Bike Kingdom Lenzerheide's New Trail, "The Great White" Opens

The “The Great White” trail was opened on the Parpaner Weisshorn. This completes the master plan for slow traffic 2.0 for the municipality of Vaz / Obervaz. In the past six years, a total of 1.8 million Swiss francs has been invested in unbundling the bike and hiking trails. In cooperation with Allegra Tourism, 13 kilometers of new trails were created. However, the development of the slow traffic route network continues. 

It was a summer morning with a clear blue sky when representatives of the municipality of Vaz / Obervaz, trail builders, mountain railways and tourism organizations met at the start of “The Great White” for the official opening of the new trail. Aron Moser, Mayor of Vaz / Obervaz, already emphasized in his welcoming address that the campaign was about more than “just” opening a new trail: “When I was running for mayor in 2015, various people said that I was I have to make sure that the mountain bikers stay away from the hiking trails. So the subject of unbundling is not new - on the contrary. The fact that we are here today at the start of a new trail that separates hikers and bikers has a long history. "

Lenzerheide with a pioneering role

Switzerland is becoming more and more dense in general, and this also applies to the leisure activities in the mountains. Not only is mountain biking booming, hiking, trail running and other outdoor sports are also becoming increasingly popular. Path networks that have emerged in the last 200 years are reaching their capacity limits at certain highly frequented locations. That is why re-planning and unbundling are central. The measures that have been planned and implemented by the municipality of Vaz / Obervaz under the term Masterplan Slow Traffic 2.0 over the past six years are probably the largest unbundling and coexistence project in Switzerland. The Lenzerheide holiday region is thus playing a pioneering role in the development of road networks. A total of five new bike trails were created as part of the slow traffic master plan 2.0, in order to create relief and supplementation in the network of routes. At the same time, the existing hiking trails were redeveloped and maintained with great effort by the communities. In total, over 9,000 hours of work were invested in these unbundling measures.

The next planning steps have already been initiated

After the completion of the master plan for slow traffic 2.0, the development is far from complete. The next planning step for the network of trails in the Lenzerheide holiday region has already begun. In the development of all non-motorized traffic, the current situation is now analyzed and the quality of the route and experience is optimized for all user groups. With frequency measurements, workshops, interviews with experts from tourism, forestry, authorities and agriculture, further improvement steps are to follow for all those involved.

To “The Great White” - an alpine trail for advanced climbers

In autumn 2020, the 2.2 kilometer long section in the middle of the stone desert around the Parpaner Weisshorn was completed. The trail is classified as «black» on the difficulty scale and runs over a depth of almost 400 meters. Natural elements such as stone fields and technical passages are combined with typical elements of a bike park, such as berms or jumps, and thus ensure a modern and action-packed bike experience. The trail can be reached easily and simply via the Weisshorn Speed ​​chairlift including the new bike transport system.