Monte Brè

I took a ride up Monte Brè this evening. The main climb is 3.1 miles, with 1820 feet (555 meters) of altitude gain, for an average grade of 7.2%. I made it in 43 minutes including two or three minutes waiting for a light to change (they were alternating traffic directions past a construction site). That's an average speed of 6.7mph or 10.8kph.

This time, unlike my first trip up, I made the correct turn at the village of Brè Sopra Lugano and made it up to the restaurant at the top. Since the main attraction of the restaurant patio was the panoramic view, which I would have had to avoid by sitting as far as possible from the edge of the patio, I decided not to get my snack there and just start back down instead.

It's a bit of a dilemma: I love to climb, but I'm afraid of heights. I may not go back up Brè because riding the switchbacks along the cliff edge (especially coming back down) makes me really, really uncomfortable.



Here's a snap of a switchback turn on the way down ... you can see a car coming around the corner on the way up, and you can see out over the lake. Not a great photo, but maybe it gives some sense of what the road is like.