Brazilian (Col de Cou)
Description
The best things don't come for free. This also applies to the Brazilian. If you want to get to the start of the trail, you first have to carry your bike 300 meters up to the Col de Cou. Before that, you can take the gondola lift from Chalais near Sierre to the Crêt de Midi and a short descent to the start of the push section. The start of the Brazilian Trail is on the Col de Cou. Legend has it that the trail takes its name from its bends, which are said to resemble a Brazilian woman. The Brazilian rides from the pass 1200 meters downhill to Nax and is a super singletrail. In Nax, the trail continues north of the village in a similar trail quality to Pramagnon. 2000 vertical meters on a top-class trail has given the route its aura. The Brazilian undoubtedly belongs in every mountain biker's palmares.
Note: There is a blanket ban on biking in Val Réchy. Further information can be found here. For this tour, this applies to the section between Le Pichioc and the Col de Cou, where the bike must be carried. The statement that carrying a bike is also prohibited has no legal basis, but is repeatedly made by rangers. The descent from Col de Cou down to Nax is not affected by this ban. (Link to the legal text)
Map & GPX-Track
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Details of the tour
24 km
660 m
2350 m
505 above sea level
2514 above sea level
1 day
Siders
Siders
1288
not suitable
More information
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User comments (22)
About the author: Thomas Giger
Note: This content has been automatically translated from German. Please report any incorrect translations.
5.7.2025 We rode the bus to Vernamiège and then cycled up 1000 meters. It went very well. Then we rode down to Sion, it's beautiful but the singletrack is pretty eroded by the rain.
Best regards - Katrien, CAS genevois
Here is a tour suggestion of how the trail can be ridden today without any problems or discussions:
https://www.trailforks.com/route/col-de-cou-brazilian-trail-2-0
Ride is welcome to take over the route and delete this entry if a link to the competition is disturbing.
I am in favor of us bikers respecting and appreciating such nature reserves.
We did this tour yesterday and carried the bike all the way to the Col de Cou. However, when we arrived, the ranger was a the top waiting for us. He advised that even carrying the bike through the protected area was completely forbidden as the law says no vehicles can enter the area.
What the ranger says is not correct. If you read the text of the law in French, you could at best interpret it that way. But this is not the case in the German-language version of the text. The German version of the law does not prohibit carrying the bike. By the way, it is also not forbidden to carry up a 12 kilogram flour sack because it does not matter what is on the shoulders.
Done today. Climb from Vernamiège on the west side to avoid the natural reserve.
It's possible to climb to Vernamiège with the postal car from Sion or Bramois Est (3km from the end of the descent) and then ride up on easy routes or tracks to the Col de Cou (push or hike only at the end)
I confirm that this descent is top class but unfortunatly victim of its success and most of the sections are harshed due to the many bikers, enduro bike useful !
Did the trail on
27.7.23. Rode the trail. No problems with rangers (during the week!). Trail has suffered a lot (compared to 2020 and 2021), already in the upper part large parts very washed out, the great trail below Nax in the steep flank then partly streambed-like. Still great, but more challenging now.
We rode it last weekend! Awesome trail, from the barrier there is a driving ban, you push well and greet the hikers, then you carry for 45 minutes!
Insane descent!
We were there on July 9, 2022. Unfortunately, a ranger blocked our way. He just wouldn't let us through. Neither carrying nor pushing was accepted. He wanted to point us to a French (!) legal text...well. Discussions were pointless.
There is no legal text stating that a bicycle may not be carried (or even pushed) here. The law in question states "...it is forbidden to enter the area with vehicles of any kind (cars, quads, motorcycles, mountain bikes, bicycles)". However, the French version states: "la pénétration avec des véhicules de tous genres".
See: https://lex.vs.ch/app/de/texts_of_law/451.352/versions/1850?all_languag…
hi guys , is there other ways up to col de cou, i want to ride the brazilian next week but don't want any trouble ? thanks
Me too. Considering it for tomorrow.
Latest information from the Brazilian and the reserve. A LEGAL variant is: From Le Crete du Midi to the protected area is a great trail that can be ridden. Then it goes into the protected area - big no-riding sign - from here you have to push or carry the bike for about 2 km on the forest road. Then you come to the large basin "Le Pichioc", from crossing the waterfall to the "Col de Cou" you have to CARRY the bike, pushing is not allowed!
