52 - AMB
Famous for glamour, extravagance and brilliant skiing, St Moritz doesn’t
disappoint in summer either. With 400km of mountain biking trails, they
have a fair bit to boast about. The town sits around a gorgeous lake at about
1800m, and the lake-side bike path fl ows readily into the trails in the pine
forest, past more small lakes and towards Pontresina and the Bernina Pass,
or down the valley towards Zernez.
But St Moritz have their fi nger on
the mountain biking pulse, having
built many lift accessed “fl ow” trails
on the ski terrain. Sculpted berms
plus natural features, and purely
gravity assisted, their trails literally
fl ow down the mountains above
town, using the terrain to their full
advantage. The Corviglia Flow Trails
must be ridden if this is the style of
riding you want. If you have the legs,
try the Suvretta Loop too. The fi rst
climb is hard, but can be ascended
by using the Corviglia lifted access.
The trail traces a line in the scree
around the back of the mountain
and to the Suvretta Pass. You are up
quite high, well above the tree line.
So don’t do this as your fi rst ride at
altitude.The descent along the creek from
the pass is pretty epic, with about
900m of vertical descent back to
Bever, back in the valley. It’s one
of those descents where you wish
you had stopped for photos, but
realistically you’re glad you didn’t. It
takes you from scree slopes above
the tree line, down to thick pineforest and farms along the river just outside town.
The real beauty of this high, broad valley, is
linking villages – and even countries. The route
over the Bernina pass to Tirano, Italy, is one
such route. By following the marked bike route
from the train station in Samedan and heading
towards Pontresina, you quickly travel up and
over the Bernina Pass. A mixture of gravel trails,
ancient singletrack, purpose built trail and open
pasture, once at 2300m you have a long, long way
down to Tirano at about 400m. You would be best
to use a .gpx fi le on a GPS to fi nd the route from
here – there are a myriad of choices beyond the
mainstream signposted route. This valley has
been used by smugglers in the past thanks to
the proximity of Livigno. It’s suggested that the
pass was fi rst crossed by Arabs in a 10th Century
invasion. While there is a very pedestrian route
down, the old trails are hidden so they’re not
readily seen for easy navigation. But they have
been mapped, and uploaded.The trail covers every kind of terrain you would
expect when dropping 1900m. There is scree,
alpine grasslands, open forest, avalanche fans,
smooth singletrack and of course the fi nal run
into town. The riding will keep you alert, but
nothing is too extreme on this route that you
wouldn’t be comfortable on a cross-country styled
bike.