Il Pelvo – Colle Blanchet
Description
The starting point of the tour is the village of Chianale in Valle Varaita. From here, the route climbs the highest Alpine pass, the Col Agnel (2744 meters above sea level), on asphalt. This is located on the Italian/French border in the Cottian Alps. Once you reach the pass, you first take a small singletrail, which ends after around 50 Elevation loss and then rides towards the Col de Chamoussiere. Here you can push or carry your bike and pedal in between before reaching the saddle. From the Col de Chamoussiere, the route then climbs about 150 meters to the summit of Il Pelvo. Il Pelvo is located on the national border and has a panorama that can hardly be put into words. Autumn is the best time of year for this tour.
The descent follows directly along the ridge. Between difficulty S2, occasionally S3, it goes to the Col de Sant Veran. From the Col de Sant Veran, push and carry upwards towards Rocca Bianca cima Nord. Shortly below, at the Tibetan prayer flags, the downhill begins, which rides on difficulty S2 to S3 up to Colle Blanchet. The downhill finale begins at Colle Blanchet. An eternal trail descent first leads to Lago Bleu. From Lago Bleu, things then suddenly get down to business. An old military installation from the Vallo Alpino era leads down to the Grange dell'Antolina at a constant difficulty of S3. The trail becomes a little easier here, but hairpin bends and blocked rocks keep challenging the rider. Once you reach the bottom of the valley, there is another flow trail before you finally arrive back in Chianale.
Map & GPX-Track
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Details of the tour
23 km
1370 m
1370 m
1797 above sea level
2988 above sea level
1 day
Chianale
Chianale
2616
limited
More information
More tours nearby
User comments (2)
About the author: Martin Depauli
Note: This content has been automatically translated from German. Please report any incorrect translations.
It is a very scenic tour. There are only a few short snowfields to cross.
You should be prepared to push or carry your bike along the Col de Chamaussielle.
For the most part, this also applies to the section between Col de Saint-Veran and Col Blanchet.
The trail on the descent from the Col de Blanchet to Lago Blue is criss-crossed with deep gullies, which neutralized the trail fun.
The trail sections from Lago Blue are quite crisp S2 / S3 until the beginning of the forest.
Conclusion: It may well be an enduro tour. However, compared to the ascent, I don't find the tour "breathtaking and bombastic"
We rode the tour on 22.07.2024. It's really sensational in terms of the views, the landscape it crosses and the trails. As described, they are consistently crisp in the S2 and S3 range.
For your information: This year there is still some residual snow on the northern sides. To reach the Col Blanchet, you have to fight your way through a fairly large snowfield. But it is doable.