In the Swiss Jura mountains

Biking in deep snow

A snowstorm recently hit Switzerland, and I couldn’t wait to go ride my mountain bike in the snow -which I often do 2 or 3 times per winter, more into February.

This was my house after the snowstorm, in a quite low region of the country:

If there was so much snow down here -I thought to myself- then the mountains must be crazy full of snow! And I wasn’t wrong!

In the middle of the morning, despite a not much inviting weather, I put my bike on a train and went to Le Pont, a town around 1000 m above sea level surrounded by mountains of the Jura chains, right before the North limits with France. That’s around a1 hour ride from my town, including one change at the small town of Le Day. Here I’m changing train right there, already at around 800 m.a.s.l. and with quite some snow:

By the way, Le Day is the starting point for this stunning summer hike with water as the main theme:

Just arrived in Le Pont, I was received by a mild snowfall that actually was quite annoying because the flakes were painful. Rather than soft snowflakes, they felt like tiny pieces of ice.

Here’s my mountain bike ready to begin this cold adventure:

Map and ride

The ride, which I did many times but only 2 or 3 times in winter and never with so much snow, begins with a gentle 3 km long climb from Le Pont up to a bifurcation at a place called Petra Felix. From there I turn towards Vaulion, a very small town in the middle of a long descent up to Romainmotier and then Croy. The descent goes for a total of around 17 km.

These shots are right at Petra Felix:

And this is the route that goes down through Vaulion all the way to Romainmotier and then Croy, although I do not go completely through it, but I rather move out to a secondary road before reaching Romainmotier. You’ll see.

The first part, on a road clean of snow, is easy and you can go fast, with only the hard ice on the face being a problem. Indeed, I had to constantly brake to lower my speed, so that my face wouldn’t freeze!

A photo as I go down this clean road:

Here’s a stop on the side of that route, on the access to a chalet:

See how clean and fresh the snow was, that it makes a smooth wall behind my bike:

And it’s all pristine on the sides:

I keep going down, I cross Vaulion and then leave this route to go into a secondary, forest route whose snow is not cleaned away... And the layer of snow is so thick, that my bike can just stand there:

The first part of this snowed road was steep, so I could effectively go down without much effort. Just some equilibrium and breaking gently with the back well here and there.

But eventually the slope was not enough, so I had to just walk pushing my bike for like 20 minutes until the snow was low enough that I could ride again.

Check out this and this 360 photos I made in this part of the ride, to feel like you are there with me!

Interested in 360 photography? Check out this article:

Some patches of forest were more open, giving views like this one next to a small stream of water:

Later on, right before the town of Romainmotier, I stop by that same stream to have some hot soup sitting right on that “sofa”:

Click here for a 360 degree photograph I made sitting right there as I ate my noodles.

I always carry hot water and quick-cook meals! Their quality is probably low, but when you are hungry and cold, everything tastes good!

On my last 4 km, I passed by Romainmotier, whose monastery was covered in snow:

By the way, all this area is very nice to walk or ride in summer too:

I hope you’ve enjoyed this photostory reporting my recent downhill bike ride through these heavily snowed landscapes (and roads!).

Check out this other story, more centered on the photography:

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