We wanted to do the tour today - but were stopped by rangers and had to go back. It was forbidden to go through the nature reserve to Col du cou on bikes - even on foot. According to the rangers, they would be handing out fines from now on...
There is no legal basis for this. If you push your bike, you are legally a pedestrian. Such a fine would have no basis and would not have to be accepted. The rangers should take some extra lessons instead of acting like police auxiliaries.
Hello everyone,
we are planning to do the tour in about 10 days. Is there any news / further experience on the subject of rangers and nature reserves?
Many thanks and best regards
Michael
Did the tour on August 5th. Some bikers were on the road. From Cret du Midi large no-entry sign and from L'Ar du Tsan no-entry signs 50 meters apart. The signs explicitly state "La pénétration avec des véhicules de tous genres est interdite". Have pushed/carried up the Col du Cou. If you don't want to risk any nasty looks, stupid remarks or a latent bad feeling, it's better to switch to other trails in the region (e.g. Argentinian) or choose a different ascent to the Col du Cou.
I rode the tour on 15.8.20. At the information board before L'Ar du Tsan / Le Pichioc was the MTB ban sign, from there we pushed the bikes up to the Col de Cou and greeted the many hikers in a friendly manner and gave them right of way. Just as pushing a bike is not cycling, pushing a bike is not biking either.
From the Col de Cou to the bottom, everything was rideable and in pretty good condition :-D
Did the trail on 24.10.2021 and had a long, friendly conversation with the park ranger. He insists that "bike carrying" is also not allowed and that fines will be strictly distributed from 2022. Well...
So next time I'll start in Suen (post bus from Sion) and then 1000m with a good trail section.
Checked 2018
We did the tour a few days ago. Beautiful mountain panorama and mountain spring! The first part of the trail is good, partly with stones in the trail that slow down the flow a little. From Nax down to Grône was the highlight! Flow without end with high-speed passages, top!
I rode the trail yesterday. It was awesome! Rocks, forest and meadows, a bit of everything. And it just never ends! Not particularly difficult, but all the more natural flow. The bends in the lower part with the high-speed passages in the forest: incredibly cool.
Please note that the cable car to the Cret du Midi only rides once at 9.00 am during the week at this time of year. I then had to pedal up, or rather carry myself, as I went up via the Bisse de Vercorin/ Alp La Lé. A real slog. I should have read the text above beforehand, but then I was more than compensated! best regards, Yves
We decided to make the ascent under our own steam and took the road to Vercorin and rode up via Alp Tracui d'en Bas to the junction with the hiking trail to Col de Cou, which is always a pleasant climb.
The running section to the Col de Cou is doable in about 1 hour, the bike can be pushed thanks to the good path.
The descent is long and very varied, with alpine terrain in the upper part and earthy trails from the tree line onwards.
It should certainly be mentioned that the trail is already very rutted. In some places there are deep and washed-out furrows and ditches in the ground, sometimes several next to each other, the former single trail now partly resembles a stream bed.
The next day we met a local biker who told us that the trail has suffered greatly in the last 10 years due to advertising and the increasing number of bikers and is no longer comparable to the "original" trail from the past.
We enjoyed the tour, but there are more beautiful trails in the nearby Valais which are in better condition.
Also worth mentioning is the nature reserve in parts of the Val de Réchy, which was introduced in 2015, and since only the hiking trail to the pass rides through the reserve, this does not affect the route because the bike has to be pushed there anyway.
However, we realized that the issue of nature conservation + bikers is well known among hikers, but the hikers are not at all informed about the boundaries of the protected area. As a result, we were loudly informed of the bike ban far down on the alpine road. A bike group we met also had a serious conflict with hikers at the top station of the cable car.
On our ascent, we saw neither prohibitions nor clear signs as to where the protected area begins.
I suspect that sooner or later a solution will have to be found to clearly regulate who is allowed to do what.
I printed out the map of the protected area in advance and was able to show it to the cheeky hikers, so it was clear that we as bikers were not violating any prohibitions on this alpine path.
Information on this can be found on the Ride page: Adieu Brazilian? In Valais, cattle are more important than bikers
(http://www.ride.ch/news/adieu-brazilian-im-wallis-sind-rinder-wichtiger… )
Best regards Dani