Stelvio Pass

Engineer said:
Never been to the Stelvio, but may 'do' the High Alps next Summer.
Is there a time of year that it is guaranteed to be free of snow,ice and salt?
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Near enough mid to late June, July and August.

I went up in early September two years ago, -2 and very light snow on the top, 20 degrees plus in the valley.
 
I have done the Swiss passes twice around the 1st and second week of June.

Open both times but get the impression we were lucky with the weather.

Only a few days before the Valleys were thick with snow.

My guess then would be around mid June earliest on average.
 
June July

Hi
we went up around end of June beginning of July
only a little snow on top
not cold but stunning ride
make sure you start in the right place
and go up it and not down it
going up was more fun
if you base your self near it you will find about five more fantastic mountain rides all quite close to each other
good luck
Gaz
 
Engineer said:
Never been to the Stelvio, but may 'do' the High Alps next Summer.
Is there a time of year that it is guaranteed to be free of snow,ice and salt?
Click to expand...

July last year at the top 35 degrees ,Had to do it twice !Brilliant:D:thumb
 

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try it both ways and you'll be grinning for the rest of the year :aidan
 
Did the Stelvio in June last year. There is only one word to describe it-AWESOME.
The weather was good. It was only opened that morning due to snow but that did not take away from the experience. I guarantee you will be smiling all the way.
 
I did it last August in brilliant sunshine, three days later there was snow on the road and I heard a couple GS'ers had taken a few tumbles.

Make sure you do every other pass possible in the time you have:thumb2
 

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I did the Stelvio in July 2005 with four other GSers (2 Wheel Humvee, Spanish Bob, Howie & Gendarmerie) in lovely weather. We rode up, had a coffee & a dogburger then down to Bormio. The Bormio side was brilliant fun though I also enjoyed the sweeping turns going down the Passo Tonales :eek:

Might just change my summer hold plans ;)
 
Thanks for the replies - Seems like the best chance of good weather is July/August - I was sort of hoping that May would be OK as I'm off to the Vercors again in early Sept and not sure if I can get a pass out for July/August as well.
 
Went there and did it start of June 2006. Absolutely brilliant and highly recommended. :thumb2

Something to look out for, is the motorcycle festival type thing "Motoraduno Dello Stelvio". In 2006 it ran from Friday 30th June thru to Sunday 2nd July. Looking at the Stelvio webcam, the place was mobbed and you have no chance of riding it as it turned into a carpark. Seems like its usually around about the same time every year.

Bit of a bummer if you turned up to ride the Stelvio and make your tyres go purple,:D and you cant get moving for :ymca2 on their Harleys.
 
R1200GSA said:
Bit of a bummer if you turned up to ride the Stelvio and make your tyres go purple,:D and you cant get moving for :ymca2 on their Harleys.
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Heading up the Stelvio I was totally blown off the road by an Italian reg plate HD Sportster. He was scraping the undercarriage on every corner and looked to be having a hoot while he did it.

Clearly he was a local riding god and it had nothing to do with my crap riding :augie
 
could anyone give me a Garmin waypoint for it? then i can start planning:thumb

was only talking about going there this morning!


thanks

how much
 
how much said:
wow!

that just about covers it

brilliant:clap:clap:clap

thanks
how much
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IIRC it was in of Whatton's GPS sticky threads a while back, I thought it might come in useful. BTW I'd copy and paste the waypoints into your files, otherwise it takes ages searching for a pass, and the maps become almost useless :(
 
Did it in mid-July last year and the roads were clear and dry and the weather great. But some of the guys with whom we met up said it had been snowing heavily just a couple of days before. I think there's always a chance you'll be unlucky, it's just a case of minimising those chances.

We rode it going west to east. Going up was amazing, fantastic, tremendous fun, but coming down the eastern side was only amazing and fantastic. I wish we'd had time to do it the other way round.

Incidentally, Livigno (30-odd miles west of the pass) is a great place to stay - loads of hotels, and the lowest tax on drink and petrol of anywhere I've ever been.

While the Stelvio is special, don't forget there are hundreds of miles of brilliant roads and some equally good passes. Everyone has their own favourite -I really enjoyed the Bernina pass to the south of Livigno which was smaller (although with some stunningly fast bits too), far less busy and very scenic.

My favourite road - of the ones I've done - in the Alps is the Grossglockner in Austria - within a brilliant days ride round the Dolomites of Stelvio. (A road built by "Unemployed Austrians in the 1930's" according to the publicity as a way to avoid mentioning slave labour.)

Check out THIS SITE for more details of these and many other passes. :thumb
 
Robin said:
Did it in mid-July last year and the roads were clear and dry and the weather great. But some of the guys with whom we met up said it had been snowing heavily just a couple of days before. I think there's always a chance you'll be unlucky, it's just a case of minimising those chances.

We rode it going west to east. Going up was amazing, fantastic, tremendous fun, but coming down the eastern side was only amazing and fantastic. I wish we'd had time to do it the other way round.

Incidentally, Livigno (30-odd miles west of the pass) is a great place to stay - loads of hotels, and the lowest tax on drink and petrol of anywhere I've ever been.

While the Stelvio is special, don't forget there are hundreds of miles of brilliant roads and some equally good passes. Everyone has their own favourite -I really enjoyed the Bernina pass to the south of Livigno which was smaller (although with some stunningly fast bits too), far less busy and very scenic.

My favourite road - of the ones I've done - in the Alps is the Grossglockner in Austria - within a brilliant days ride round the Dolomites of Stelvio. (A road built by "Unemployed Austrians in the 1930's" according to the publicity as a way to avoid mentioning slave labour.)

Check out THIS SITE for more details of these and many other passes. :thumb
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Second the point about Livigno, great place for skiing too! :thumb2

I camped there in the summer of 2001 whilst touring, and it got damn cold at night, as it's that high up, so if camping, ensure you have warm gear!! :rob
 
Robin said:
Did it in mid-July last year and the roads were clear and dry and the weather great. But some of the guys with whom we met up said it had been snowing heavily just a couple of days before. I think there's always a chance you'll be unlucky, it's just a case of minimising those chances.
Click to expand...

When you 2757m up it's going to be colder than down in the valley, and any thunderstorms will be going to give a high risk of snow / hail at that height IMHO. Just see how much snow Ben Nevis has around the year :eek:

Temperature can drop at the wet adiabatic rate of 6 degrees C per 1000m (if you're in a cloud for example) so it's 16.5 degrees cooler than sea level.
 
Did the Stelvio in June 07 from the Bormio end, heading north. Fantastic, amazing, unforgettable. Biggest problem was groups of 10 - 50 Italian-reg (mainly) sportsbikes absolutely howling up and down and not giving a solitary shite about a heavily loaded RT :rob ! A fair few of the sportsbikes are on track rubber, too..... I saw two downed on the descent to the north though fortunately no one was badly hurt. Some of the bikes ride as though it's bikes only, one way - Volvos towing caravans seem to come as a shock to them. Worth doing it on a weekday if you can when some of the loonies are at work.

Temperature at the top was 2C with a brisk breeze; down in the valley it was a good 25C. Coordinates at summit:

174088294-M.jpg


174088550-M.jpg


I'd echo the suggestion about doing all the passes you can; the Timmelsjoch is rather fine, and the Passo Gavia is strictly for masochists (and GSers) - very, very narrow ascent, very steep, and as you get higher, a badly broken-up road surface.

Coordinates for summit of Gavia:

174087823-M.jpg


And you'll find some webcams too
 
Nippy Normans supply Touratech, Wunderlich, Desert Fox and many other makes of accessories.
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