On the steps of general Suvarov
In 1799, during the Napoleon's wars, Switzerland was the 'Helvetic Republic',
occupied by French troups. Austria and Russia were fighting the French armies.
At the end of September, however, the troups of general Masséna defeated
Korsakov's army near Zurich. This made general Suvarov, who first wanted to
help Korsakov, to retreat accross the Alps. He chose to go over Glarus to the
Rhine valley in the Grisons. On his way, there was the
Panixer Pass, which proved very diffucult to cross
due to early snowfall. Many of Suvarov's men never reached the other side of the
Pass.
Nearly 201 years later, i tried to follow the steps of this Russian army, but
if possible with not so many casualties. At least, i did not have to haul
heavy arms along, and i could wait for good weather (which happened to be in
August). A further advantage for me was to take the train for the less
interesting part of the journey. I arrived at Ziegelbrücke in the early
afternoon.
All the way from Ziegelbrücke to Schwanden, i followed the 'official' bike
route. It's a nice and easy itinerary, away from big roads (but don't try it
with a race bike: same parts are on gravel, not the best for thin tires). At
Schwanden, i had to leave the bike route. As i was looking around for the way
to Elm, a postman stopped his car to ask me where i wanted to go. He told me
that there was a 'Suvarov way', consisting in forest roads and paths leading
to Elm. He advised me to take it instead of the main road and even led me
accross town till i could find this way. Thank you, Mr. Postman, this was
really a good hint!
I arrived at Elm around 3 o'clock, rode past the sport's shop of the famous
ski champion Vreni Schneider and stopped at a small shop to buy a drink and a
fruit. From Elm, i took the main road up to its dead end at Wichlen. There
were soldiers with many tanks based there. I had to step down and go around
the place with a guard, then with another one till i was out of this military
zone again. I took advantage to ask the guards if they knew the way up to the
Panix. They did not, but told me that they had seen bikers coming that way
down. This let me hope that it would not be too difficult.
My hope did not last long, just about one kilometer. Then there was only a
steep path and i had to walk most of the time. Well, i knew about the slope
from studying the map, and i also knew that there were also less steep parts
ahead. Unfortunately, where the slope would have been easier there were rocks,
ditches, wet areas or (further up) even snow. Summing up, i pushed or carried
my bike much more than i could ride. On the snow fields, i saw the descending
tracks of two other mountain bikes, but i was the only crazy guy going that
way up, pushing a quite useless bike!
I finally reached the pass before 6 o'clock, had a look at the small memorial
for Suvarov and had a thought for his poor guys. Then i was able to ride
again. Even in the descent, however, i had to step down many times: too steep,
in mud, on unstable stones, in narrow paths where the pedals touch the ground
on the side, on very steep slopes where any fall could be the last one... As i
reached Alp Ranasca, the path became a way. A very bad one, however. It was
shaking me badly and my back and shoulders started to hurt. This bad
treatment ended as i reached Pigniu. From there down to Rueun, i had a modern
road, not just like at Suvarov's time.
Alp Ranasca
Pignu
2000-8-31