Riding Season for the Alps?

[Twisties]

Might have a chance to go to the EU.  What is riding season in the EU in general...   I know, it's big and varied but perhaps people can chime in about different areas...   and the alps in particular?

[Hosstage]

We rode the Alps in mid August,  snow still present at the higher elevations, for sure Stelvio Pass and a few others. Weather was great, but rain can happen any time of course. Need clothes for a pretty big range, 80°F at normal elevation down to 40°F at high elevation. It was great! We figured our best bet for weather was mid July or August, winter can start in September in the mountains, just like here.

Late Spring, early Summer, it can still snow in the Alps.

[BerettaRacer]

Yeah, pretty much what Hosstage said.

In the flat lands you might have a 7-8 month window, but at elevation 3 months might be pretty reliable, occasional 4 - 5 month window if you bring your woolies, lol.

Most of the big mountain passes, like Stelvio, are closed when snow hits and stay closed all winter. Some mtns will have a pass over the top in good weather but a tunnel to go thru in bad weather, but it's NOT cheap. It varies with the tunnel, but 10 yrs ago when I lived in Italy, it could easily be $50/transit.

On Petite St Bernard the roads actually become ski trails for the local ski area.

Not sure how things are post-covid, but there used to be numerous motorcycle tour agencies. You could pick like a wine tour, castle tour, high mtn pass tour etc.

One road to look into, "Route de Grande Alps" runs north/south from the Med to Lake Geneva. Amalfie Coast Highway is a scenic half day run but lots of traffic, can take a full day with start/return from Sorrento.

If you have a specific area in mind let me know, maybe I've passed thru there, but unfortunately, I only got to drive in the winter, I had to work all summer.

[Twisties]

It's early days, but we may be limited to the end of April, beginning of May.  Sounds like we would need to consider other adventures than riding the Alps if that time frame settles in.  Yes, I'll see what the tour co's are offering at that time of year. 

[Twisties]

Looks like Edelwiess is doing Greece, Italy and Portugal in that time frame.  That pretty much gives me the idea of what would be suitable.

 

Thanks for the help!

[Hosstage]

April and May are definitely not going to work in the Alps, but you will still have a lot of great riding available. Nothing wrong with riding thru Italy, Portugal, or Greece!

[BerettaRacer]

Edelweiss was a big name from back when I was there.

[Hosstage]

8 hours ago, BerettaRacer said:

Edelweiss was a big name from back when I was there.

That's who we used in 2016 (can't believe it's that long ago), they do a great job of taking care of you and putting together great routes. They also rent bikes if you want to self tour with no guides.

[BerettaRacer]

I never had the opportunity to do one of the tours, due to my work at the time.

 

But, if I remember correctly, one of the good things was the tour actually carried your luggage in a van. So you only needed to carry a day pack. If single, gave you a nice light nimble bike, or allowed you to ride two up, without the hassle of what to do with a weeks luggage for two poeple.

[Hosstage]

51 minutes ago, BerettaRacer said:

I never had the opportunity to do one of the tours, due to my work at the time.

 

But, if I remember correctly, one of the good things was the tour actually carried your luggage in a van. So you only needed to carry a day pack. If single, gave you a nice light nimble bike, or allowed you to ride two up, without the hassle of what to do with a weeks luggage for two poeple.

Correct. Edelweiss is a premier tour company and take care of you so that you can just concentrate on the riding without worry of other logistics. When we got to our nice hotel room every night, our luggage was waiting for us in our room.

[BerettaRacer]

These maps were from the time I lived there, pre-covid.

 

[Hosstage]

You're making me want to go back!

[BerettaRacer]

A buddy and I on rentals in Palma, Mallorca

[BerettaRacer]

Another rental in Palma

[BerettaRacer]

Rental scooters in Italy

[BerettaRacer]

On Routes de Grande Alps, somewhere above Monaco

[BerettaRacer]

Rental in isle of Elba, off Italian coast

[John Ranalletta]

2 hours ago, BerettaRacer said:

These maps were from the time I lived there, pre-covid.

 

Did you ever ride in the L'Aquila area near the Adriatic?  My folks were from that area and Google maps show it to be a potentially interesting place to ride.  TIA

 

[BerettaRacer]

37 minutes ago, John Ranalletta said:

Did you ever ride in the L'Aquila area near the Adriatic?  My folks were from that area and Google maps show it to be a potentially interesting place to ride.  TIA

 

Not Really. Working during the summers I spent time traversing both coasts of Italy, especially the west coast, aka Rome, Naples, Amalfi, etc. and I couldn't travel far. Most of the time in the Adriatic we were working Venice, Montenegro, Croatia, Albania etc East coast of Italy very boring compared. Winters when I had time off I'd live up in the NW corner of Italy, 12 mi from French border, 15 mi from Monaco.

[BerettaRacer]

Two work buddies and myself on rental scooters cruising the Amalfi Coast Highway.

 

[BerettaRacer]

After a hard day of riding the Amalfi Coast, beer time in Sorrento, lol.

[BerettaRacer]

And one funny one, being arrested at the French border at the ski resort of Montgenevre, Via Lattea, deported from France, and sent back to Italy for having an expired visa, by 2 1/2 years, lol. They were very polite about it, even offered us coffee and croissants while waiting. Worst part about it, there was 3' of fresh powder. Ruined a perfectly good ski day. I was with one of the same work buddies as the Amalfi trip above. They asked if they could look at my rental car (station wagon in pic) to see if we were carrying anything illegal. Now my buddy and I, both hard core skiers, had basically been living out of the car for 10 days or so while skiing the French Italy border. The interior was duffel bags, wet dirty clothes, ski boots, parkas, food etc etc. Cop comes back in laughing, tells the other cops, "Yup, they're skiers" lol. 

We didn't realize this, but our personel visa's didn't renew when our work visa's did. So the cop is like, "Well, you have a 3 month unlimited visa, and a 3 month restricted to local area visa, how long have you been in the EU?" I started laughing "3 Years". He just shook his head. We had to formally check back in to the immigration office in Turin, Italy by 5 O'clock to show that we had left France, and not allowed back into France.

 

[Hosstage]

Damn ski hoodlums, think you can just go skiing anywhere!

[BerettaRacer]

When my boss asked me if I wanted to go work, based in Italy,  and since the Med has a relatively short season compared to US, the first thing I asked was "What are we going to do in the off season? " (winter)

"Whatever you want, as long as we're ready to go in spring."

Second thing I asked, "Where are we going to be based? "

He asked, "Where do you want to be?" So I told him.

A few days later he came back and said that place looks fine, lets go.

 

I ended up based there in NW Italy for three years.

 

So virtually every regular weekend I would ski somewhere on the Italy/France border, sometimes Switzerland.

On a long weekend, I would delve deeper into France, or Switzerland.

I would take my official vacation in February, drive all the way out to central Austria, and spend weeks skiing my way back thru Austria, Switzerland, France, and home to Italy.

 

I averaged over half a million vertical feet/yr. for three years. 

 

 

[lawnchairboy]

great pics.

[Twisties]

Niiiiiiccccceeeee!!!!