Valais Alpine Bike 3. Unterbäch-Grächen
Unterbäch
-5/0°
The Moosalp Pass and the extraordinary descent in the Mattertal valley are certain to be among the highlights of your mountain bike trip to Valais and will remind you why you love the sport.
Difficulty
IntermediateLength
32.48 kmDuration
5:00 hDescription
After a delicious breakfast, take the Brandalp chairlift up into the mountains and then head to the Moosalp Pass using sheer pedal power. Marvel at the views, take a well-earned lunch break and enjoy the famous “Cremeschnitte” at the Moosalp restaurant. It’s now time to get back in the saddle and to tackle the descent into the Mattertal valley and the route along the valley floor to Stalden. Then continue on the beautiful Matterhorn Valley Trail up through the Mattertal to St. Niklaus. From St. Niklaus, a bus will take you to Grächen, the destination of today's stage.
Our favorites
Our favorite itineraries are part of a selection of the best routes in the region and are proposed by Valais/Wallis Promotion to best meet the expectations of our guests.
Turn-by-turn directions
From Unterbäch, take the chairlift to Brandalp and start your ascent up Moosalp. Follow part of the Moosalp Plateau Bike trail, mainly on a 4x4 route through forest. From Moosalp you start the descent into the Mattertal valley, first to Breitmatte. From there, the trail leads through the forest over the Waldachra to the village of Törbel. The descent to Stalden continues along the main road and then over some fun but quite steep sections of trail. Once down in the Mattertal valley, follow the Matterhorn Valley Trail to St. Niklaus. To reach the village of Grächen, take the postal bus. Option: to save yourself the climb to the Moosalp Pass, take the postal bus from the village of Bürchen. Remember to book a place for yourself and for your mountain bike on the Resabike platform: www.resabike.ch.
Start
Unterbäch (1595m)
Destination
Grächen (1111m)
Author's recommendation
How about a visit to the Mountain Guide Museum in St. Niklaus, or a tour of Stalden, the “village of bridges”?
Technical information
Altitude
2048m
866m
Ascent
+1170m
Descent
-1655m
Stamina
Experience
Landscape
Best time of the year
- Jan
- Feb
- Mar
- Apr
- May
- Jun
- Jul
- Aug
- Sep
- Oct
- Nov
- Dec
Tags
Public transport
Take the RegionAlps St-Gingolph-Brig regional train to Raron and then the Raron-Unterbäch cable car to Unterbäch. Remember to reserve a place for your mountain bike on the Resabike platform.
Approach
From Basel and Zurich: Take the A1 motorway to Bern; take the A6 to Spiez; follow the sign to Kandersteg; Kandersteg–Goppenstein car-carrying train; follow the sign to Raron.
From Geneva: Take the A1 motorway to Lausanne; follow the sign to Sion/Sierre; Raron.
From Milan: Take the A8/A26 motorway in the direction of Simplon; Iselle–Brig car-carrying train; follow the sign to Raron.
Parking
Follow the directions for parking in Raron. For this stage of the Valais Alpine Bike Tour, we recommend that you park your vehicle in Visp and take public transport (train + cable car) to Unterbäch. Remember to reserve a space for your mountain bike on the Resabike platform.
Source
This activity is brought to you by Valais/Wallis Promotion