Klausen Pass

The Klausen Pass is the Swiss locals' answer to the Big Three — a 46-kilometre east–west ridge between Altdorf in Uri and Linthal in Glarus, summit at 1,948 metres, and blissfully free of the tourist infrastructure that clogs the more famous passes.

Klausen's appeal is its rhythm. The road flows through proper high pasture — cowbells, stone huts, and the Urnerboden plateau at around 1,370 metres, which is the largest alpine meadow in Switzerland. You cross it on a long, wide, almost straight section that gives an unusually mechanical, even deliberate, character to the drive. Then the proper switchback sections begin again on either side.

The surface is fair — good on the Uri side, a little patchier on the Glarus descent — and the road is narrow enough in places that you will ease off when a bus is oncoming. Stone walls rather than armco on several exposed sections add a useful concentration. Drive it in the cars it was built for: compact, composed, not too wide.

Klausen is closed from roughly late October to late May. In season, it carries a steady stream of motorcyclists on weekends but rarely approaches the congestion of Furka. A weekday morning run from Altdorf is one of the quietest genuine alpine drives in Switzerland.

Pair with the Pragel Pass (narrow, unpaved in places, not for lowered cars) for a proper Swiss Central day, or include it as a detour on a Grand Tour of Switzerland routing between Zurich and Andermatt.