Intense grind up the Julierpass to cross the Alps in -10 degrees Celcius exaggerated by harsh winds

Saying goodbye to my comfortable shelter in St. Moritz was not easy especially since I knew riding from St. Moritz to Chur across the Alps was going to be hard.

Beautiful view of the breathtaking Alps from my breakfast table at Hotel Waldhaus am See in St. Moritz.

But had I known exactly how hard it was going to be, I probably wouldn’t have been able to convince my body to put one leg in front of the other.

Snow chains were mandatory for cars to be able to go through the Alpine Pass called Julierpass so I had prepared the night before by mounting on the spike tires and preparing layers of protective winter gear for not only the way up but also the way down.

The severe contrast between the people who honked and cheered me on versus those who glared at me with judgmental eyes questioning my sanity was slightly entertaining. However, it did not take away from the intensity of the grind up the mountain in brutal below zero gusty weather. It goes without saying that my limits were tested both physically and mentally as I battled to stay focused and in charge. What happened next reminds me of the bonus question on an exam where you have exhausted your brain to finish the actual test but there is still this last question that really tests how well prepared you actually are. At the top of the mountain, arriving soaked in sweat and knowing the wind downhill would bring me my death of a cold, I knew I needed to quickly change my clothes. This meant that I needed to entirely undress down to my bare skin and then put on all the prepared layers of winter gear. Towards the end of this torturous process, my fingers wouldn’t move as they were frozen numb so the last few mechanical gestures to clothe myself were done entirely without my command.

After undressing and putting on the winter gear. Witness the roughly 1,30 meter of snow on the side of the road!

Going downhill on the icy and slippery road, I knew that I needed my rear brakes since braking with the front ones would just make me tumble over which I needed to avoid at all costs. Therefore considering, I was giddy inside when my rear brakes stopped working just a few minutes after the ice and snow on the street had vanished. It is amazing how little things matter so much in such intense circumstances. The rest of the day, I could only use my front brakes.

After almost 90 km, I finally reached Chur. I, again, immediately started searching for a hotel to host me for bitcoin. Since it was already past 6 pm, I couldn’t catch a single hotel owner which meant that I needed to convince the receptionists and this would evidently be unfruitful. Nonetheless, I tried nine hotels before I decided to give up since my feet were frozen to the bone. So the score is 3:2 for bitcoin but the race is still open!

If you like what I am doing, please spread the word! I believe that the bitcoin and crypto communities have a stake in the Tour de Satoshi and deserve to know about it. Without your help, it might never come to the attention of the most influential people within these communities.

If you want to support my hotel and dinner bills which I pay in bitcoin, please donate. Here’s my btc (segwit) wallet address:

bc1q87jy2c28snel5tj3c5q94fdfuy9xwhl0ljlysn

And my btc (legacy) wallet address:

1P3UwoDLhqJZbkYiZuKQZrmZvbB2GssLB

Thank you so much for reading, sharing and supporting! Tune in tomorrow for the continuation of this story.

Peace.

Vitus