Day 11: Revelstoke to Rogers Pass Summit (73.02 km)

Rogers Pass, Done! The views today were breathtaking but we are happy to report that the climbing was not. Although we had read that Allison Pass would be the hardest climb we would face across the country, Rogers pass is another infamous challenge that has taken on a bit of lore among cyclists. Fear not cyclists, Rogers Pass is a gentle beast.

In the past few days we had heard from a couple of people that Rogers would be worse than Allison and we couldn't believe it. Nevertheless, we woke up terrified this morning, expecting 70 km of agonizing climbing. This was not the case.

We blasted up the first twenty, then thirty and more kilometres, wondering with anxiety when it was going to get hard. Afraid to speak too soon, we both resisted uttering aloud that, as a climb, Rogers Pass might be, well, easy. We kept going up without much difficulty as the grades were mild enough to keep a good pace without draining our legs --I actually only had to granny down a few times during the day. The road only tilted to an unbearable angle once midway and again in the last stretch before the summit. We also had a full shoulder for the whole day with no precarious drop-offs beside us.

When we reached the summit marker for the pass, at 1330 metres, we were delighted and relieved. This had been another ride we had been dreading in our long trek across the country and it was a huge confidence boost to climb it painlessly. After this landmark day we're feeling good and ready to take on the Rockies.

The one hair-raising part of the Rogers Pass climb and descent, however, are the avalanche tunnels. Because of the heavy snowfall in this area, avalanches are a constant threat. In 'danger areas' there are tunnels over the highway to preserve passage and prevent vehicles from being swept off the road. Our picture post is of Alex as we approached one of them. We hit a few of these tunnels today and will have to pass through a number of them tomorrow. They are terrifying! The tunnels are the one place where the shoulder disappears and there is limited room for a bicycle and car to share the single, narrow lane. We try to find a gap in traffic and fly through as fast as possible, I just hope we don't end up in one with a semi coming up behind us, yikes!