Three Alpine Passes, One Perfect Triangle

The Big Three loop is the distilled essence of Alpine driving: three high passes chained into a single 120 km triangle around the Urseren valley, with no backtracking and a summit above 2,100 meters roughly every hour. Each pass has its own character. The Furka, at 2,431 m the loop's highest, is the glamorous one, where the Aston Martin chase in Goldfinger was filmed and where the hairpin below the shuttered Hotel Belvédère frames the Rhône Glacier. The Grimsel is the engineered one, a granite world of dams, turquoise reservoirs, and hydropower architecture softened by marmots and a summit lake named for soldiers who died crossing it in 1799. The Susten is the purely scenic one, built between 1938 and 1945 as Switzerland's first road designed for sightseeing, sweeping up the Meien valley to a summit tunnel beside the Stein Glacier. Between them come steam trains, Europe's steepest open funicular, and a devil's bridge over a gorge that armies fought through. Driven counterclockwise from Andermatt, the loop is a one-day masterclass in why people love mountain roads.

Key Stops

Andermatt. The hub of the pass country, a once-military garrison village turned upscale resort at the meeting point of four Alpine routes. Fuel, food, and beds before the climbing starts.

Realp and the Furka steam railway. Just before the Furka climb, heritage steam trains of the Furka cogwheel line puff over the mountain on the original pre-tunnel route in summer, a working museum of Alpine railway engineering and a wonderful thing to spot from the hairpins above.

Furka Pass and the Belvédère hairpin. The loop's high point at 2,431 meters, with the road draped in long zigzags down the western side. The famous curve wraps around the Hotel Belvédère, closed for years but still one of the most photographed buildings in the Alps; James Bond fans will recognize the road from Goldfinger. Park only in the marked areas, which fill by mid-morning.

The Rhône Glacier and ice grotto. Beside the Belvédère bend, a path leads to the source of the Rhône: the shrinking glacier whose snout is partly wrapped in white fleece to slow the melt. Each summer a tunnel is carved into the blue ice; the small entry fee buys a walk inside a glacier and a sobering, unforgettable view of climate change at work.

Gletsch. The bleak, atmospheric hamlet on the valley floor between the two western passes, where you can see both the Furka and Grimsel ramps stacked on the mountainsides at once. The belle-époque hotel and the meadows here mark where the glacier reached in the 1850s.

Grimsel Pass. A short, fierce climb from Gletsch reaches the 2,165-meter summit, where the dark Totensee ("lake of the dead") recalls the 1799 battles fought across the pass. Marmots whistle around the hospiz buildings, and the north-side view drops into a staircase of reservoirs.

The Grimsel lakes and the Gelmerbahn. The northern descent runs past the great dams of Grimselsee and Räterichsbodensee, granite slabs, and hydropower works that are attractions in their own right. At Handegg, the Gelmerbahn, an open funicular climbing at a 106 percent gradient, rockets up to the Gelmersee; it is hugely popular, so book tickets in advance.

Innertkirchen and the Hasli valley. The loop's lowest point and a natural lunch stop. With extra time, detour a few minutes toward Meiringen for the Aare Gorge's slot-canyon walkways and the Reichenbach Falls, where Conan Doyle sent Sherlock Holmes and Moriarty over the edge.

Susten Pass and the Stein Glacier. The final climb was built purely for the pleasure of driving it, and it shows: wide, rhythmic curves, stone bridges, and galleries up the Gadmen valley to the summit tunnel at 2,224 meters, with a viewpoint terrace facing the Stein Glacier and its meltwater lake. Many consider it the most beautiful road of the three.

The Meiental and Wassen. The eastern descent glides down a quiet valley to Wassen, whose hilltop baroque church is a national icon: Gotthard railway passengers famously see it three times as their train spirals through the mountain.

The Schöllenen Gorge and Devil's Bridge. Closing the loop from Göschenen to Andermatt, the road threads the granite slot that blocked this route for centuries until, legend says, the devil himself bridged it for the price of a soul. The Teufelsbrücke, the roaring Reuss below, and the giant rock-cut memorial to Suvorov's Russian troops of 1799 make a dramatic final stop.

Driving Tips

Check pass status before you go. All three close from roughly late October until late May or June, with the Susten usually last to open, and early or late in the season any of them can shut overnight after fresh snow. Live status pages and webcams make this a 30-second check.

Start at dawn, or close to it. This is one of Europe's most popular driving and riding loops. On summer weekends the hairpins fill with motorcycles, supercar tours, and buses by mid-morning, and afternoon cloud often builds over the glaciers. First light gives you empty roads and the clearest views.

Go counterclockwise from Andermatt. Furka first puts the Rhône Glacier in morning light, lines up lunch around Innertkirchen, and saves the Susten's flowing curves for the afternoon. Clockwise works fine too; the loop has no bad direction.

Yellow PostBuses rule. The Swiss PostBus has legal priority on mountain roads. Its three-tone horn on a blind bend means make room, even if that means reversing to a passing place; on narrow stretches, uphill traffic generally has priority.

Pack for winter above 2,000 meters. Even in August the summits can be near freezing with wind, and snow showers happen in every month. A warm layer turns summit stops from endurance into pleasure.

Book the extras. The Gelmerbahn sells out summer days in advance, and the Rhône Glacier grotto queues at midday. Pre-booking the funicular and hitting the grotto early keeps the day smooth.

For more information visit: Switzerland Tourism: Three Classic Passes