June 9th: Bourg St. Maurice to Le Lechere

 Waking up I the morning, the skies were cloudy but it looked dry enough to ride. Arturo had made a reservation at Le Lechere and we had a 20 mile ride plotted out. The breakfast at the Base Camp Hotel was very good, and if the town had other attractions we could have stayed another night. After an initial false turn, the route took us down to a bike path along the river. If the entire ride was entirely like that I would have relaxed and enjoyed the day, but instead after a mere 10km the bike path rose and dumped us out onto a main road where we were climbing along with a fair amount of traffic. Fortunately, at the most difficult of the climb what appeared to be a local bike club joined us and gave us company (and confidence) before the road brought us to the SPA town.

The hotel looked popular for dinner and we would have the half pension for our two night stay there. They first had us park our bikes in what looked like a painter’s shed but because they were actually painting something they would move the bikes later into the cellar. The day was still young so Arturo proposed that we drive the car to Annecy for a rainy day visit. Xiaoqin was tired of sitting in the car so she opted to get her bike out and go for a ride instead, leaving Arturo, myself, Mark and the two kids to take the car ride.

The drive took a good 100 minutes because of traffic, and you could see during the drive that the Alps terminated right in Annecy. Of course, the ride from Geneva to Annecy would be a massive pain, and judging from the traffic not much fun. The town itself was rather cute, with lots of cool ice cream shops, Foies Gras for sale, and obviously on days with better weather than what we had we could have taken boat rides. But on days with better weather we probably would have been riding instead! It sprinkled here and there while we were walking around town and admiring the various bridges over the Thiou river which would eventually join up with the Rhone. Annecy is frequently called “The Venice of the Alps”. I’d never been to Venice but I wasn’t sure if the comparison was apt—the river was certainly not the transportation between buildings!

It was another 100 minute drive back, so by the time we got back to Le Lechere and showered it was dinner time. Dinner turned out to be rather good, but we were worn out to do much more than a cursory walk. Xiaoqin thought she could do Col du Madeline the next day while the rest of us planned a hike. Stephan would take the day to work while he was on tour so the car had room for all of us who wanted to hike.

Review: Eversion

 It's a testimonial to how busy the past year had been that I missed the publication of not just one, but two Alastair Reynolds novels! The benefit of this is that by the time I got around to Eversion, Amazon had it on sale for $1.99, which made it an autobuy.

Eversion starts as an 18th century story about a sailing ship exploring in the north of the Scandinavian coast, with the narrator as the ship's surgeon (named Silas Coades) aboard the vessel. The ship finds an inlet with a lagoon with a strange building or fortress on the inside of it. During the passage into the lagoon, the ship meets with a mishap, and the narrator dies. Before he dies, however, the lone woman aboard the ship, Ada Cossile, tells him that he's escaping by dying.

The narrative then resets, with Coades now aboard a steam engine vessel! Each time the narrative resets, much as in a video game, we get further into the mystery. Reynolds must have had a lot of fun writing this novel, because we get all sorts of scenarios, including a dirigible and even a space opera type scene before the big reveals happens and we get to find out what the underlying scenario is.

The payoff is not disappointing--unlike many science fiction novelists, Alastair Reynolds doesn't write himself into a corner, and everything resolves. The story is very appropriate in the age of AI, and reveals Reynolds to have a deep understanding of both humanity and the machines we create.

What a great novel! Definitely a must read!

June 8th: Flumet to Bourg St Maurice

 Waking up to a sunny day, we showed up to breakfast 5 minutes late. Despite that, it was clear that most items weren’t ready. The owner showed up a little later, frantically saying that everything would be ready soon. Either Arturo, Stephan, or Mark would tell me later that he’d just bought the hotel and hadn’t gotten the hang of everything yet.

When the breakfast was ready it was decent, and we ate our fill to prepare for our 2000m day. The climb up Sassies switched back frequently but unlike Columbiere was never super steep. The real climb would be up the Roseland in the afternoon. The descent was fast and at the bottom it was warm. When we got to Beaufort it was very warm. We got fruit, cold drinks, and bread at the supermarket and then ice cream.

