Col de la Colombiere via Col de Romme & Tete de la Sallaz

On the 4th trip together with my cycling fellow Will our original plan was to climb Col de Romme from Scionzier, descend to the small village of Reposoir to finally climb up to Col de Colombiere, which I had never cycled before from the east side. However Will proposed a small detour starting from Romme …

 

The initial quality of the gravel road which started on the left side of the main road just before leaving Romme was still ok for our hybrids. However as we climbed higher the slopes got steeper and the road was sometimes very muddy, slippery and littered with loose gravel.

 

We arrived at Tete de la Sallaz (@ nearly 2000m altitude) without a flat tire (!) and decided not to ride further although the road continued for about 2km but descending. The views from up there toward Mt. Blanc and the opposite side of the valley were fantastic and compensated for a technically and physically hard climb, which was at the limit of what a hybrid bike is able to tackle. The following descent back to Romme was my slowest ever and Will had to wait for me.

 

Unfortunately we were a far cry from beer but my hope was that at least on top of Colombiere we would get the monk’s elixir… The climb to Col de Colombiere from Le Reposoir was nice as there was hardly any traffic. It wasn’t windy as can often be the case here but the last 2-3 kilometers were pretty tough with slopes above 10%.