Detour #304: The Panoramastrasse Oberaar is a One-Way Wonder, Switzerland
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It’s easy to miss amongst switzerland’s sensational Passes, but the Panoramastrasse Oberaar is worth the Detour.
The Swiss really are spoilt for choice when it comes to automotive Alpine adventures.
Their high mountain passes are breathtaking in every sense. You’ll be wowed by the landscape, awed by the continuous corners and put some serious load on your lungs thanks to the thin air.
In the Canton of Bern is a relatively diminutive Detour that would be easy to miss in all the high-altitude excitement, but the Panoramastrasse Oberaar is well worth seeking out.
To get there you’ll have most likely have taken the fabulous Furka Pass to Obergoms. From there you’ll need to navigate the switchbacks of the glorious Grimsel Pass to the glacial Lake Totensee and Murmeltierpark. Here you’ll find a wildlife park dedicated to the multitudinous mountain marmots which pop their heads up in the warmer months.
It’s only in the summer that the 3.5 miles of the Panoramastrasse Oberaar is open and, even then, you’ll get a limited window to tackle the pass. It’s so narrow in parts that there’s a traffic light system to only allow one-way traffic, so you could easily find yourself with a ten-minute wait at either end.
The driving challenge is quite different to the roads that bring you here. It’s less of an upper body workout, with only a few tighter turns in its length, but several sections are barely one car-width wide, the drop offs are precipitous and the road builders were not especially generous with the guard rails.
That’s because it wasn’t built with Detourists in mind, but simply for the construction vehicles need to complete the Oberaar dam which has been providing hydro power for the region since 1949.
The views of the man-made Grimselsee lake and its various neighbours are absolute show-stoppers, although there are few places to safely pause for a photo and it’s a little more than a 15-minute run from start to finish at the Oberaar reservoir, before you perform a deft U-turn for the return run.
ROADBOOK
CLASS:Mountain Pass
NAME: Panoramastrasse Oberaar
ROUTE: Murmeltierpark Grimselpass to Berghaus Oberaar
COUNTRY: Switzerland
Distance: 3.5 Miles
It’s easy to miss amongst Switzerland’s sensational mountain passes, but the Panoramastrasse Oberaar is worth the Detour.