I am just going to start with the video. Woohoo! Then I’ll explain the route (and, as usual, add too many photos). There is a detailed map with an altitude profile at the bottom.
Colle del Nivolet is my favourite paved pass in the Alps. But I wanted to try riding an alternate unpaved route overlooking much of the legendary paved climb. It’s a truly amazing ride on the remnants of an old military road filled with hairpins, then along part of the ancient Sentiero del Re (King’s trail). All surprisingly rideable.
Look carefully in the top left quadrant of this photo — do you see all those hairpins!
Start on paved road down low, then up the top left: the old military road
This was the final day of a two day trip that I’ve split it into two posts:
Day 1: Climbing the back Aosta side of Nivolet, descending the famous Piemonte side. See here.
Day 2: Climbing the Piemonte side but via an old military road/trail then descending back to Aosta.
See here for a detailed post climbing the famous, fully paved, 40 km Piemonte side of Nivolet.
The idea for the route? Simple: while climbing Nivolet previously I had seen those incredible hairpins high above me and wondered if they were rideable. I learned it was an old military road and not a hiking trail, so why not have a look?
I started from Ceresole Reale on the main Nivolet road.
Start of route: Quick detour to banks of Lago di Ceresole Reale
After roughly 10 kilometres I turned onto an unpaved road,. Now officially named the Sentiero Renato Chabod, this is the remnants of an old military road built in the late 1800s. Fabulous. It’s rocky and rough in places and a few hairpins have collapsed so one needs to take a hiking trail. But generally, I was pedaling not hiking.
Diga (dam) Serru upper left
Hairpins
The views are just incredible. Lago Serrù and Lago Agnel in the distance:
Panorama Photo – military “road” hairpins directly below
At just over 2300 metres, after 22 hairpins or so, the military road would turn left just a few hundred metres from the main paved route just above Lago Agnel (the big lake just above Lago Serrù). But I turned right, joining part of the Sentiero del Re – named after Vittorio Emanuele II – who used the region for hunting.
The road splits. Possible to get back on main road beside Lago Agnel, but I stayed on the trails.
The route becomes a hiking trail, much narrower and rougher, but usually rideable.
Roughly 2450m
It’s not as scary as it might have seemed in the video. I passed Casotto Bastalon (a mountain refuge? 2423 metres) and turned left back towards Nivolet. Soon I reached the smaller of two lakes, both named Lago Losere at roughly 2500 hundred metres. I then descended to the larger Lago Losere which is directly beside the main road.
I descended past the two Laghi Losere
The two Laghi Losere
In total, this unpaved part of the ride was just under 10 kilometres with 700 metres of ascent. So … much … fun! And even better, I would now get to ride the final, and best, three kilometres to Colle del Nivolet.
Here’s a 360 degree scrollable photo:
The Descent to Aosta
The descent is almost 40 kilometres. The first 10 kilometres are unpaved and include some very steep hiking/bike carrying. I would take a slightly different way down than I climbed. In my day one post I mapped and detailed the two possibilities. So I’ll go in less detail here.
From Colle del Nivolet, the first two kilometres down are still paved, and busy. It leads to a large parking lot and a couple of refuges/restaurants – beside two more lakes. Looking down:
The road is then barriered and becomes unpaved and deserted. But it continues for several slightly downhill kilometres. Years ago they had planned to build a road all the way down, but it was never completed.
This old road extends from Nivolet for several kms before ending.
Here’s a 360 degree scrollable photo of the upper, easier part of the unpaved descent. You can clearly see the “road” I took down, and the trails that I climbed on day 1.
It’s a difficult hike down from the “road.”
Part way down is Croce del Roley. Then more crazy hiking begins. Steep and rocky (but not dangerous).
2310 metres … a tough hike up from Pont
I eventually reached Pont (1950 metres) and the paved road through Valsavarenche (see this old post for details of this paved climb). I was tired ( so no photos), but I thoroughly enjoyed this long descent through a beautiful valley.
Wooohooo! I am so excited that this two day trip went so well. I wasn’t certain that either day would work, but both were fantastic routes. I’d heard of the hiking up from Pont and it was something I’d planned for ages, but the military route idea was a complete unknown and surpassed all expectations. Beautiful.
