Thank you Vander, that's a great shame. I wondered if anybody was actually going to come of with the definitive answer. Is the ride up to the military installation worthwhile? If not, I'll spend another day in Granada before riding home.

Cannot give a definitive answer but i did ride up the south side of the Pico de Veleta (not to the summit, just some way out of last town on south side) and eventually the road turned to gravel & pot-holes, got narrow and very slow going on a road bike. If you were going to get there, the quieter side to approach from would be the south side but as said, if you got caught i do not think they'd be very happy.

Also remember that even in the height of summer its cold at the summit (snow all year around, i think), and at the ski resort town on the north side on approach from Granada.

spoke to a german guy recently who had a friend - i know sounds a little far fetched - who drove up to the peak of Pico Veleta and had no problems although obviously it is not allowed there are roads going to the peak as there is a restaurant (not sure if its open in summer) and an observatory at the peak.

never saw any 'officials' and rode up and down without any trouble or angry looks from walkers

Highest pass in europe
 

See attacments La Bonnette at 2802M Also Mont Ventoux, the windiest place on earth I believe? We did the Liseran then found the Bonnette was higher so you have to go and do it eh!:scooter::scooter:
Attachment 2440

Attachment 2441

impressions of the col de la bonette
 

freunde landstrassen und schotterpisten,

i was up the bonette 2 weeks ago. it was a beautiful day.
a few cars, a few more bikes, hikers, runners, bicyclists and strange enough summer skiing tourists.

here some impressions:
YouTube - impressions of col de bonette

Stelvio via Gavia
 

I was up Stelvio the other week and after reading a lot about how cold it would be I made sure I had a jumper to go over the leathers and a waterproof over that at hand and didn't need either. I was certainly fresh, but after being down in the valley for a while it was a welcome relief.

We rode to Stelvio via Gavia as we were down that direction to begin with. It was a lovely ride and gave some great views over the surrounding valleys.

Grossglockner, though a better quality surface, did not seem as much fun as some of the other passes. Probably because of the simplicity of over taking and the smoothness of the tarmac. But still worth the time to ride, if not the €18! :eek3:

Earlier in the day we found ourselves on Passa della Foppa (or Mortirolo as the locals call it) It is only a tiddler at 1851m but the road was great fun to ride with 35 hairpins (tornante as they were labelled) I'm told it is part of the cycling tour of italy and seeing a 65 year old woman at the top getting a photo next to the plaque with her bike would testify to that. Kind of puts you in your place when you see that :mchappy:

simon

Not a pass, but still the highest OPEN road is Sommeiller. Pics are
from late July this year.

http://img233.imageshack.us/img233/9631/p1010207i.jpg

http://img233.imageshack.us/img233/1748/p1010188h.jpg

Hello!

Ummm, sorry to revive such an old thread, I hope it's not frowned upon.


Could you provide some more details about this Sommellier road? Is is reachable from the French side or from the Italian side? I was looking on google maps and I can't quite figure it out. Is this the lake and buildings you are talking about? If so it means that it is from the french side...

Link to google maps

Thanks a bunch.

check this link for a report and pictures of the 2007 stella alpina.
https://picasaweb.google.com/gshelmu...eat=directlink

Thanks airhead, now colle sommellier made sense to google and I found the place. Great pictures by the way.

My father is quite proud that he ws the first man over one of the swiss-italian passes in the 50's. He had cycled over from the swiss side and the italian customs officials assumed he had sneaked past them and had to turn around when he got to their post. it was only when they saw his swiss exit stamps in his passport that they realised where he hd come from and made him a well needed cup of coffee.

For the record he said a pushbike with properly loaded front and rear panniers is a bit like skiing.

38

Its quite clear on OpenStreetMap.org ... from Bardonecchia the road / track goes north east until the col between Point Sommellier and Rognosa d'Etache

Hi all,
Some of these old resurections are quite interesting, I like them.

I am traveling form Friedrichshafen on the Austrian side of lake Constance, through to Innsbruck.
We will overnight in Innsbruck before heading through Cortina, and then Venice.

How can I make my travel more interesting, bear in mind I have 4 wheels instead of 2.

I was looking at Fern Passe, ----> Innsbruck -----> Brenner Pass ----> Venice.

This is probably the most boring and basic route, so come on, chaps and chapesse'e give me inspiration.

Vette

I still have an old web page on file that I wrote in 2000. The route takes you from the Grossglockner Pass to the Klausen Pass.
Its bout 650 miles. If you did it in reverse and missed out anything that really deviated from your plan, it would still be a cracking ride:D

Just remember it was written 11 years ago and many of the passes have been "improved" to cope with modern traffic.
Its best done in the middle of the week to avoid the weekend warriors:mchappy:

Link here


Cheers,
John