High-Alps MTB
Tour 2002
A Mountain-Bike Week in the
Swiss, French and Italian
Day 3, Monday,
July 22, 2002: Val Savarenche – Colle de Nivolet (2532m) – Val d’Isere – Col de
l’Iseran (2770m) - Bonneval S. Arc, France
The
morning dawns clear. Today will be one the most beautiful days, with two high
passes from
We
start around 8:00am and the air is still quite cool and moist outside. When the
road into the Val Savarenche was built, it was planned to go all the way over
the Colle de Nivolet to
To
our East, the
Andi,
who has gone ahead a little bit, is playing with the big boulders. Bouldering,
MTB-style:
After
crossing some flat meadows we get to a few lakes near the top of the pass
‘Colle del Nivolet’.
After
a short break and snack we head on up to the top of the pass. Sure enough,
Frank has to fix another flat. He attributes this to the extra-thin tubes he
bought for this ride to “save weight”. He later acknowledges this to be a
mistake and declares this experiment to have been proven a failure.
In
the meantime, everyone else is just enjoying the magnificent view towards the
South into the Italian and French Alps. The road from the Italian side on the
South is particularly impressive and we salivate when thinking about the
downhill ride.
Just
a little further down we leave the road and take a right turn to the West into
some small side-valley at one of the two lakes.
I
am not sure I have ever looked up a steeper flank of a mountain with the intent
to carry my bike across! At one point we need to climb up a fairly steep rocky
slope with a fixed rope as a climbing aid. We get creative and each develop our
own unique style to carry the MTB over our shoulders.
Here
again there is an abandoned road project, and the pass-road and tunnel through
the mountain never made it past the planning stage. Where there is a (planned)
road in some maps, there is just a vast bowl of mountain, rocks and snow.
The
slope gets quite steep and we have to negotiate a rock band to get to the top
of the saddle.
Finally
we get to the top and are treated to a spectacular view. We also need to put on
our wind jackets as there is a rather stiff and cool wind up here.
The
downhill is not as steep, but starts with plenty of snow. As such, we are
testing our “skiing” abilities on the bike.
Eventually
we get back on dry slopes, but it’s still a technical descent. Surprisingly we
can ride down almost the entire descent, with hardly any sections to carry.
At
a short rest stop we enjoy a beautiful view to the West down to the little
village of Val d’Isere and up to the Grand Motte mountain which we had skied in
winters past.
The
afternoon sun is painting beautiful colors and warms us. It is absolutely
magnificent. It is already 6:00pm when we get to the paved road near Val
d’Isere. We have one more pass to cross in order to catch up ith our original
schedule: The Col de l’Iseran, with 2770m one of the highest passes in the
I
enjoy the climbs in the late afternoon and evening; there is very little
traffic, the sun is low and warm, the light is particularly beautiful. It’s
been a long day already, and we are all a bit tired. We each get in our own
rhythm up the long ascent.
It
is 7:30pm when we all top out at the
After
a long and fast descent down some 1200m we get to Bonneval, check into a small
pension, eat some dinner and go to sleep. Frank isn’t feeling all that well
this evening, but after a good night of sleep this should be better in the
morning.