Bella Tola
Description
Normally, you start the ascent to Bella Tola from the Tingousa mountain station of the funicular from St-Luc. You later pass the Cabane Bella Tola on an alpine road with a pleasant gradient and continue to climb. The road becomes increasingly steeper until you are pushing below the Pass de Boeuf. This does not change on the following singletrail, which leads steeply to the summit of Bella Tola. On this section, the bike is usually on your shoulders. However, the climb is only worth it for the panoramic view of the summit, but the real highlight is the exceptionally long descent to Sierre. The first few meters of the descent are very crisp, but then it becomes smoother with every meter. It winds its way down in many bends to the ascent road, which you follow back to Cabane Bella Tola. This is where the second part of the descent begins - a wonderful singletrail to Chandolin, only difficult for the first few meters, then smooth and flowing through the forest. To get to the third part of the descent, you climb a little again in Chandolin, then roll downhill on a gravel road until a trail leads straight ahead at a left-hand hairpin bend. Again, the first few meters are difficult, then there is a flat path to start the long descent down to Sierre. This is considered one of the classic mountain bike routes in the region. 1300 vertical meters of trail accumulate on this route, at the end as a serpentine trail that requires good cornering technique - but many of the serpentines can be ridden without trial skills. The trail ends at the highway exit of Sierre, from here you can take the cycle path to Sierre train station.
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Details of the tour
29 km
955 m
2605 m
1 day
Saint-Luc
Siders
1613
not suitable
More information
More tours nearby
User comments (11)
About the author: Thomas Giger
Note: This content has been automatically translated from German. Please report any incorrect translations.
This tour is an absolute blast! You can ride everything at the beginning, but then it gets steadily steeper and the last 200 meters of altitude have to be carried.
We recommend combining it with the Rothorn. The ridge is easy to ride and incredibly scenic.
The rest of the route down to the valley is varied and easy to ride throughout. The fence is still not a problem.
For us, the Bella Tola Combo is an absolute highlight and we can hardly understand why this tour is not a "thumbs down tour". It clearly gets the platinum award from us!
An absolutely fantastic tour with magnificent views and top trails. If you get off in St. Luc instead of Chandolin and ride the chairlift to Tsapé from there, you save yourself 100 m, but you already have a nice single trail to the start of the ascent trail to Bella Tola and a cheaper lift ticket.
On the descent, you can take the lift to Tsapé again and then climb briefly to the Illpass. Then descend to the Illsee. At the dam wall, the descent to Susten is magnificent.
This takes you to approx. 3300 meters in depth with only 1100 meters in altitude and the most beautiful trails in Valais. But it's not without its technical challenges.
We did the tour last Saturday, 27.07.2024.
The ascent from the St-Luc Tignousa mountain station is very pleasant. Only a little pushing and carrying is required, only really from the Pas-de-Boeuf, before that a few steep ramps on the wide mountain path.
There were still many snowfields between the saddle at Pas-de-Boeuf and the summit. As a result, we had to reschedule the ascent a little off the path and climbed over the ridge, which had a snow-free track. It went very well. The view from the summit is really magnificent. The descent from the summit towards Rothorn is awesome, as is the descent from the ridge back down to the mountain path. The section to Cabane Bella Tola can be enjoyed via an earlier singletrail branching off to the right. However, this is a bit of a pièce-de-resistance as it is technical, flat and full of rocks, but also a lot of fun. The route continues to Chandolin, never boring but always strenuous.
From Chandolin to the wooden barricade, more of a CC tour due to the possibilities, but with great views. The view into the Illgraben is always impressive and worthwhile. The barricade - well... Too bad! If you could still ride from here, it would be an absolute top trail, always flowy but never boring, and the lower part to the St-Antoine chapel is a dream with hairpin bends...
Very cool tour! When climbing up to the Bella Tola summit via the south ridge, surefootedness is required to keep your hands free. A no-bike sign on the forest road to Chandolin, one day after Sierre-Zinal the trail was very dusty, probably due to the dry weather. However, the trail is in very good condition thanks to the solid rocky surface - brilliant!
Hammer tour! The ascent is a bit tough, but the descent is really cool. Instead of riding to Sierre as usual, I took the chairlift to Le Tsapé and then went down to the right via the Illpass to Illsee. It's quite similar to the Pass de l'Illsee. The descent into the Illtötze is so great! For whatever reason I've ridden all the other descents several times. All in all, an ultimately awesome alpine tour!
One more comment on the supposed bike ban down to Sierre: I didn't see anything last year except a small Chinese wall built by a bike hater. But thanks to a saw, it was probably elegantly cracked by a biker...
I did the tour last summer (2017). The trail from Chandolin to Sierre is no longer passable. A wooden passage has been built, which makes it impossible to get through on a bike (unless you dismantle the bike).
Well, dear Thomas, those who are aware of their surroundings during a tour generally have a clear advantage, or in the case of this driving ban issue, theoretically a disadvantage as a biker if you take the driving ban seriously. Too bad I didn't take a photo, but my partner and I aren't blind, otherwise we wouldn't have gotten there, wouldn't have seen the driving ban and would have turned back. Incidentally, the driving ban is on the right in the direction of Ponchet, which can be seen on the map at https://s.geo.admin.ch/6e4a20f8c3.
On the descent to Sierre, there is neither a prohibition sign nor any other indication that the passage is prohibited. The rumor is circulating in the bike world, but it is obviously not true. The rumor that the trail is "shot up" because of bikers is also not true. The trail is in good and perfect condition (mid-July 2016).
No, dear Thomas, Roger is absolutely right, the prohibition sign does indeed exist. I also believe that the trail is so sensitive because of Sierre-Zinal.
Freeheel
I rode the tour on July 15, 2016 and looked for this supposed prohibition sign - in vain.
You should be aware that the summit ascent falls under the heading of bike mountaineering. So certainly not a tour for everyone. In addition, the descent via Pochet is said to be bike-free.
You can find a more detailed report here:
http://rotscherbikeblog.ch/?p=6826