Cycling Fully-Eerie
Ride 15 kilometers climbing 1,430 meters at 9.2% average grade.
This is an extremely challenging bike climb out of the Rhone Valley in Switzerland. The climb begins in the municipality of Fully (pop. 8,769, 2018) in the World Bike Climb area we have named Rhone Valley after the hub of this magnificent bike climbing zone.
The first 5 kilometers are on a very well paved wide road that takes you through a hillside vineyards and is very scenic.
bunch of vineyards. Very scenic. You go through a small village and then the road becomes very narrow one lane road and is VERY steep through a set of hairpins.
Hairpins at km 4.5 (1 km averages 16.3% here)
Village of Chiboz at kilometer 8.5
At approximately kilometer 9 (6 km from the top) the road turns to gravel. Good swiss gravel, but a gravel bike with knobby tires would have been preferred (we did use a road bike with 30mm).
There is very little traffic over the last half of this gorgeous bike climb that winds its way up the mountain and at times permitting nice views of Martigny far below.
View back towards Rhone Valley from top of climb.
A note on the descent: very very treacherous. Use caution! Especially descending the gravel part at the top. If you misjudge a corner it's a long way down. Once on the pavement, it's difficult to brake hard enough to safely navigate the incredibly steep (20%+) hairpins and cars are not expecting an insane cyclist on this road!