When John and I first discovered bikepacking, it was the perfect escape—an opportunity to immerse ourselves in nature, explore tiny rural villages, and carb-load on local delicacies, all while cycling through some of Europe’s most stunning landscapes. Before having kids, we’d traversed French la montage and Italian il mont, relishing in the quiet joys of remote roads, hidden corners of the world, and the thrill of the ride. But after our children arrived, we began to wonder: could we ever bikepack as a family?
What started as a simple idea to bike through the Swiss mountains soon evolved into a grand vision: a family bikepacking tour across the Swiss Alps. The aim was simple — off-road trails and breathtaking views. Switzerland provided endless choice, but the Alpine Bike Route 1 caught my eye: a mountain bike route stretching from Switzerland’s eastern border to the west, traversing the alpine chain, a journey that sounded as epic as it did intimidating.
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It’s one of the most challenging routes in Switzerland, but the high alpine landscape had me hooked. With eight months of preparation ahead, it seemed like a wild yet achievable goal—if only we could rise to the challenge.
A Journey of Resilience
While a passion for adventure fueled the initial idea for our family’s journey into the Swiss Alps, and the allure of the sheer beauty of the landscape and the remote nature of the trails, there was more underpinning this epic ride for our family. I wanted to teach our kids resilience and perseverance.
Noah, then eight years old, was starting to get anxious when he was out of his comfort zone. Oli, who had just started school at the age of four, was struggling academically, and it was becoming apparent he would face many hurdles just to keep up with the schooling curriculum.
I wanted to give them opportunities to build their resilience, to show them that with hard work they could overcome seemingly insurmountable challenges.
Most of all, I wanted to show them that being out of their comfort zone can sometimes bring the greatest rewards.
What better way than traversing high alpine terrain to provide lessons about perseverance, grit, and pushing through? Could this ride lay the foundations for those skills?
The Gear | How are we going to carry all of this and tow the kids?
Planning the trip, I constantly questioned my parenting.
“Is this actually safe?”
“Am I exposing my kids to an unnecessary level of danger?”
“Is the sheer level of altitude gain even possible for them?”
With some days involving 1,200m of vertical elevation, we knew towing the kids up the climbs would be inevitable. We were also going to be fully packed with all our belongings. Gone were the days of minimalist pre-kids bikepacking. We would now need to carry clothes, equipment, food, water, toys, books, and card games for four people. We decided that John and I would use e-Bikes and it seemed the Specialized Turbo Tero X was undoubtedly the right tool for this adventure.
With 120mm of rear suspension and a 130mm fork there was enough squish to handle the rocky downhills, but it retained a more upright position for those long touring sections. The inbuilt pannier rack, rated to carry up to 20kg, created the smoothest touring we had ever experienced.
The inbuilt lights were a nice touch for tunnels and lousy weather, but what sold us was the 700Wh battery and the ability to adjust the assist down to as little as 10%. Combined with the range estimation, it alleviated some of the anxiety of running out of juice partway up a Swiss col, fully loaded and a few kilometres short of our destination.
With the weight we were carrying, towing the kids, the gradients of the trails (16% wasn’t unusual), and the distance we were travelling in a day, running out of battery weighed heavily on our minds.
To tow the boys, we used the Kids Ride Shotgun tow rope for Noah and the FollowMe Tandem (which lifts the front wheel of a 20in bike to create a tandem situation) for Oliver. Being eight years old, Noah could handle the technical downhills, which sometimes included 20km of descending over the day, but we knew that Oli, at five, wouldn’t be able to sustain the physical and mental focus required for these long plunges. With the tandem setup, he could ride solo and enjoy the fun of downhill singletrack but also be attached back on when he became exhausted.
The Planning | Detailed maps and a pre-trip curve ball
Thanks to Switzerland Mobility’s detailed route planner, organising the trip logistics was relatively easy. To ease my anxieties, I pored over the Switzerland Mobility site and Google Maps, planning out each day, surveying the trail using geolocated photos. I overlaid our route with options for exit routes leading to a village, postbus, or train, in case of emergencies or crashes.
We packed enough food and water for each day, plus supplies for an overnight in case we got stranded. Our medical kit was bursting at the seams, including emergency blankets and a satellite communicator. Our parents were on standby for the “we’ve arrived” text, and John’s pack was weighed down with bike supplies.
Five weeks before we left, we were hit with a curveball. Oli was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes.
His safety became even more paramount. We added a 20l saddle bag just for his diabetes supplies, and we revised the maps to include shops, food points, hospitals, and pharmacies. Despite this new hurdle, we never considered cancelling the trip.
With the support of the hospital and 24-hour on-call assistance, we were more determined than ever to instil a love of active living in Oliver.
The Training | Dry runs to not overdo it
In preparation, we undertook several multi-day tours of the Munda Biddi. These provided essential lessons in how much we could realistically carry in our panniers and what distance was feasible each day before the kids lost their patience.
