A summer of backdoor adventures in the Voralpen

Tours

65:56 h

490 mi

105,875 ft

The silver lining of the dark cloud of 2020's many cancelled events was having more opportunities to play around with fun adventures close to home in Switzerland.

I love where I live and count myself very lucky to have the Voralpen as my playground. Spending time in nature and appreciating its beauty is a huge motivator for me in getting out to ride, run, ski, swim, or hike... and after many years exploring I thought I knew my local mountains and forests quite well.

This year I found there's even more! I ventured onto new paths, trails, and passes where I'd never been before- some by accident, some thanks to great advice from similarly adventurous buddies. Along the way I had more fun* than for many years, and reminded myself why I do sport. It's not to train for racing, it's because I love it.

This Collection catalogues a mix of those running, gravel biking, and road bike adventures from the summer of 2020: a pick-n-mix of different sports, because that's what I do! Although I was a professional road cyclist for a few years, I'm not really a roadie at heart... my background is in running and I love getting off-road and deep into the mountains by bike. The steeper the better! Essentially, hike-a-bike is my dream sport ;-)

Maybe I was missing some aspects of the bikepacking and trailrunning races that were cancelled, or maybe I just like slightly crazy challenges... but at any rate, a few of the local adventures turned into quite an epic day out. There's something really satisfying about having to dig deep and push your limits, wherever those limits are. The point about challenges is they are always personal.

I hope some of the routes in this Collection help you find fun adventures, and maybe a challenge too. Enjoy!

*and snacks. So many snacks! 2020 has been a good year for adventure food - but that's a chapter in itself...

On The Map

Tours & Highlights

Around the Vierwaldstättersee — Backdoor adventures in the Voralpen
11:24
111 mi
9.7 mph
13,275 ft
14,900 ft
The Vierwaldstättersee (also called Lake Lucerne in English) is a beautiful four-pronged lake not far from my home. Riding around it presents a bit of a challenge because along one shore the mountainside is steep and there's no road!

Liesbeth and I love a challenge, so it seemed like the perfect adventure…
by Emma Pooley
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A tribute to local climbs — Backdoor adventures in the Voralpen
16:42
177 mi
10.6 mph
33,025 ft
33,100 ft
At some point I decided I wanted to try to ride 10,000 metres (32,808 ft) of climbing in one day. Maybe it was when thinking about Everesting... I wondered, why not carry on for the extra few metres of climb to make it a nice round number?

Then when I did the Everesting thing, I realised why not! I thought…
by Emma Pooley
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Greveresting — Backdoor adventures in the Voralpen
13:22
74.0 mi
5.5 mph
29,950 ft
30,225 ft
Everesting on a road bike was fun... in a type 2 kind of way! This was my second attempt at this kind of ride, and I deliberately wanted to go slower and take more time to appreciate all the wonderful things about riding for a long time in a beautiful place.

So I took my beloved Sonder Camino to the steepest…
by Emma Pooley
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Off-road gems for Iris's visit — Backdoor adventures in the Voralpen
06:49
52.2 mi
7.7 mph
9,900 ft
6,175 ft
When a friend and former teammate I hadn't seen for years agreed to come and visit, with her bike, it seemed only right to seek out the most spectacular views to show her!
Plus of course plenty of vertical, because after months of lockdown in the Netherlands a bit of catching up was surely needed.

To…
by Emma Pooley
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Chasing Suworow — Backdoor adventures in the Voralpen
09:20
40.1 mi
4.3 mph
10,525 ft
10,425 ft
This route is inspired by history and connects some of my favourite play areas in central Switzerland...

On the gravel bike adventure with Iris in July a friend told me about the Russian generalissimo Suworow and his army’s epic march in 1799. Battling wintry snow and constant attack, Suworow led his…
by Emma Pooley
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Zugersee Skyline — Backdoor adventures in the Voralpen
08:19
35.7 mi
4.3 mph
9,200 ft
9,100 ft
Riding round the Zugersee is a fairly standard road bike loop, and as a run it's flat and fast. But I'm not much of a fan of flat, so I came up with this route to circumnavigate the lake staying high... taking in Rigi, Gnipen, Wildspitz and Zugerberg.

A bunch of crazy people agreed to join in, and we…
by Emma Pooley
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