5 giant cycling climbs of the Swiss Alps: Planches, Petite Forclaz, Champex, Fouly, Verbier

For this trip, we were guests of Verbier and Val de Bagnes, with guiding from Adam at Haut Velo. They are keen for cyclists to know about their region.

Highlights

• We loved the quiet solitude of Col des Planches. It’s a demanding climb but the pastures towards the top are glorious and the Hotel Belvedere on the way down makes a nice spot for coffee and a chance to luxuriate in the views.
• Petite Forclaz is a massive juxtaposition with Planches. Relatively speaking, it’s an urban climb through vineyards and villages but it’s tough (think 10-11% gradients) and hugely beautiful; the descent is hairily fast and on a main road (don’t like the sound of it; due to the nature of the route, this is one you can easily not ride). But wow, those vistas!
• La Fouly was a stand-out for us. If you have the legs for it (or if you want to come back another day to ride it as a stand-alone), you won’t be disappointed. The climb through classic Swiss villages and wildflower meadows, followed by mountains up to the walking trails for the Mont Blanc massif, are out of this world.

Notes

Descent to Verbier

You descend down to Verbier, through a few small villages. This road is not the quietest, but you’ll enjoy fine views down over the Val de Bagnes.

From Le Châble, at the bottom of the climb, you head out along the valley road. As you’d expect for a valley road, there’s traffic, but there are also great views of towering mountains. There’s a short descent and then you turn right onto a steep start to the Col des Planches.

Col des Planches

Climb

Gradients get up to 9% pretty quickly as you turn on to the climb from main road. There are a couple of switchbacks in the early sections, with steep, craggy cliff sides, and debris on the road. You’ll also spot several wooden bridges over streams; they’re wooden so that when an avalanche or rockfall hits, the bridges pop out and are easily replaced.

You enjoy views back down over the valley below (shame about the overhead electricity lines, but perhaps it’s just me that notices these things?!). The climb then takes you through forest for some way, but even here, the road was largely bathed in morning sunshine.

Just before Vens village the mountains get particularly craggy and there are fantastic views of sheer cliffs. We could hear the sound of cowbells ringing from the meadows above.

Tight switchbacks turns into open pastures with loads of cows grazing; a classic scene of pastoral bliss.

The summit is forested, so there were no views, just a sign with a map, a compost toilet and hut. On a Sunday morning, it seemed a popular spot for hikers, trail runners and ebikers.

Descent

From the summit, it’s a narrow, switchback-laden road down, through forest dotted with pasture in places. This side of the climb was in shade, so you may want to pull on a jacket for the descent even if it’s warm.

We stopped at Hotel Belvedere to admire the panoramic view over the valley – you can see the meeting point of the two valleys, with the Rhone Valley going off north towards Geneva and east towards the Central Valais.

Beware! Watch out for the train tracks at the bottom of the descent. Take some speed off and make sure you hit them straight on to avoid a nasty accident.

Here you have a choice, you can test your legs on the Petite Forclaz or skip it and carry on to the valley road leading to the Col de Champex.

Petite Forclaz

Statistics

From Martigny, RWGPS shows us a 3.9 kilometre climb, with 10.3% average gradient (16% max).

Climb

From Martigny, the Petite Forclaz climb weaves up through Martigny-Croix, a town with pretty coloured buildings and a relaxed vibe. The climb immediately takes you to 10% and doesn’t offer much respite. It might not be long, but it is gruelling.

This was designed as the main climb of the 2020 World Championships circuit (the one that never happened thanks to Covid). It would have been unbelievably hard (though incredible for spectators and the region…).

As you get higher, you start to climb through neat vineyards interspersed with hamlets. There are some lovely switchbacks and gobsmacking views back over the hectic valley floor below. At the top of the quiet road leading to the summit, you abruptly meet the main road, the Route de la Forclaz.

Take care with merging onto this road; the traffic is moving at speed here.

Descent

It’s a fast descent, with lots of traffic, back down to Martigny. The views are out of this world. Take it easy on the big switchback about half-way down; there are quite a few cars coming in and out of the Restaurant Sur-le-Scez on the corner.

Don’t fancy this? As you can see from the GPS route, you can easily skip it.

Valley road

Back in Martigny and there’s a four kilometre bash along the main road. Not the highlight of the ride, and note the short tunnel (take those sunglasses off before you go in). The short detours around the main road break it up a little, and soon enough you’re taking the turn at Les Valettes to the Col de Champex.

On a sunny Sunday in June, there were plenty of people also climbing up to Champex Lac, which is a popular local beauty spot, but mainly in cars.