It also made me feel more confident about our ability to bikepack as a family and less intimidated about the risks of the Alps. There’s nothing like remote Australia to throw danger at you.
“Watch out for that Tiger Snake boys! There is no mobile phone reception, and no towns anywhere nearby.”
In the lead-up, we aimed for the kids to ride between 20 and 50km per week, including riding to school, weekend mountain biking, and casual rides around the Swan River near home. We always made sure it felt more like fun than training.
The Ride | Literally breathtaking
The riding was jaw-droppingly beautiful. Every day we would climb high into the alpine landscape, traversing wildflower-covered pastures, passing mountain streams and glacial lakes, all with the symphony of cowbells surrounding us. Spectacular snow-capped mountains dominated every view. The landscape was breathtaking.
We kept daily distances manageable—about 20km—with an elevation gain between 600 and 1,000m. The breaks were frequent, but they were never just for rest. The endless food stops were heavenly: local charcuterie and mountain cheeses carved into fresh baguettes, the juiciest berries, and stone fruit. Picnics by sparkling streams and croissants for dessert. It honestly couldn’t get any better.
But it wasn’t all about stopping for food. We made plenty of stops to let the kids play — catching tadpoles in streams, throwing rocks down steep slopes, swimming in alpine lakes, picking fresh raspberries straight from the bush, watching newborn calves, and witnessing avalanches in the distant glaciers. And of course, stops for the meltdowns.
Travelling with a just-turned 5-year-old with a temperament more volatile than any mountain weather was always going to come with some emotional moments, but surprisingly, they were less frequent than on an average day.
And when they did happen, I felt total empathy. “Yes, this is hard. I know we’ve been pushing through this mud for two hours, and it’s exhausting.”
My parenting patience was at an all-time high, and I found it easier to remain calm than I ever had in the daily grind of sibling squabbles and tantrums.
The trail was a mix of gravel roads, narrow asphalted farming roads, occasional singletrack, and the inevitable hike-a-bike sections. Hike-a-bike was incredibly challenging with fully packed 25kg e-Bikes and two kids’ bikes. These were the moments that truly tested everyone’s mental strength. But it was precisely these challenges I wanted our kids to experience — to face discomfort, be pushed to their limits, and feel the satisfaction of overcoming a challenge and the exhilaration of reaching the summit.
While each day was about the journey, not the destination, the small rural hamlets or mountain top chalets that would be our stop for the night were amongst the greatest highlights of our trip. Falling asleep to the sound of bubbling mountain brooks and the tinkling of cowbells in the nearby pastures. Waking to the smell of fresh croissants being baked for the ubiquitous half-board created memories we will never forget. (Ed’s note: Half-board is breakfast and dinner that’s included when staying at many Swiss hotels)
The Challenge | No tiger snakes, but plenty of elevation and some exposure
The riding was hard, but not extreme. The elevation was intense, but the singletrack was less technical than the Australian trails we were accustomed to. The assistance of the e-Bike was enough to negate the weight of the panniers and towing a child. The combination of gradient, daily distance, fully loaded bikes and towing meant we could only ever use minimal assist, but that was enough to create the same level of exertion as what we were used to bikepacking pre-kids. It felt challenging but not impossible. Most of the physical challenges relied on mental strength and pushing through the discomfort, knowing the feeling of elation upon reaching the top.
Switzerland felt incredibly safe in comparison to bikepacking remote Western Australia. There was always mobile phone reception, incredible mountain huts to stop at for a coffee and ice cream, villages to pick up fresh, delicious supplies and no tiger snakes sunning themselves in the middle of the trails.
There were moments that I questioned my parenting. On our second day, we were halfway into our longest ride of the trip — 40km and 1,200m of elevation, the only day we were traversing two alpine passes with no exit routes available. After a blissful stretch of wide-open alpine pastures, the trail suddenly turned into narrow singletrack, carved into the edge of a mountain slope. It was narrow, off-camber, shaly and with a steep, rocky drop off, immediately to the side. If you got it wrong and went off the edge, there would be a few meters of rocky sliding, and it would be incredibly difficult to get back up to the trail. It was too narrow to walk. It completely terrified me and pushed every protective-parenting nerve!
But there were no options but to go forward.
Oli was safely tandemed to John. I knew Noah had the physical skills for the challenging trail, but would he have the mental fortitude to tackle it?
All I could do was give words of encouragement that were as much for me as him.
“Don’t look down, just look where you want to go!”
With that, he was off, and I had no choice but to follow my 8-year-old’s lead. Safely on the other side after about 20 minutes, the whole family was jubilant and full of adrenaline from the crazy adventure we had just had. Later that day I asked Noah “How did you feel back there?”
“I was absolutely terrified!” he answered with a huge smile. “But I knew I could do it”.
And with that, our family’s Swiss Alps adventure became something even more than an epic bikepacking journey, it became a trip of resilience, courage, and pushing through the toughest moments together.
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