Spiez → Guttannen via Grimsel, Furka, Susten
From: Spiez (46°41′ N, 7°41′ E). To: Guttannen (46°33′ N, 8°17′ E). Distance: 140 km. Drive time: four to five hours without long stops; six to seven with breaks and lunch on the way.
Three of the classic Swiss high alpine passes in a single day. The route is not obscure, but it isn't casual either. It asks for a vehicle that can handle tight bends and hold its brakes on long descents. It asks for a day when the weather cooperates. It asks for a driver who knows the difference between stopping and parking.
We drove it in July 2020 in a borrowed Sprinter, on the second day of a two-week test tour.
Spiez → Innertkirchen · 41 km
The road leaves Spiez heading south, follows the lake briefly, and turns into the Haslital at Brienz. Asphalt all the way, wide, moderate pace. On the last ten kilometres the valley narrows audibly — the engine sounds different because the rock walls return the sound.
Innertkirchen is the last filling station before the passes. If you arrive on half a tank, you fill up here. If you want to keep the engine cool on the climb, you also check the coolant here.
Innertkirchen → Grimsel Pass · 18 km, +1,300 m elevation
The climb to the Grimsel is Swiss engineering from 1894. Hairpins, tunnels, galleries, a road that was carved into the rock. At 1,910 metres lies the Grimselsee — the big reservoir that lifts the route into a different altitude band. At 2,164 metres the pass itself.
A panel van fits — just. The road has passing places, but not everywhere. Three oncoming vehicles in a hairpin teach you what turning circle really means. Vehicles longer than seven metres should check the route in advance — there are spots on the western side too tight for a coachbuilt.
The pass opens from mid-June to mid-October. On the pass itself: a hotel, a filling station, a souvenir stand. The fuel costs more than down in the valley; altitude has its price.
Grimsel → Furka via Gletsch · 27 km
Down from the Grimsel to Gletsch (1,760 m), then up to the Furka. Gletsch sits on the Valais side, a postcard village in summer and closed in winter. The route is shorter than it feels because the elevation comes in very few kilometres.
The Rhone glacier is on the way, viewable from a wooden pavilion. In July 2020, no fewer than six tour buses in the car park. We didn't stop — the glacier has retreated so far in the last twenty years that what you see today is closer to grief tourism than awe.
Furka Pass · 2,429 m
The Furka is the highest pass of the day. It separates Valais from Uri and is the hydrological watershed between Rhone and Reuss. From the saddle, in clear weather, you see into four valley systems.
The road itself is wider than at the Grimsel because passes in Uri were built with more room. In July 2020: 15 degrees, sun, a light westerly. On the pass a Gasthaus that most maps underestimate.
Furka → Andermatt → Susten Pass → Guttannen · 54 km
The road drops down to Andermatt — one of three alpine transit hubs in Switzerland, alongside Disentis and Splügen. Andermatt sits at 1,444 metres in a high basin that is ski resort in winter and transit town in summer. If you pass through, you turn directly onto the Susten road.
The Sustenpass (2,224 m) separates Uri from the Bernese Oberland. It's wider than the two earlier passes, less photographed, with long galleries against avalanches. After the Grimsel and Furka, the Susten feels almost comfortable — the hairpins more generous, the sightlines longer.
From the pass down into the Haslital is twenty-five kilometres of descent, ending in Guttannen — a village positioned exactly between the three passes and not in the path of any of them.
The three passes have three characters. The Grimsel is engineering. The Furka is geography. The Susten is composure. In a single afternoon you experience all three, and the vehicle only has to not fail once.
Closing
Tank before Innertkirchen. Drop gears early. Keep the vehicle cold rather than hot. The map shows distance, not elevation.