Derborence climb.
You can see several “windows” cut into the tunnel, to allow natural light. The tunnel is otherwise unlit.
This is pretty much the top of the climb. Behind me is the lake of Derborence. Ahead is another climb that leads to a dead end, and a dam. It’s worth exploring that.
The road gets smaller and smaller as you climb higher and higher on Derborence.
To ride or Not to Ride
Yes indeed this is a worthy ride. The road was steep and small, the traffic was nill, and the views were great. Like so many great climbs, if you continue a little past the “top” to the actual top (on the right side of the fork in the road) you will find yourself on a path that is never used. According to Strava there are less than 40 people (as of this writing) who have ridden the top section. Nuts. So good and so few travelers.
Strava Map from this Ride
Note: Disregard the altitude data on this strava because you lose satellite in the long tunnel section and it goes crazy. In my case, it added a small mountain in the middle of the big mountain.
