Via Mala
Description
From Thusis, you climb up to Zillis on the old Via Mala road. The narrow rock passage with its historic bridges is particularly impressive. The second part of the ascent begins at Zillis. The route leads up the Schamserberg on the mountain road, passing the villages of Donat, Pazen and Farden until you finally reach Lohn. From here, there are a further 300 meters of ascent to master until the highest point of the tour is reached in Summapunt. The long descent initially leads along an alpine road, but the singletrail fun begins after the village of Valloia. The path now meanders seemingly endlessly through the steep mountain forest. After the Acla da Sut forest clearing, the route becomes steeper, has a few tricky sections and leads through easily rideable rocky sections at the very end. This descent is considered one of the best in the Thusis region. The return journey to the starting point involves a short climb to Rongellen, where the final descent to Thusis begins just above the last houses.
Details of the tour
31 km
1405 m
1405 m
1 day
Thusis
Thusis
1486
well suited
More information
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User comments (7)
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The trail is currently quite overgrown. You can hardly see the very narrow single trail in places. A lot of asphalt. First along the busy road, then later uphill forever on a quiet road. The proportion of singletrail is low. Some tricky hairpin bends. The last section to Thusis is great fun. But I wouldn't ride it again.
Rode this tour on 22.10.23. Ascent almost continuously on asphalt, but very easy to do. The trail is then really just pure enjoyment. Very flowy at the start, but with 2-3 tricky sections in the middle section. But be careful, the trail is very narrow throughout and often runs very exposed along the edge of the path (be careful when wet). After the last ascent shortly before Thusis, then another wonderful forest trail almost directly into the village of Thusis.
Rode the tour yesterday. The ascent was 80% on tar, but nice and constant and almost no cars. Tip top! Maybe a bit hot in summer, everything directly in the sun. At the end, forest road and slightly steeper. Nice, leisurely ascent.
The first trail is very flowy. Caution: The start is also two bends further up. You can save yourself a small part of the forest road. Due to the extremely steep slope, however, the flow is a bit "tricky". You definitely need good brakes. Tour definitely recommended.
A beautiful tour in the countryside. We didn't meet anyone until Thusis.
We started from Lohn. First up to Summapunt and then along the beautifully meandering trail to Rongellen. All S2 except for the last section, which is S3. From Rongellen up and then the final section to Thusis S1-S2.
Super
Unfortunately, I can't (completely) agree with the previous comment. The round trip itself is certainly beautiful, the views etc. are great... The singletrail down into the gorge - well, it's an endlessly long "path" - like the old military paths on the Garda (Tremalzo etc.) Not much really happens on the trail - just that the brakes smoke... We had the impression that this tour could be classified as a "classic" and was more of an earlier highlight. In my opinion, there are FAR better trails in the immediate vicinity of Thusis. Exception: The last section - the 2nd part of the tour: from the village of Rongellen is really REALLY good - fast, endurorace-like trail right up to Thusis!
I rode the tour for the second time on 09.07.16. Once again, the descent was brilliantly varied and put a big grin on my face. However, I had to push on a small, tricky section.
The descent - Seissabach Tobel/Gorge - after the village of Rongellen was closed. I think it will stay that way for a while after seeing the huge rocks blocking the way. I then rode back up to the barbecue area and turned left coming from Rongellen. There I found a small trail that winds along the edge of the cliff. The rest was then forest and asphalt road down to Thusis.
I'll ride the tour again next year!