KMII
[Montblanc Moderator]
50614
Favorite mountain passes 🗻
As can be witnessed by the posts here, many members enjoy a spirited drive or two and apart from a track day, or an early morning blast on an empty autobahn, a good mountain pass is a great place to enjoy automotive pleasures.
Now with a not fully selfless question, I am wondering what some of your favorite mountain passes are to drive on?
I will add two to start off with with the Transfagarasan and Transalpina in Romania. The former is more famous (of TopGear fame), while the later - at least when I last drove it - had a much better surface and was somewhat more fun. The pass from the Bekaa Valley to Cedars in Lebanon is less technical but can be huge fun, as it’s seemingly often completely empty.
The Alps trek with them and the Pyrenees are also far from second best.
Tried the Bayburt Of Yolu (most dangerous road on Earth supposedly) last year but sadly the snow prevented me from reaching the spectacular Derabasi turns 🤷🏻♂️
The Route Napoleon, Col de Turini, Stelvio and the Kaunertaler Glacier road are on the list to be tried soon, too.
So what would you add / recommend?
Favorite mountain passes 🗻
As can be witnessed by the posts here, many members enjoy a spirited drive or two and apart from a track day, or an early morning blast on an empty autobahn, a good mountain pass is a great place to enjoy automotive pleasures. Now with a not fully selfles...
It’s a picture of the Stelvio Pass in Italy 😊👍🏻
Will let you know as soon as I have tried it 👍🏻
With two kids…
One doesn’t do anything too silly anymore (apart from buying watches 😂)
At least with watches they don’t endanger the health immediately…
Unless you are into delayed product introduction at home and your spouse takes exception to it 😂
These turns look too tight to be any fun...
...there are similar turns on some portions of Highway 1 on the Pacific Coast. Get up some speed, brake hard. Increase speed, brake hard. After doing that for a few miles it gets old : )
There’s only a couple of miles of it 😁
A modest slide and a dab of oppo helps making it fun 😉
They're so tight I don't know if you could do a slide...
...but I'm no Ken Block (and neither is he)...
I totally agree. I am Swiss, I lieve here, and I was for many years a keen Motorcyclist (Honda VFR 750 RC)
Stelvio is useless and totally overrated! But of course it depends what you are looking for! My aim was that bends allow to drive fast, but not to fast! For me, the greatest pass are (in this order) -Grimsel from the north side -Bernina from south side -h...
Thanks for the tips!
Have done I believe most of these many moons ago, when I used to live in Switzerland but definitely worth another try, especially since I cannot fully remember which is which (ageist 😂)👍🏻
Grossglocker, Austria ❤️
Is my favorite pass… Next week I have another road trip planned to the Black Forest in Germany and Grossglockner, very much looking forward to it! ...
Another one on the list…
Albeit a bit further away from where I live nowadays, so might come later. Thanks for the tip 👍🏻
What I am hoping 🤞🏻
Just need to check that the passes are all open - and open 24h. Planning to put a lot of km into the short trip 😉
Trust me - if you go…
You don’t want to miss the Transalpina on the way back. Also going through the tunnel once you’ve reached the top of Transfagarasan and then down on the other side is nice 👍🏻
I'm starting to give Mountain Passes a pass
Having tried a number of them, I am now more sedate. unless off-road (intentionally) with little traffic, then I'm okay Cazalea ...
The prize for the most spectacular shots…
As always, goes to you 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻 Any favorites from the pre-giving them a miss phase? 🤞🏻
Will do the Alta Via del Sale (upper salt road) with my Jeep in August.
It is an old military road between Piemont and Liguria, connecting France and Italy. Hope to see the Mediterranean Sea from the Alps at the Rifugio la Terza (third place of refuge) where I will spend a night. ...
This is looking spectacular 👌🏻👍🏻
Will add that one to the list! Off road vehicles strictly or just a normal gravel road that can be navigated in a car, too?
Will wait for your report, then 😁
I remember driving on to a glacier with a rental Yaris in Iceland many moons ago. Parked next to the Defenders and Land Cruisers on balloon tires it was quite a sight 😂😂😂
Cycled that last year - amazing scenery!
90 miles and 18'000ft of climb in 2 days in 30+degrees heat nearly killed me though! ...
Nowadays you need to be careful…
As most of these attract cyclists and motor vehicles alike. So either at night (little in terms of scenery) or when cold (fewer cyclists) 😊
Will see…
If I do not pool up with friends for a larger choice, the M3 and E63 are easily available (i.e. in the garage) 😊
Will check it out fully during the weekend - sounds exciting 👏🏻
In terms of exotic I also thoroughly enjoyed the ride between Khadzhalmakhi and Kharadkhanskaya Tesnina in Dagestan but that is not easy to get to nowadays 🤷🏻♂️ Will try to find a picture or two…
Since is my homeland,
Transfagarasan Romania all the way,I will be back there in July,can’t wait
Definitely a memorable one 👌🏻👍🏻
Has the traffic increased over the last 10 years or so?
Beautiful pass. Here in PNW we have a wonderful drive through the Cascade mountains.
It's called the Cascade loop, it took me 14 hours of hard driving to complete it. My back was destroyed from driving 14 hours in CF bucket seats. Had to roll out of the car when I was done. Mr Purple handled beautifully. ...
Looking like fantastic fun 🙌🏻👌🏻👏🏻
Thanks for the great shots, too, to demonstrate 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