Thus fortified, we started the climb up the Cormet de Roseland, our first 2000m high pass of the trip. A steady 8% grade, once we got into the forest it was warm but the trees shielded us from the sun’s burning rays. 

Plodding along, we saw a tall waterfall. The thing about climbing in the Alps is that whenever you see a waterfall, you know that you have to climb above it eventually if it’s anywhere near the road. In this case, once we were above the waterfall, we almost were at the Roseland lake just before the summit. Xiaoqin joined us there, and we rode up the pass together. Stephan had already gone ahead with his superior power to weight ratio. She had more energy than we did, so took a lot of pictures. At the summit we regrouped, got a pass photo, put on our jackets and began to descend. By this time we started to feel the occasional rain drops. Fortunately, we would stay ahead of the rain this time.

The top part of Cormet Roseland was composed of long straightaway segments and the tandem showed off its top end speed before the chain of switchbacks slowed us down and allowed Stephan to catch and then over-take us. By the time we got to the Bourg St. Maurice city limit sign it was warm and we stopped to take off our jackets and start looking at lodging.

It being a Monday, there was plenty of availability, and we in the end decided on riding to Base Camp Lodge to negotiate in person, since it looked intriguing and had dining options as well as an onsite washing machine. Getting there turned out to be a climb on top of already tired legs, but we managed it. Once there, we got rooms and I discovered a free EV charger provided we made a reservation with the hotel. The “reservation system” turned out to be the receptionist writing down on a piece of paper that we’d taken one of those spaces. When Xiaoqin arrived we parked the car in the spot and plugged it in without fuss or messing around with payment options, which was great.

By the time it was dinner time, rain had started in earnest, but we were indoors and I’d discovered the secret elevator to the restaurant that did not require that we walk outside. The meals were good, and the laundry machine while it required coins came with detergent. We got laundry done while having dinner, and after dinner the rain even let up sufficiently for us to take a walk.

There was no question that we needed a rest day. The question was whether to take a rest day here in Bourg St. Maurice or to take it in Le Lechere and commit to riding Col de la Madeline. With the rain forecast, we decided that it was a fool’s errand to wait until July 12^th for Col D’Iseran to open. I pointed out that there was Hotel Radiana in Le Lechere which was a SPA hotel. Arturo pointed out that their rules precluded Boen from using the hot springs.  There was a town swimming pool, however, and he found a well rated hotel (La Cabriere) with good food. We’d take a transfer day the next day, and another rest day to avoid the rain and also give Xiaoqin a chance to ride.

2026 Tour of the Alps Index Page

 

From June 6^th to July 6^th, Boen, Mark Brody, and myself executed a tour of the alps starting from Geneva and completing a loop into France, Italy, and Switzerland. Xiaoqin drove a support vehicle (a Volvo EX30 EV) for much of the trip and rode whenever circumstances permit. Stephan Ellner joined for a week, and Arturo Crespo joined us until we got to Hospental. Bowen came along for the hiking portions of the trip.

For Boen and I, we got in 862 miles of riding with 89994’ of climbing in 25 riding days, and 6 hiking days which added another 76 miles of walking. We had 3 flat tires, one of which was a thorn, and the other two were not identified during the trip but no other mechanicals. We had 3 train transfers (Leuk to Brig, Donat-Ems to Oberalp, Airolo to Andermatt), Xiaoqin had 2 bus transfers, and Mark took advantage of his half tax card to get in the Jobst high adventure path, which required Meiringen to Sarnen, the cable car from Stockalp to Melchsee Frutt, and the post bus from Meiringen to Rosenlaui.

On our hiking days, we used the Gemelsee Bahn, the train from Natschen to Andermatt, the post bus from Rosenlaui to Grosse Scheidegg, the train from Lauterbrunnen to Wengen, the cable car from Wengen to Mannlichen, the cable car from Stechelberg to Murren, and the Jochpass – Engstlensee cable car to achieve lift assisted hikes.

We lost 2 days to rain, both of which coincided with exhaustion where we needed rest days anyway.

This is the index page with links to pictures, videos, and day by day trip reports.