Col de Champex

Statistics

From Martigny, RWGPS shows us a 10.7 kilometre climb, with 8.2% average gradient (10.9% max).

Climb

The climb takes you through forest, pastures and fruit trees; the scenery is not particularly spectacular, but you get the odd glimpse of the valley below and there is a certain tranquility to a forested climb. You also wind through some charming hamlets.

There are lots of switchbacks through the forest between Bemont to after Le Lombard before the long stretch to Le Crêtet. The forest continues with odd snapshot of views and one notably nice meadow towards top.

Coming into the ski resort car park, you reach the summit of the Col de Champex and further on you find the famous lake.

Champex Lac is a pretty kind of a town, set around the lake with quite a few hotels and restaurants that would make a good place for lunch.

Did you know? The Club Alpin hotel on the lake is owned by the same person that used to own the IAM Cycling team; he’s a big proponent of cycling in the region.

Descent

You wind down, out of Champex Lac, past what looks like a lovely municipal swimming pool, tennis courts and beach volleyball.

The descent takes you through wildflower meadows and forest, with glimpses down to valley below in distance snowcapped and forested mountains.

As you descend the valley the views open out. Through villages, donkeys, pastures, wildflowers. It’s a flowing descent, not too narrow.

You then have a decision: turn left and carry on Orsières, or turn right and take on La Fouly.

La Fouly

You can find the La Fouly ride in this article, because we think most people would do it as a separate ride rather in addition to all the above! Read on, here.

Valley ride

Orsières feels like quite a big town, with lots of modern buildings. As you head down into it, the road becomes a dual carriageway.

Note: If you stay on the main road, and don’t take the turn to Chamoille (that’s part of our route), it’ll be a much quicker return to Sembrancher. However, you’ll be riding on the dual carriageway with lots of cars travelling at 80kmph. There’s only one lane on the descent and cars are restricted from overtaking into the neighbouring lane in parts; if they try and overtake you on your bike, you are likely to feel squeezed – and at speed. So, we’d definitely take the diversion route off the main road. Just make sure you don’t miss the turn!

The side road off to Chamoille has a steep start off the main road, with several switchbacks. It’s very narrow and peaceful with green meadows on either side. The road then turns into a lovely balcony road, above the main road below and with views out to the mountain on the other side.

After Chamoille you descend down to the valley bottom again. You hit the main road in Sembrancher and then turn off left on another nice diversion that takes you above the main road for a few kilometres. It’s then back down to the main road and to Le Châble for the climb up to Verbier.

Climb to Verbier

The climb to Verbier is back up the way you flew down this morning. This is no traffic-free idyll, but the gradients on this switchback-laden road are fair for this part of the world, at 7-8% and the roads are wide and smooth. There are also views of sparkling glaciers and villages to distract.

Top Tips!

If you’ve still got something left in your legs, when you get to Verbier, carry on through. You’ll be contending with long segments at 10%, but the last eight kilometres to the top of the Croix de Coeur pass have a completely different feel to the climb to Verbier; they’re much more wild, quiet and dramatic. The scenery at the top is out of this world. If you like your pro scene, this is the route the 2023 Giro d’Italia took. Read this article for photos.

If you’re feeling short of gas, you can opt out of this last climb altogether as there’s a cable car at Le Châble… Remember your VIP Pass and you’ll get 50% off the ticket.

Café stops

There are plenty of cafés on this ride and almost every village has a water fountain; if you can’t spot it, ask a local.

If you start first thing, coffee at the Hotel Belvedere on the way down Col des Planches, and lunch at one of the many lakeside restaurants in Champex Lac can work well.

Coffee at Hotel Belvedere

Accommodation

We stayed at the Hotel Bristol in Verbier. You can find out more about our stay in our main guide to cycling Verbier and Val de Bagnes.

There are also plenty of other hotels in Verbier to choose from.

Tips

Make sure you read the tips in our Verbier cycling guide. These all apply to this ride.

Otherwise, note the tips scattered throughout this article, above.

Looking for more stunning cycling routes in Switzerland’s Valais?

Don’t miss these:

• Croix de Coeur and Col du Lein
• La Fouly
• Lac Derborence
• Mauvoisin Dam
• Switzerland’s best cycling routes

Clare Dewey is a cyclist with a passion for travel. She set up epicroadrides.com in 2018 to help make it easy for cyclists to explore the world by bike. Today her mission is still inspiring cyclists to discover new places on two wheels - and doing what she can to make sure they have the best possible time while they're there. Clare has visited 50+ destinations around the world, many of them by bike.

Want to connect with Clare? Find her over on LinkedIn.