Val Malvaglia
Description
The ascent into the Val Malvaglia takes place on the mountain road from Malvaglia. You pass the reservoir, reach the villages of Madra and Dandrio and then climb past Anzano until the road ends at a turning point. The ascent now turns into a single trail that fit mountain bikers can ride. After about 700 meters, the high trail branches off to the left and leads along the steep flanks high above the valley floor back towards the Blenio Valley. This path is very nice to ride, has been specially prepared for mountain bikers, but also contains one or two crisp climbs. Eventually you reach the top station of the cable car from Malvaglia to Dagro. Now the tough part of the tour begins: the singletrail descent on the direct route to Malvaglia is extremely difficult, but manageable for good mountain bikers. The most challenging section of the descent is directly after the hamlet of Pontei.
Note: The gondola from Malvaglia to Dagro can make the tour much easier. On the one hand for the ascent. This takes you from the mountain station on mountain roads to Anzano, where you reach the original ascent route. The gondola lift can also be used to make the descent easier: Those who find the challenging downhill trail too difficult can ride back to Malvaglia in the gondola (or on the little road). Please note: This gondola transports a maximum of four people and two bikes per ride.
Map & GPX-Track
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Details of the tour
31 km
1670 m
1670 m
400 above sea level
1837 above sea level
1 day
Malvaglia
Malvaglia
1716
well suited
More information
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User comments (5)
About the author: Thomas Giger
Note: This content has been automatically translated from German. Please report any incorrect translations.
We took the train up to Drago. The loop into Val Malvaglia is scenically beautiful, the ascent is all rideable. On the way back, a gentle, playful up and down along the contour line with wonderful views. Trail partly flowy, partly rooty. Everything rideable until Drago. From Drago down, it's more or less a single rock garden, so good riding skills are absolutely essential. We had a lot of fun, but it was a real challenge!
Malvaglia
I rode the tour on June 2, 2022. As we took the gondola up, we still had enough energy afterwards to push/carry our bikes to Alpe di Prou. Back on the trail, however, it was a classic "no-flow" trail and I can't recommend it. The track itself was easy and quite fun to ride back to the mountain station. I was looking forward to the descent because of all the comments. It was clearly too much for me. Up to Pontei di Fuori, almost everything was basically rideable, but I had to get off the bike again and again because many passages were simply too difficult. After this Pontei, I had to walk for longer stretches. However, my two companions were able to ride almost everything and one of them even had fun . The descent is really only for experts!
I ride a Scott Genius Ultimate and am usually in the head group uphill; downhill I'm always the last one by a long way.
The loop at the top of Val Malvaglia is very scenic. Unfortunately, the trail has been dredged into a barren bike track and can also be ridden half-asleep. Only the forest section from Monda is still pristine and has some very beautiful passages.
The descent from Dagro really gets down to business. The trail is technically demanding, but we really enjoyed it. We were able to ride 80-90 percent. We ride all-mountain bikes with 140 mm travel and clipless pedals, but a rougher bike and flat pedals would be 'no joke' for this descent.
See my comments on 2 other tours nearby (e.g. Capanna Adula). The downhill from the mountain station down to Malvaglia is absolutely not recommended! We consider ourselves good bikers, but we walked 80% of the way :(
We 57, 47 and 28 found the trail great. Absolutely rideable for good bikers. Only some parts were not rideable. The trail is extremely fun, from very technical to flow. Over 1 hour descent. But yes, it is challenging :) Now the 2nd round is waiting for us :)