Photos

2026 Tour of the Alps Shared Photo Album

Videos

• Rosenlaui Classic Loop
• Engstlenalpsee
• Murren
• Yvoire
• Fahnenschwingen

Day by Day Trip Journal

• June 5th: Prologue
• June 6th: Geneva to Bonneville
• June 7th: Bonneville to Flumet
• June 8th: Flumet to Bourg St. Maurice
• June 9th: Bourg St Maurice to La Lechere
• June 10th: Arpettaz Loop
• June 11th: Le Lechere to Saint Francois Longchamp
• June 12th: Saint Francois Longchamp to Valloire
• June 13th: Valloire to Briancon
• June 14th: Briancon to Arvieux
• June 15th: Arvieux to Napoleon Refuge Vars
• June 16th: Napoleon Refuge Vars to Jausiers
• June 17th: Jausiers to Saint-Etienne-de-Tinee
• June 18th: Saint-Etienne-de-Tinee to Isola 2000
• June 19th: Isola 2000 to Ivrea
• June 20th: Ivrea to Aosta
• June 21st: Aosta to Grand St Bernard Hospice
• June 22nd: Grand St Bernard Hospice to Brig
• June 23rd: Brig to Hospental
• June 24th: Teufelsbrucke hike
• June 25th: Gelmelsee hike
• June 26th: Hospental to Donat-Elms
• June 27th: Hospental to Airolo
• June 28th: Hospental to Nessental Terrace Hotel
• June 29th: Nessental Terrace Hotel to Hotel Rosenlaui
• June 30th: Englehornhutte hike + Rosenlaui schlutz
• July 1st: St Beatus Caves + Trummelbachfalle
• July 2nd: Hotel Rosenlaui to Lauterbrunnen
• July 3rd: Murren North Face hike
• July 4th: Lauterbrunnen to Col des Mosses
• July 5th: Col des Mosses to Thonon-les-Bains
• July 6th: Thonon-les-Bains to Geneva
• July 7th: Epilogue

Review: Halcyon Years

 This year has been so busy that I missed that Alastair Reynolds wrote a new book, Halcyon Years that came out in January! The good news about that is that I don't have a wait at the library and could download it and read it right away.

The story revolves around Yuri Gagarin (yes, that Russian Cosmonaut), who has been brought back to life aboard the generation starship the Halcyon. The ship is huge: 50km in a rotating cylinder (to provide gravity), and big enough to have parks, lakes, a complete ecosystem. We never find out how the ship is powered, but clearly several generations have already lived on this starship.

The resurrected Gagarin is a private detective in what looks like a 1920s noir fiction future, complete with corrupt cops, no cell phones but wired land-lines, and at one point in his investigation, Gagarin acquires a robot companion.

The case starts when a mysterious lady calling herself Ruby Blue shows up, and asks Gagarin to look into the mysterious death of a couple, Randall and Juliana (an obvious allusion to Romeo and Juliet). We get a quick introduction to the power elite on Halcyon, who they are, and what happens.

Obviously several questions come to mind, including why is the tech level aboard the ship so low. Well, rest assured, Reynolds has all the bases covered and given the mysteries and the rapid pace of action (the book was so good I finished it over 3 days), I'd be doing you a disfavor by spoiling the plot and big reveals (there are multiple!) to you.

In any case, I found the reveals and the endings satisfying, and can whole heartedly recommend this book.

June 7th: Bonneville to Flumet

 Waking up to a generous breakfast, we loaded up the car only to discover that the tandem had a rear flat tire. An inspection of the tire carcass on both inside and outside, I found no foreign matter, and so replaced the inner tube, which turned out to have a leaking patch. I replaced that with a brand new TPU tube, which held this time. This used up all the battery on my electric pump, but there’s a reason I carry a battery bank, and it’s not for my almost 3 year old Pixel 8 Pro. I plugged the pump in and left it charging while we rode towards the bottom of our first pass, the Col de la Columbiere.

Once again, my memory lied to me. I remembered Col de la Columbiere as being an easy col because Mike Samuel and I had ridden up to it from Cluses on the road. However, from Bonneville, my new route had taken several short cuts which meant that we faced grades of 10-12% before joining up with the proper highway where it flattened out in the town of Les Respondir.

From there, the climb was manageable and quite pleasant, until near the summit where the grades went up again but we were finished well before noon. Xiaoqin and Bowen were doing a hike there—we spotted the car parked at the summit, but it was too early for lunch, so we descended the col. Every time I visit the alps I’m always surprised by how pretty it is. In the intervening years I’d forgotten how pretty Col de la Columbiere was on the descent, and when the road turned up again the hunger hit both me and Boen. We recruited Arturo to have lunch with us, but the others were well ahead and headed up the Col des Arravis already.

After lunch, we climbed to the summit of Col des Arravis, where short walks could take you the magnificent views of Mont Blanc. We had drinks or an ice cream, and then proceeded to descend to Flumet, where we had a hotel reserved for the night. Stephan had put together a size L Ritchey Montebello to the same specifications as Xiaoqin’s, with the exception that I told him to get ultralight Superteam Carbon wheels instead of the Ritchey wheelset, reasoning that if you’re paying the weight penalty for disc brakes you should try to get some of it back from carbon wheels that were relatively affordable. As I predicted, the Ritchey Montebello descended amazingly well, with its low bottom bracket and made-for-randoneuring frame geometry. Stephan was an aggressive descender on the tandem, and that comfort with speed translated directly to the Ritchey Montebello. While the tandem would still out-run him on any straight-line, if the descent had a lot of switch backs, he would catch and pass us on the corners, where the tandem had to brake earlier and slow to almost a stand-still on the corners before picking up speed again on the downslope. The tandem reached high speeds quickly on any kind of grade for us to even consider pedaling on descents.

At one point we stopped and lifted Stephan, Arturo's and Mark's bike, and to our surprise, the steel Ritchey Montebello was lighter than both Arturo and Mark's titanium bikes. Arturo's bike had a steel fork, so it wasn't much of a surprise, but Mark's bike had a carbon fork as well!

In Flumet, we stopped at the only hotel in town that was listed on booking.com. The owner was very friendly, and showed us to the dedicated bike room, and also recommended one of only two restaurants that were open this early in the season, the others all being closed. “Breakfast is at 7am”, he said confidently.

It being a Sunday, nothing was opened except the campground near the bottom of town. But Xiaoqin was so hungry by the time she showed up that she walked to it for ice cream. At dinner, we had what was essentially bar food.

After dinner, we walked around the town. I identified the fountain where Mike and I had taken a nap in 2005 prior to continuing with Col de Sassies—it had been taken over by another restaurant, which was why I didn’t immediately recognize it when I first saw it. We also found the old mill, which otherwise looked like an abandoned house by the river that was serviced by a cable platform.

We went to bed early. The next day was Monday and the forecast called for rain in the afternoon, but I thought that there was good reason for it to hold. The weather after that looked iffy, dashing my hopes for a climb up the Col D’ Iseran to see walls of ice 10’ tall. We didn't have to make any commitments, since the next day was a Monday and there would be plenty of lodging no matter where we ended up.

Review: Eight Billion Genies

 Eight Billion Genies explores a fun concept, which is that if everyone on earth had one wish, what would people do with it, and what would the resultant world be like? The book starts out in a bar where the bartender in a fit of inspiration immediately wishes that nobody else's wishes can affect the bar and whatever and whoever is inside it. Turns out the guy's a prepper and was prepared for things to turn out dark.

Indeed, the book goes through the initial impulsive phase, where the folks with no impulse controls immediately start wishing for whatever would suit them in the moment, followed by the folks who're coherent enough to start wishing for super powers, or wishing for their country's' welfare, etc. The author comes up with rules that the genies enforce on how conflicting wishes work.

Pretty soon, the population of the world is diminished by a lot, and then you get the religious people going for pretty much a rapturing of the earth, which kills even more people, of course.

When all is said and done people use up their wishes and by the time the book comes to a close, there are only 2 people with wishes left, and obviously the last one gets to remake the world, but it's clear at the end of the book the author's written himself into a corner and doesn't have a good answer for what the final wish should be either (it's vague and probably wouldn't change anything).

Nevertheless, it's a fun short read and worth the time.